Listen to the Old Man

[Verse 1: Ali Bla Bla]
Dear Father, now I'm a man
Twenty one with about twenty one plans
So plenty of grands
Back in the day I done many dumb scams
When I was a kid you said I wasn't shit
'Cause I went and hung around about twenty one mans
You wasn't a fan
Flopped in school 'cause I thought I was cool
By adding a Q to twenty one grams
But there's something you don't understand
You were raised in a different land
But I grew up in London Town
Where there's thugs and hounds and gunmen round
With goons that hustle with tools as muscle
And sirens are the abundant sound
I was mixing with drugs and clowns
Heard the devil calling but it some how drowned and
When I look back it was like a montage
With a backing track made by The Beatles
I was looking like a slave to the evil
Coulda been dead or in jail in the sequel
With a desperado mentality
That invest in hard doe reality
But that life of snakes and ladders
Would carry this wise guy straight to insanity
Imagine me, sittin' in my flat on my ones
Smoke on tap for my lungs
I wouldn't even chat to my Mum
Trapped and alone
All for the lust of the funds
With no trust for your Son
Thinking where has he gone?
And what has he done?
But I never meant to do wrong
So I gotta move on while I sing this song

[Chorus]
With times gone by in his hands
Listen to the old man
Listen to the old man, the old man
If you can't find no advice where you stand
Listen to the old man
Listen to the old man, the old man

[Verse 2: Ali Bla Bla]
And they say
Things aren't what they seem
You split from Mum when I was fourteen
Left the country like you had moved team
Never saw the times I wiped my tears clean
And as a teen, I hardly smiled
Never wondering why your Son had been wild
Expecting that you made a blunder with child
But you can't sweep lost years under the pile
And even though I still had a good home
With family affairs and no man ever there
I'd go on the roads and would roam
With the olders who talked in a hood tone, ha
Those years just flew right past me
Like life's just one big party
You tell me to act calmly
Thinkin' how can I listen when I can't see?
When I look back it was all the anger
With a feeling that wasn't mutual
Another bloodshot vein in the pupil
To people around me it took on a few tolls
And at what cost, thinking I'm a big boss?
As if Ali Bla Bla was Rick Ross
Tried floss for the girls with the lip gloss
But the truth is, really I would live lost
But now times are changing
Had to take your advice 'cause my life needs saving
When I look back, yes I was the worst behaving
And really there was only myself in blaming
But last year Granddad died
And I saw that look of regret in your eye
From relationship ties
And it made me start questioning mine

[Chorus]
With times gone by in his hands
Listen to the old man
Listen to the old man, the old man
If you can't find no advice where you stand
Listen to the old man
Listen to the old man, the old man

[Verse 3: Danny Wilder]
If only we had known
That long before we had grown
Into similar images
Few physical differences
From pictures we've been shown
Of our own flesh and bone
At the same age we had been
Veering alone
Way off the tracks
Attracted to the other side
I'd run and hide in stupidity
Literally, fiction free, it was a reality
Gradually though
I had actually grown to realize
The debt I was in
I was in no place to waste
What I'd been given
And maybe we've been raised
To make a difference
Finally I see
That it pays to make a living
Finally I agree
That what you say has paved a vision
And maybe
The next generation
Of babys will get born
Into safety
And break these barriers down
That we've been carrying 'round
And break free from the massive amounts

[Chorus]
With times gone by in his hands
Listen to the old man
Listen to the old man, the old man
If you can't find no advice where you stand
Listen to the old man
Listen to the old man, the old man