Lyrics

lowkey-fire-in-the-booth-2.txt

adapted from https://genius.com/Lowkey-fire-in-the-booth-part-2-lyrics
with corrections to split/join lines based on the actual flow of the rhythm

----

Yeah, Fire in the Booth, much anticipated Part 2
Hold tight suspense, listen -

If they don't let us dream then we won't let them sleep
. . . .
If they don't let us dream then we won't let them sleep
. Listen . .

[Alphabet Assassin Part 2]

It's the zeitgeist, Zapatista, Zorro at his zenith
Z of zinc in the zebra zig-zagging zealots

Zilch to zombies and Zionists he's zen in his zodiac
Fire in the booth? It's Zoroastrian the zone he's at

Like yapping like Yokozuna in Yemen youtubing yoga
Or Yokozuna in Yeovil yodelling in Yoruba

They yelling your yardstick of yesteryear like Yeboah
They're yearning, I'm yawning this like a yeti vs Yoda

I’m an X-ray you're Xerox, I'm Xavier to the x-men
Ex out xmas like your Xanax to an extent

A wonderful world is waiting while weapons wage war we're weeping
Who's winning? We're wishing well while wicked wizards webs were weaving

They whip us 'til we're wheezing words of wisdom won't weaken
Witness these whatlass witless wallies waffling with their weekend

Their wording is Wikipedia virtually void of vitals
Verses visceral vintage but vivid videos going viral

I'm your uncle that understands now it’s us with the upper hand
We were underlings underrated unhuman to Uncle Sam

The theory teaches that there are those thinking tactics to take the throne
Though the truth tends to be told through their thesaurus it takes its toll

Slivering snakes stipulate systems to sell your soul
Secretly seek social stratification set in stone

Regiments ravaged the region now its ripe for reparations
Rendered refugees can't retract or repair ramifications

On a quest to quash the quarrels I’m quintessentially qualified
Quitters quake the quality of my quotes can't quite be quantified

People pass prematurely and pay the price for passivity
Pretext to pillage, plunder prepare to prolong proximity

A puppets pathology pulverized by these possibilities
People power is potent it's the peak of positivity

Oligarchs ostracise others offer obituaries
Overall I overstand the odyssey optimistically

The norms of a nascent nation should never negate nature
Nasty as nefarious neo-con naysayers for neighbours

This masterful maverick mic man, will make you meet your maker
Meanwhile merciless mercenaries manoeuvre to meet to the majors

Lyrically lacklustre literally lack love
Lust living lavish in luxury listeners lap up

A kaleidoscope of kindness, knowledge, knuckles and kerosene
To kill the kleptocracy and cool the kettle that they kept us in

. . Jabbing javelins at jingoism
Jealousy justified when jeering at jobless is journalism

Information industry interlinked with infantry
Instrumentalise identity implant ignorance instantly

Hackers in handcuffs, harvesters of hatred hand gliding
Harbingers of harassment harbour harmful handwriting

Gangsters of globalisation glorify glitz and the glam
Give us guidance to the graveyard they got the gift of the gab

It's flawless how they fabricate the folklore of the fiefdom
Funnell funds to freelance fighters and fawn over fights for freedom

Entertainment is education, empathy is eccentric
Economics everything, exploitation and epidemic

Exhausting environment is easy but the dividends are deadly
Don't dare dream of doing different dread our destruction is definitely

Coming as the catalysts clamour for the capital
Can't counteract the cycle the catastrophe could cancel all

Bring borders to bear bombarded with the broken
Basically bribery beckons business we are beholden

Though accurate answers to all of the above aren't available
I attack the alphabet again and aced it just to aim at you

- They say anything is attainable
Attack the alphabet again and ace it just to aim at you

[Interlude]

Charlie Sloth: Man like Lowkey in the building! Oi you're a savage bro
Lowkey: Much love bro
Charlie: Ay first time you come in and killed the alphabet, assassinated it, and now
just to take the mickey, you come in and kill it backwards
Lowkey: Yeah yeah
Charlie: Wow
Lowkey: Much love bro
Charlie: Man like Lowkey in the building
Lowkey: Thanks for having me man
Charlie: Pleasure my G
Lowkey: Yeah man, yeah man
Charlie: You ain't done yet though are you!

[Part 2]

If they don't let us dream, then we won't let 'em sleep
. . . .
If they don't let us dream, then we won't let 'em sleep
. . . How can I do a

Fire in the booth, when I'm trying just to maintain
And since June don't hear the word fire in the same way
Heard screams, splutters and them gasping for air
That’s not bars in a booth it’s so hard to compare

If I use fire as metaphor, Does that disrespect the
people that are never more? How does that bomb sound
sound to those that bled in war, that we never saw?
Remember when they settled scores with metal swords like Skeletor

Chinese made gun powder, Nobel invented dynamite
They say the guilt in his mind compelled him to design the prize
. . We know what Einstein's mind was like
How many geniuses we never knew that were deprived of life?

