Riz Ahmed – Can I Live lyrics

[Hook]
Can you just let me live for two minutes?
They won't let me live, they're too wicked
Voice inside my head got too vicious
So can I live?

[Verse 1]
I'm like Dum Ali Ali from Nusrat Fateh Ali
Muhammad Ali and Makaveli, tryna put Pakis on the telly
Growing up there wasn't any, now we're 24/7
Either isis or Emmys
Watching Rami sipping Remy
Rep till they resent me
Hope my people proud and don't forget me
Hope my people don't just end up as a memory
Eventually they run around and stop like we're cattle
When I'm chatting woke on the panel
Can we up the sticks with no paddle?
When I'm brown as fuck here to battle
They told us stories so we don't intervene
Self-hating face and the police got me at war with me
Kill us or make a killing off us
Drop a bomb on famous products
But that's finished, there's a million of us
If you don't like it here's a dick you can suck

[Hook]
Can you just let me live for two minutes?
They won't let me live, they're too wicked
Voice inside my head got too vicious
So can I live?

[Verse 2]
Was this part of the plan?
Am I putting my foot down or tap-dancing for the man?
All the scars on my heart earned me fifty grand
Wanted by blondes, now they ask for a tan
Sunblock up on my face, my people's blood on my hands
My people floating face down, my people sinking in sand
My people ain't niche, my people are the niche for his land
They taught us cricket and shame, I'ma teach you to stand
No man's land, I'm a no land's man
We just pose on the Gram
And own Lambo's and go like lambs
They love this rubber dinghy rapid, bro they all shake hands
They want advice, I tell 'em keep your Pak passport stamped
These are the lands that keep us from reaching the land
We can call ours Rohingya, [?] or Kayan
It's deeper than that
I keep thinking we should go back
But where the fuck we gonna go bro? We've got no land
Grow up pumping Black Star yeah, time for a brown one
Fresh back on the boat, let's go, they want the South sun
East and West are clashing but cash is my only outcome
Yeah I'll go back home if you can tell me where I'm from