Dad came to watch a show, the first time that he saw me so, 
guess it was a shock to him, to find out how the story goes
switching it up with all my flows, picture my book with all the prose
talking about what he was like, leaving our family on our own 
but I muted that material - 

time to slow it down 
loop this on your ariel, save it for a rainy day - 
then we'll clear the air, about the way that you said cheerio
So home had a hole like cheerios, I was 14
still teary though, cry into my cereal i'm hardly fucking gangster, 
aint no point in milking it, i'm silky with the stanzas 
still scanning for answers through the green tint of a Heineken, 
soberly I rhyme again, hold up - let me find my pen 

Need an autograph? Need that signature style you find in all my raps, 
got you twisting the dial now even more perhaps
you're thinking i'm a big deal
all you say is dough like a certain guy in Springfield, 
labels want to take me the table, do we split bills? then shit mills
I'm hungry like I skipped meals - tell me how a hit feels?
Get an agent on the steering wheel, i'm clinging onto the wind shield - 

scratch that, back track, I don't want to back scratch 
just to sell my rap batch, everybody gonna want it - 
like it was the last laugh, flash back, 

back when I'm a kid, in the back seat of a hatch-back 
way before the cross hatch potent power of a fucking hashtag
Mum was getting money out the handbag, just to buy me notepads
probably made my Dad mad, use to miss my matches, 
I was caught up in the pattern of my rapping as it happened - 
when he left I gained my words and through my verse i'm re-enacting 
everybody hurts like REM 

Are we men? Or are we mice? 
I'm the scientist and lab rat upon the mic, 
I tried to write you alpha to omega tracks 
ended up with something like nostalgia for my Sega raps 
no I take it back, player haters hating that 
time to face the facts, like email aint invented yet 
my messages are sent direct but yet to get into the sets
of DJ's on 1 extra decks, i'm next to wreck assumptions
I got the gumption, to use a word like gumption
on the smoothest of productions, here to move you from the dungeons
of the mind that you been stuck in 

I'm looking from the stage at a crowd of five thousand
all wanting food for thought, like provide it to us now son
My Dad is in the front row, 
he came to watch a show, the first time that he saw, 
so, guess it was a shock to him, to find out how the story goes

Part II

That rain man...
It’s kind of beautiful though.

It’s pretty quiet on a Sunday,
used to be the day that Dad would take off on the runway
we’d sit there in the car park,
waiting till the wings clipped clouds in the half-dark
fly away on jet planes
piloted by time’s hands
silently it’s explained - that wasn’t a return
and now i’m turning like the tides can.

Place my back to the past
but when I write tracks then its back to the past
there are cracks in the glass
of the photos on the mantelpiece
its hard to be composed like a Handel piece
so we can’t handle peace anymore
looking for reasons to war
while the heartbeats and the seasons are four.

That’s when the clock strikes midnight on the open road
ocean for the lonely souls, swimming through the unknown
I come home and everything’s the same
except for maybe me, I know that everything has changed
except for maybe you, I know we’ve never been afraid
to swap the small talk for the big chats
like who you broke you heart and why she did that?
Let’s get the pints in, here’s some money for the quiz man.

That’s how the nights pass in fact...
Kind of like quick sand, we sink into the bar seats.
Wonder if in ten years time we’ll be switching them for car seats
married to the girls we pledged our hearts to at 23,
met them at the parties where everything was a blur
except the artist playing but park life I prefer

where we learned to ride our bikes
and play five a side in the dirt
Dad came to watch a show, sitting in the front row
I thanked him for putting me upon this earth

(sample) (Julia’s phonecall)

Childhood hoodie with your Sega & Tapes
Remember the days, still playing the game (x3)

It’s pretty quiet on a Sunday,
these are mornings that my Mum prays
driving to the church in a clapped out Hyundai
that still, got us where we needed to go
and we rode through the storms, and the sleet and the snow
told me Christian there’s one thing you’re needing to know
Who you are, ain’t who you are but what you leave when you go
i’m glad it wasn’t Mum that was leaving me though,
she slowed down, took a left as we came to home
with her right hand, she pressed on the radio
it was a song that she said she hadn’t heard in sometime...
It was Bill singing Aint No Sunshine.