I can't philosophise on horrifying flames
We don’t have to apologise or qualify our pain
Degrenfellise our loved ones of the colonisers name
Should we let the corporate media lobotomise our brains

You are beautiful, no matter how this life disfigures you
You’re beautiful even if that image you emulate isn't you
I don’t know if history is linear or cyclical
But know I’m ridiculed for making invisibles visible

That's why Plato said banish poets from the republic
‘Cause they know that we can shake the social system and disrupt it
The land of liberty, they tell us leave it or lump it
When Trump comes to the country we hope he chokes on his crumpet

Before we sink in the ocean, consider this as an omen
Natures blessings aren't ours just ‘cause we think that we own them
Never think that you're broken, or think that you're no-one
Remember a rope is strong because of strings interwoven

Would they love you more if you mock the people that you're from
Self-orientalise and believe that you belong
Overcompensate and propagate the image of the imbecile
Not uninvolved even though you're further from the killing field

Take solace in the fact there's always cracks in the monolith
Now we're practically lobbing bricks like Asterix and Obelix
Distracted with gossip it's twisted news, an interlude
to adverts no hidden truths to listen to it's pitiful

- Rosa Luxemburg gave us this simple truth
You won't feel your chains till the day you begin to move
He photographed a corpse and they flung him in the cage
Those that signed off on the cladding are still receiving their wage

Helicopters hovered close, pictures for the front page
Tried to speak all I really felt deep was numb rage
How could they see this pain at such a young age
Leaning out the window, screaming for help but none came

If it bleeds it leads, the trauma tourists they gravitate
Shock doctrine in effect, disaster capitalists salivate
Privatisation, deregulation and austerity
Zero hour contracts, exploitation and precarity

Adults didn't make it, the children to be fostered
Saved pennies on the block, dropped 20 million on the opera
We see through your cold plans, your programme is done
We don't want a Prime Minister that holds hands with Trump

We don't want DJs doing shows on military compounds
Can't trivialise fire or hear any more bomb sounds
How can I smile when I know the remains are still not found
And echoing in my mind is exactly how the sobs sound

They say we're criminals for syllables and stanzas
When they subsidise the killers' tools, the pillagers and bankers
Who are the engines of history? People like me and you
Who got massacred for the right to vote at Peterloo

It was imagineers, the poets, the miners and the artists
Tolpuddle Martyrs, William Cuffay and the chartists
Rebel and resist, even through something small
Create windows with words and mirrors where once were walls

Manure contributes to the beauty of a rose
Why can't we accept our pain as something that helps us grow
They wonder why songs that make you cry are more moving
‘Cause crying's the only thing that we were born doing

They tell us tea is tradition to the English
When I look around this island not a tea plantation in it
Earl Grey gave 20 million to the slave traders
Multi-polar world now the Indians are space raiders

Freedom to be even or merely alienate labour
Freedom for fossil fuellers to desecrate and invade nature
Albert was an immigrant, Prince Phillip is an immigrant
Were the Celts, Normans and the Anglo-Saxons English, then?

The words Sugar, Cotton and Rice, come from Arabic
Now we import democracy to civilise the Saracens
Analysing planets when this backwater was wilderness
It seems we're still obsessed with immortality like Gilgamesh

Pessimism of intellect, optimism of will
Wear the skin of their victims its syndrome buffalo bill
In times of permanent war there is always someone to kill
But when life and death are virtual almost nothing is real

They got my snapshots, in a padlocked box
But settle with the heavy metal, this is rap not rock
It's fire in the booth, but man's not hot
I just got genius bars like a laptop shop

They wanna know if I've got a flow, or I'm gonna blow
Back like Geronimo Pratt, let's rock ‘n roll
- I never sold my soul for a pot of gold
Now feel this scholar’s solid knowledge in your collar bone

Subject of propaganda, that terrifies the slumbered
But the albums still sell, you can verify the numbers
Collectivise or die, protect your mind or suffer
Life is paradise to some and a pair of dice to others

While these twittering teens, are sinking in screens and thinking in memes,
They blink and this machine is pimping their dreams
I think it’s obscene, as sick as it seems
They don’t know what lyrical invincibility means

- Barge through for part 2, I can't lose
Labels astroturfing trying to make it look grass roots
Gone are the days we sold our CDs from the car boot
A sharpshooter shooting harpoons through your chart tunes

Saw pain in the eyes of a tired retired fire man
Knowing he couldn't save a child survive the frying pan
When we riot we disquiet the leviathan
Forget iron man I got an iron lion’s diaphragm

My salutation to those with imagination
Most anticipated and that's no exaggeration
The flag doesn't exist - let me back up that statement
What happens to the nation, if the Queen has a tax haven?

