Three Rivers Lyrics – Dave

[Intro]
Look!

[Verse 1]
Imagine an island where the party never ends
Where it's less about money and it's more about friends
Where the vibes can't dun
It's less about funding and more about fun
Tropical sun
That’s life in the 60s coming from the Caribbean
You know Ian, Delroy, Vivian, Winston
Who got drafted to England
Windrush babies from Kingston to Brixton
To say they're the life of the party, you're wrong
My Jamaicans the entire party, you can't see?
Big Notting Hill carni, you can't see?
And the ride's fiber glass, G, you want see?
Imagine a place where you raisе your kids
The only place you live says you ain't a Brit
Thеy're deporting our people and it makes me sick
'Cause they were broken by the country
That they came to fix
It's like

[Interlude]
They came at the invitation of the British Government
Their passports were stamped 'indefinite leave to remaing
But for some, who were children then
That was a false promise
Thirty-seven years of paying taxes and
I got a letter saying I was an illegal immigrant
I came here to England at the age of ten and
I've lived here all my life

[Verse 2]
Look, imagine a world that's flawed and full of evil
Where dictators and leaders are persecuting your people
The bodies of the innocents are piling to the steeples
The ironic part is they're preying on the feeble
That's life in the 90s, you're Eastern European
And you're seeing people dying
'cause they're fighting for their freedom
They show you violence for having a voice
You move out with your kids in hope of having a choice
Life throws you a spanner
You can't handle the pain
So you gamble and you drink and
Then you gamble again
You argue with your wife and
Then you sleep on the couch
You hit your children and start freezing 'em out
You try and work things out
But it's never the same
All the women in your household are living afraid
When you look into the mirror you're reminded again
That you've become the dictator
You were fighting against
It's like

[Interlude]
We're fighting for our rights, for our motherland
And then we - we - we are fighting for our homes
We are fighting for our, our fa-

[Verse 3]
Look, imagine a world that's f**ked and untrue
Where the many pay a price for the few
And every day the sun rises a little later
That's how it is
When your oppressor is your liberator
That's right now living in the Middle East
Pray Salah for the peace
Death from a sky littered with stars
You run away with your kids
So you can give them a chance
But your asylum has got you in a different war
Because the British wanna know
What you're living here for
We rely on migration more than ever before
They're key workers
But they couldn't even get in the door
When you're at Heaven's gates
What you telling the Lord?
You wouldn't even let a kid into some steadier shores
That's a life they may never afford
Surely you would wanna give your people chances
That were better than yours?
No?

[Interlude]
In ten years of conflict
And twelve-thousand children
Have been killed or injured
The children here are
Just a tiny fraction of the
Estimated six-million
That are in need of emergency
Humanitarian assistance
It's thought perhaps as many as three-million
No longer live in their own homes
And up to two-million children
No longer attend school
The opportunities of this generation
Have been changed forever by this conflict

[Outro: Daniel Kaluuya]
I went to silence
When I needed to know who the
Who the f**k I was, bro
And like, I won't hear anyone else
Shut everyone else out
So I could just hear myself, bro
You know what I'm saying?
'Cause we live in this world, yeah
You stand still, the way the tide’s set up
It will take you away from yourself
You feel me?
So then I was like "Aight, cool"
But, I had to get silent
But it's not like man's going against the tide
'Cause going against the tide
Still makes it about them
Still makes it about the poison
That you've internalised in your mind
You feel me?
It's like "Bro, why am I in this water?"
Man, this water don't even like me
It's not even for me
It's not taking me where I wanna go
It's not taking me where I wanna go
It's who the f**k I am, bro
You know what I'm saying?
So the tide will tell me
That being black is an obstacle
See what I'm saying?
I had to, switch Rivers, bro
I say being black is an asset
I am who I am because I'm black
And I love everything about it, you feel me?
And that's who the f**k I am