Isaac's Story

What's the price you've gotta pay when you were born in the dirt The only things your parents cover Is a shoe and a shirt A couple kids they've gotta feed So it's just sleep for dessert But through the night you keep awake Your stomachs starting to hurt You're walking hours just to drink The nearest well is in miles And from the village even going school is buried in trials So if you didn't then it's normal cos your family's poor And that Nigerian kinda poor Is not just normally poor You get the grades to go to college That's the first in the house That's even though your mother died your dad is missing a spouse You told your mother that you'd make it Be the doctor at home Because your dreams were always bigger than the dirt and the loam And with the way you loved your mother That's a promise you'll keep Because the night before she died she called her son to her side She told you son it's good to work because the talking is cheap The bible says it's what you sow that you reap So even though your fathers proud To give you money isn't something he can Your scholarship made him the happiest man You go to uni in the city All your taking is a bag and pan it wasn't long before the hustle began Cos all the scholarship had paid was just the route the books and a school A couple mates have got a house and a pool Without the money needing food You're going car to car and begging the fuel It's not a thing of who's looking a fool You made a promise to yourself that when it comes to grades you're putting your best So that just meant that you would work when you're stressed And everybody knows that anything with medicine at uni is hard It takes another level aceing the test So in the nights when all your friends they wanna party putting drinks on their card You put your feet inside a bowl in the yard To keep you woke because you're tryna read your books Your friends they think you're possessed And that's just how you got the best in the west So graduating what's the price you gotta pay when you were born in the dirt The only things your parents covered is a shoe and a shirt You finished uni that degree is like a trophy you own You paid the price and yeah you suffered alone And now you've got the job you're living in the city with a car and a house You've found a partner that you're calling a spouse Your luck is changing So the second that you get to put a ring on her hand You look to God and blow a kiss from your mouth It's like your mothers looking down just saying son I see the route that you took You took the road with opposition and look You made a promise when I died you'd work the hardest work Be the doctor at home So in the desert I provided a brook That's how it goes she told him God was always watching when he put in the work He had to see that he could work as a clerk That's how it goes she said she's happy that he took the fighting spirit from her Cos if you fail you couldn't handle the perk So as it goes he kept on working at the job he had some kids of his own So in his house he's now the man on the throne He held his daughter for the first time and told his wife I promise she won't Have to suffer like i suffered my own Cos all the working that he's doing now Is just to make it better for the future And such is life his wife gets tumor Said he felt it coming said the good times end because it's good times that hell finds Humour Getting better What's the price you gotta pay when you were born in the dirt To give your kids a better future not a shoe and a shirt You're moving countries to a place where there is no one you know Because the options where you come from is low You didn't know that that degree you got from uni in this country is void You only get a visa when you've got a job and employed You're left alone so now you're lonely No degree so you're a phoney In this country all you built was destroyed So as a job you're now a cleaner Scrubbing toilets but you study at night You wear your suit to clean the toilet despite All the kids and teachers laughing at you thinking that you're crazy in here It's only you that sees the vision you see You're going home and when you sleep is in a zone they call a council estate A couple nights it's gun shots or a fight They're tryna tell you that you're nothing but a cleaner in a council estate But when you look you see a doctor in sight You finish uni do the tests in flying colours get Another degree Once a cleaner now a doctor they see You get a job that makes it easy putting money on a house of your own And bring the rest of all your family to see You made a promise to your kids You said they'll never have to struggle like you And now they're settled living over the sea And now they're grown you tell a story of your life and all the things that you've seen And their ease it's hard for them to agree You ask the question What's the price you gotta pay when you were born in the dirt The only things your parents gave you was a shoe and a shirt