Riz Ahmed - Where You From
They ever ask you where you from
Like where you really from
The question seems simple
But the answer's kinda long
I could tell 'em wembley
But I don't think that's what they want
But I don't wanna tell 'em more
'Cause anything I say is wrong
Britain's where I'm born
And I love a cup of tea and that
But tea ain't from britain it's from where my DNA is at
And where my genes are from
That's where they make my jeans and that
Then send them over to NYC
That's where they stack the p's and that
Skinheads meant I never really liked the British Flag
And I just got the s**ts when I went back to Pak
And my ancestors indian but india was not for us
My people built the west
We even gave the skinheads swastikas
Now everybody everywhere wantin' their country back
If you want me back to where I'm from
Then bruv I need a map
Or if everyone just gets their s**t back
Then that's bless for us
You only built a piece of this place
Bruv the rest was us
Maybe I'm from everywhere but nowhere
No man's land between the trenches nothing grows there
But it's fertilized by the brown bodies
Fought for you in the wars
So when I spit a poppy grows there
Yeah I make my own space in this business of britishness
Your question's just limiting it's based on appearances
Stop trying make a box for us
I'll make my own and break your poxy concept of us
Very few fit these labels
So I'm repping for the rest of us
Who know that there's no place like home and that stretches us
Who code switch
So don't piss me off with cricket tests for us
Or question us about our loyalty
Our blood and sweat's enough
Born under a sun that you made too hot for us
Kidnapped by empire and diaspora fostered us
Raised by bhangra
Garage and halal southern fried chicken shops
A junglist a jungli I'm mowgli from the jungle book
I'm john barnes in the box I blaze hard after mosque
I bend words like brown and west
Until they just spell what
My tribe is a quest to a land
That was lost to us
And it's name is dignity
So where I'm from is not your problem bruv