What's common-sensical is sensible to question
What seems to be a lesson is intellectual repression
Say "the ting goes" - as expression of aggression
Remember there's two victims on either side of the weapon

. . We won’t let ‘em sleep
If they don't let us dream, then we won't let them sleep
If they don't let us dream, then we won't let them sleep
Listen, check it

Power to those that read bell hooks, power to those that sell books
Power to those that know how the inside of a cell looks
All those feeling helpless, forgotten or discarded
Power to the strange fruit they thought was rotting in their garden

Power to those sitting alone seeking solace in the calmness
Power to those feeling stained know your tomorrow isn’t tarnished
Power to those who sweep the streets with more knowledge than PhDs
Power to those who keep their keys, return is promised please believe

Power to those that suffer in silence, and those it hurts to hear
Power to those that hold their ground, power to those that persevere
Power to those that love humanity more than they love style
Power to immigrants that’s probably raising Donald Trump's child

Power to the blind who can't imagine what sight is
Those staring at the moon and all those working night shifts
Power to the readers, the writers, the illiterate
Power to those that struggle to decolonise their syllabus

Power to the shy ones that always struggled to make friends
And the half of humanity worth less than 8 men
Power to those that risked their lives to dig the coltan from the ground
For the mic I’m spitting on and the phone you’re holding now

Power to those that built the stadium they're playing in, Power to those that
mowed the grass and the stitched the ball that their playing with
Power to every rapper that doesn’t rap about killing
Power to the builders who build buildings that outlived them

Power to the slaves of ancient Greece that never had the right to vote
Democracy dead like Gary Webbe when they import it like it’s coke
Power to those that write to prison, power to those writing home
Power to those writing poems, power to those that died alone

Power to Curtis Mayfield, power to Ronald Isley
Power to the fishermen that were forced into piracy
Power for every person that is working in a library
Power to every nurse that we turn to in our times of need

Power to the unions and the miners Thatcher punished
Power to those that drive the buses and those that collect the rubbish
Power to the youth desiring the truth, Power for every
rapper that is dying for a fire in the booth

For those that lost limbs to King Leopold's quota
And those risking their lives for the P&O to Dover
Power to union leaders murdered by [...]
Power to victims of this globalised Cosa Nostra

Power to those dying on the shores and the borders
Power to human beings that were rendered fauna and flora
Power to those that clean up after the stage shows, and carnival goers
still haunted by Kelso Colchrane's ghost

Power to Kevin Carter his picture taunts us ever after
So many questions never answered [...]
Remember the last words of Abd al-Mohsin al-Sadoun
الامة تنتظر الخدمة الانجليز لا يوافقون

Power to al-Jawahiri and his rebellions, they killed his brother
Jafar and he cursed the rotten Thamesians, Enlightened
despots pursuing tactics Machiavellian, Chinese
steel preceded Europe a millennium, think about it

Printed press half a millenium, never get close
Power to Ken Loach and every volunteer in Lesbos
Cuban doctors sent to Sri Lanka for the tsunami
Power to those that cleaned up after the Bullingdon parties

Kids knowing Apple products before they know what an apple is
Forgotten like passengers on the USS Indianapolis
Dying days before they could see what Little Boy's damage did
On the precipice of fascism our passiveness is cancerous

Power to those strong enough to dream, Power to those that
chose not to be a cog in the machine
Power to those that love first and hate never, Power to those that
sleep on the streets through grey weather, Power to Aziz

Ali and Bone Thugs and Harmony, Power to Norman
Baker, David Kelly's ulnar artery, Power to the
genocided population of Tasmania, The internet
descends to Trumptastic fantasia, Let them try

quote this, you'll never find a better diagnosis
than collective psychosis, it’s getting quite hopeless
But hope is all we have, trying to cultivate the positive
not focus on the bad, but the globe’s under attack

The obnoxious rage of a fake intellectual
Amazing Grace in the age of the spectacle
Not the first time they found a racist electable
To raise to the pedestal and desecrate the place

that translated the decimal. I don't want to tempt fate
Power to corpse washers like Salvador Allende
Power to language learners, Bernie Sanders fans to flag burners
One man's inertia is another man's purpose

In utopia of song, we are victorious
But the bitter sweet reality's not this glorious
Power to Coltrane watching Malcolm X
Power to Paul Robeson under house arrest

Power to Galileo under house arrest, power to Ibn
Haytham under house arrest, forgive me if I sound obsessed
Forgive me if I sound depressed, believe me that's not how it's meant
They probably thought I couldn't come back and kill the alphabet

El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido
El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido
Say el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido
الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام

Say el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido
El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido
Say el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido
الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام