This beat was in the first three joints MaD passed me. It was real long, and crazy smooth, so I figured I should just rock four 16s as that was how the beat was tracked. It ended up being some seriously real shit about moving to Canada and to MTL, dealing with immigration, truth, love, music, life....
[Verse 1: Cee]
Yo, yo if somebody had told me as a kid that I'd be standing in the snow
In Montreal with my girl, writing rhymes on my phone
32 and with a dream that be arriving in the fall
Homie, I'd have laughed it right on off
But yo I'm smiling now, coz even when the chips have been down
I never fretted, I just sweated all the rhetoric out
And that's a lie, I was buggin' hard
Every little setback had me stressing like I ain't doing my fucking job
See, the music is the only thing I truly want
And I believe that I can do it so I'm going hard
I left my family to follow my heart
And it's the hardest thing I ever fuckin' did, word is born
But yo I'm lucky coz my brother with me
He understand and dog he right here in the struggle with me
That's my man, and time is limited, we hustle quickly
So every time the chips is down, we take the lesson and we vibe to fix it, so listen yeah
[Hook: Cee]
When the
(When the chips are down)
Yeah, you gettin' right back up
(When the chips are down)
Yeah, Mahdi, uh, let's go, ah!
(When the chips are down)
Yeah
(When the chips are down)
[Verse 2: Cee]
Uh, OK, you know you got a passion when the fuckin' downs
Occurring more than things is up but still you stick around
It never mattered that the chances that we had was fat
We gotta try coz if we don't, we gotta live with that
And back home, they'd love to tell us
We gotta change the way that we spitting so we could sell it
We told em 'eat a dick' and made our art some of the realest
And now we out in Canada and fuckin' with the majors
Yeah, but there was times I nearly threw it in
Actually in Toronto, I let it go a bit
I was tired as fuck, sick of rhyming and wasting time promoting
It didn't last long, bitch it ain't a joke ting
So I'm learning how to master my shit
My lady taught me how to keep all my emotions in check
And through the music I'm expressing every part of my being
Though times is rough but that's a part of it, believe 'til I see it, I'm fiendin' yeah
[Hook: Cee]
When the
(When the chips are down)
Yeah, you gettin' right back up, man
(When the chips are down)
Montreal, what's good?
(When the chips are down)
Uh uh, yeah
(When the chips are down)
[Verse 3: Cee]
Uh, and even though I was born on an island
I never really felt at home back in my land
I'm kinda different, see I roamed on a flight path
And realised that up north where I belong, damn
So we did the shit, plus we figured why stay when the love there
But we never thought to stay'd be a prob, yeah
So what the motherfuck's the Commonwealth for?
Yo I been working, I was almost on the honour roll, boy
And yo I thought I knew what stress was, homie I'm messed up
Only way to cope was drink beer and ingest bud
But my lady had a plan
T-Dot had been real, but MTL is where the papers be at
We spending thousands on a French class
Steady building with the scene, and make a case so I be staying in Quebec man
This really home so how the fuck they finna lock me out?
They try to push me but they never gonna knock me down, who finna stop me now?
[Hook: Cee]
When the
(When the chips are down)
Yeah yeah, you gettin' right back up, yo
(When the chips are down)
Uh uh, come on
(When the chips are down)
T-Dot, what's crackin'? Yeah, listen
(When the chips are down)
[Verse 4: Cee]
Eh yo the system tried to stop me man
Coz it's created in a way to make us slaves again
They found a way to keep us dumb and never questioning
Coz how the fuck are you explaining the Kardashians
But I'm sayin', this is serious, the people awakening
We hit a new age so it's changing the state we in
We gotta keep the energy positive, arrêt with the politics
Crash the debt and jet from all the heavenly scholarships
It ain't conspiracy, it's documented fact
We losing freedoms so it's time we fuckin' get em back
In '03, my boy showed me David Icke on disc
And homie I ain't never looked back since
See the truth is important
There may be bliss in ignorance, that's the raw end
We need to know just who we are, we got the god in us
So when you feeling down, look inside and raise up in your own image, so dig it
When The Chips Are Down was produced by Dr. MaD.