Black [Live at 2020 BRITs]

Look Black is beautiful, black is excellent Black is pain, black is joy, black is evident Workin' twice as hard as the people you know you're better than 'Cause you need to do double what they do so you can level them Black is so much deeper than just African-American Our heritage been severed you never got to experiment With family trees, 'cause they teach you 'bout famine and greed And show you pictures of our fam on their knees Tell us we used to be barbaric, we had actual queens Black is watchin' child soldiers gettin' killed by other children Feelin' sick, so quick, this could have happened to me Your mummy watchin' tellin' stories 'bout your dad and your niece Listen, the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice A kid dies, the blacker the killer, the sweeter the news And if he's white you give him a chance, he's ill and confused If he's black he's probably armed, you see him and shoot Look Black is growin' up around the barbershop Mummy sayin', "Stay away from trouble, you're in yard a lot" Studying for ages, appreciatin' the chance you got 'Cause black is in your blood, and you ain't even got the heart to stop Black is steppin' in for your brothers because your father's gone Standin' by your children when you haven't proven karma wrong Black is doin' all of the above then goin' corner shop Tryna help a lady cross the road to have her walkin' off Black is growin' up around your family and makin' it Then being forced to leave the place you love Because there's hate in it People say you fakin' it, never stayed for change the shit But black is bein' jealous, you'd be dead if you had stayed in it Black is strugglin' to find your history or tracin' it You don't know the truth about your race 'cause they erasin' it Black has got a really sour flavor, here's a taste of it But black is all I know There ain't a thing that I would change in it Look Black isn't a single color man, there's shades to it Her hair's straight and thick but mine's got waves in it Black is not divisive, they been lyin' and I'm hatin' it Black has never been a competition we're all makin' it Black is deadly Black is when you're freezin' in your home And you can't get sleep but never feelin' empty 'Cause you got twenty cousins in your country living stress-free Walkin' for their water, daughter wrapped inside a bed sheet Black is distant It's representin' countries that never even existed While your grandmother was livin' Black is my Ghanaian brother readin' into scriptures Doin' research on his lineage, findin' out that he's Egyptian Black is people namin' your countries on what they trade most Coast of Ivory, Gold Coast, and the Grain Coast But most importantly to show how deep all this pain goes West Africa, Benin, they called it slave coast Black is so confusin', 'cause the culture? They're in love with it They take our features when they want and have their fun with it Never seem to help with all the things we know would come with it Loud in our laughter, silent in our sufferin' Black is bein' strong inside and facing defeat Poverty made me a beast, I battled the law in the streets We all struggled, but your struggle ain't a struggle like me Well how could it be when your people gave us the odds that we beat? I mean, bloody hell, what about our brothers that are stuck in jail? That couldn't bust a bell, they held a bird and gotta live with it Black is bein' guilty until proven that you're innocent Black is sayin', "Free all of my people stuck inside of prison cells" Think it's funny, we ain't got nothin' to say to them Unconditional love is strange to them, it's amazin' 'em Black has really got the sweetest flavor, here's a taste of it But black is all I know There ain't a thing that I would change in it It is racist, whether or not it feels racist The truth is our Prime Minister's a real racist They say, "You should be grateful we're the least racist" I say, "The least racist is still racist" And if somebody hasn't said it Equality's a right, it doesn't deserve credit Now if you don't wanna get it then you're never gonna get it How the news treats Kate versus how they treated Meghan Rest in peace Jack Merritt, you're my brother in arms There's tears in our eyes and love in our hearts We never had the same background, culture, color or past But you devoted your life to giving others a chance And for that, I'm so taken aback Because you gave us all a voice, I have to say it for Jack As a young black man seeing paper and crack Given tougher sentences, it's just papering cracks All we need is unity, funding for communities, equal opportunities People under scrutiny, no more immunity, way less hatred More conservation, less deforestation We want rehabilitation, now that would be amazing But Grenfell victims still need accommodation And we still need support for the Windrush generation Reparations for the time our people spent on plantations I'm done