19 Long Time

[Verse 1]
I'm not your overnight sensation
Fly-by-night type
I'm the real McCoy b-boy, Oi
Believe the hype
I breathe, eat, sleep, shit
Hip-hop is my bible
Lyrically Timeless like Goldie
And them old revivals, yeah
We been sparing since '79
We go back like spies from (19) 19 long time
Come rain, sunshine, hurricanes, whirlwinds, tornadoes
Earthquakes couldn't shake my fate
I'm stable
I still remember them days
When we had
High top fades when
Westwood gave out flyers with them ray band shades on
Rushing Brixton Academy doors from back stage
And tuned into pirates with Max and Dave
I paid my dues
Like them foundation crews
Took the rough with the smooth
The cheers and the boos
Took out a couple dippy MCs, two by twos
If I did lose, I only came back new and improved
It
Used to be a joke ting now it's strictly bread winning
N'ough sex, drugs, violence and fancy women
The only head spinning is when there dimming your lights
Materialism, gun fights and media hype
I'm hard stepping over these soft shell crustaceans
Try'n to bastardise the music like they did the pagans
Dispensing the lyrical plent's
And I flow like holy water quenching your thirst with new invention

[Chorus]
All those who remember
Don't forget what you seen
The artform in its prime
On the rise like cream
For the year, 19 (long time)
(Let's take it back to seventy nine) Na'mean?

[Verse 2]
This riddim's full of culture, star
Far from a trend
You're mad thinking it's gonna die out like a fad
Big up my long time friends who used to co-defend
When we clashed mans at [?]
Watching rap attack, mastermind, urban revenge
Playing at a local jams [?] bashments
Following sound system
From Stonebridge to Brixton
If there was friction they just cut dubs and rock, yeah!
To tell the truth I was a youth back then
I couldn't flex too tough, cos roughnecks were truly rough
I stood back and watched held my corner and cotch
While some got brock in the head with a bottle of scotch
I'm telling you
Rude boys then carried on terrible
One times a north side bredren got jooked in his genitals
This sparked off a war between the south and the north
If you ventured out your zone alone you was a walking corpse
Sometimes we travelled up town looking for bargains
Hunting for break beats watching breakers in Covent Garden
We didn't give a toss about money, fame or stardom
Just about the culture, the music, slang and jargon
And even when we were starving like Marvin
I didn't have two brass farthings to rub together
We still got together!
Wearing leather goose jackets and rope chains
Belt buckles with names and turtle shell gazelle frames

[Chorus]
All those who remember
Don't forget what you seen
The artform in its prime
On the rise like cream
For the year, 19 (long time)
(Let's take it back to seventy nine) Na'mean?

[Verse 3]

Help me reminisce as you move to this
Remember brays who strayed in the wilderness
They say, (thou shall not exist on bread and chips alone
But by the righteous words of wisdom through the microphone)
As another one bites the dust
Another's born
As one style's bitten, another style is formed
Mike Tyson MCs biting what's 'ere
Out'a touch label's use the front to prop up the rear, I swear
To keep this shit rare this year
You been looking for me there
Not knowing we're gone clear
The revolution I pioneer
Will be one blood
Ready like Malcom looking out with a Kalashnikov
The bona fide bearer of street news
Those who abuse get their covers blown like a fuse
Some build, some destroy; some win, some lose
Some fools only wanna fit in other people's shoes
Looking to squeeze [?]
It's best you start sling your hooks
And book a one way trip
With Thomas Cook or Lunn Poly
Just get away, I don't care how you get there just go
Too many blood clots clogging the flow
So much quarter rad and wagonist's and devil antagonist
Coming out the wood work, the crevices and cabinets
Imagine it's been nineteen years since
We got the green papers and laid the blue print. Long time

[Chorus]
All those who remember
Don't forget what you seen
The artform in its prime
On the rise like cream
For the year, 19 (long time)
(Let's take it back to seventy nine) Na'mean?