Cannibal Kids - Sound of Rum

Round here

These cannibal kids want to be kings

They don’t see that kindness is courage

Or that sympathy sings

Much louder than violence

They are bitter and drained

Eyes of ice stare from figures of flames

They puff-chested, restless, nameless

They’ve carried their pain

To the point of being painless

Numb ones, young ones

New latch-keys of London

Soaking up the humdrum

And it makes them want to run from

The state they’re in

Powerless, penniless

Feathers clipped, they find eagles' wings

In the derelict brotherhood of gang-life

That bang-bang life

That shouts louder than a sarcastic teacher

Clapping hands twice

And staring down a frightened nose

They learned that respect comes from striking a pose

That demands it

But we know respect and fear are not compatible

A long way from bat and ball

They don’t play, they let daggers fall

From blood-soaked fingers

While their siblings lie bleeding in hallways dead

But like wisdom has always said

Blood begets blood and keeps spilling

So the pavements are stained

And our hearts are grief-stricken

Round here

Cannibal kids want to be kings

But there ain’t no royalty left

Round here

Sirens and the screams float on the wind

And even the street shudders

Afraid of our footsteps

Round here

Cannibal kids want to be kings

But there ain’t no royalty left

Sirens and the screams float on the wind

And even the street shudders

While that paranoid panic

Goes seeping through the granite

Of the breeze-blocks

Turning our cities into sheep-flocks

I pity those whose knees knock

The victims of the media machine

Poor souls who’ve forgotten how to dream

You see, that cut-throat mentality’s

Encouraged in business

They tell you, to be a successful

You’ve got to step on some necks

So big money is made through that corporate pursuit

They’re selling water and jailing kids for selling couple suits

Please, born into blood-soaked cities of industry

Informed of the savagery

The infamy, barbarity of history

Controlled, contrived, and depressed

And attested, and stressed out and vexed

It’s a message we’ve been fed

So we could propagate their system

Of division, inhibition

Viciousness and contradiction

We were suckled on the milk that they soured

Told the future was ours

And then disembowelled and disempowered

We have been disgraced, deafened and deflowered

Our brains brutalized and our defiance devoured

And so now they’re shooting guns and robbing cats

And trying to claw a little back

But when the whole thing shatters

It always starts with a little crack

And then splinters stretching out for miles

Pointing fingers at sharp suits with crocodile smiles

But it’s us, we get the blame

Told that life is all exchange

Told that we are the children of capital

That we are the children of apathy

That we are the children of this rapidly changing reality

But look, I say we learnt it from them

From their rules and their ways

Their legitimate businesses deceive and disgrace

Look we learn it from them

From their rules and their ways

Their legitimate companies deceive and disgrace

While us, we do what we can

Because we live in this place

Where the truth can’t be seen in the face

Round here

These cannibal kids want to be kings

But there ain’t no royalty left

Cause round here

The sirens and screams float on the wind

And even the street shudders

Afraid of our footsteps

Round here

These cannibal kids want to be kings

But there ain’t no royalty left

Cause round here

The sirens and screams float on the wind

And even the street shudders

Yes, even the street shudders