about
This track is about growing up on an island, doing what you can to fit in. For me, that was trying to surf and skate. And failing. This is one of the last songs I wrote on the album, and its introductory whispers of ‘I reminisce’ are references to the closing track, which brings the project around in a cycle.
lyrics
Sixteen years old, flirting with the surfer girls
Who only wanted surfer boys, who used to hang with skater lads
I bought a surfboard, fuck it bought a skateboard
Barely riding either, but I rode a beat and made my raps
My island never made the map, but I aint even from there,
Made the move from Leicester, only supposed to be for one year
Now the 90’s kids are roaming round as twenty-something’s,
Buying homes, getting married but there’s plenty running
From the future, I’m included in the tally –
Moving through the valley of the shadow of the scallies
Who may have had Dad’s, but most of us, we were carried
By the mothers who were Sally’s now abandoned by their Harry’s
I made this album, and it’s all about the older days
Blockbuster videos, fighting over sofa space,
How did Netflix & Chill come to overtake?
A generation watching ads claiming that Tony’s great
Frosty mornings playing footie with your only mate
I was only eight getting into poetry –
Note to self, not the way to get the girls to notice me,
Now it is though, accidentally I got far,
Further than the guys who cruised to school in posh cars,
I was walking on the pavement; I was swimming when it’s raining
I was gymmin’, I was training, my mental muscle was aching
I was giving, I was taking from the women probably faking
Face it, none of us were Casanova
Though we claimed we were every time our class was over
Over a glass of cola, watching Gianfranco Zola
On match of the day, and imagining ways our life would pass,
I hope the, child in me is still present, the child would steal presents
On Christmas eve, best believe I bring the real essence
Gifted in beat sessions, with memories I keep precious
Sixteen years old flirting with the surfer girls,
Who only wanted surfer boys, who used to hang with skater lads
I bought a surfboard, fuck it bought a skateboard
Barely riding either, but I rode a beat and made my raps
Time getting faster, I change the pace
Rhyming I’ve mastered to make the grade
I don’t really think I could take a day
In the past that I would not want back,
Hop in the portal, cross that border, travel until we’ve gone back
Into one flat, with the console – playing Mortal Kombat
Consoled by the one fact you could beat life by kicking shins,
Now I need cheat codes, here we go, for the finishing
move I’m administering, the cynical lyricist living in sin
Thinking of when I was innocent then,
Thinking of when I was innocent then.
credits
license