Yesterday

Uh

One, one, one

Peace, peace, peace

Uh, yeah

We come in peace, peace, peace

Uh, from the west to the east

North the south, in the belly of the beast

Uh, one, one

One, one, two, two

Uh, feels like

(It was only yesterday)

Uh, that we'd sit and watch the sky turning heather grey

Black and white, watching money leading men astray

Falling in and out of light as the heavens spray

Uh, we mix the whiskey with the lemonade

Uh, was tryna count a rack, the methylphenidate

Used to laugh when I said it made my belly ache

My belly ached every day, yo, it never changed

Uh, I wasn't ready for the grave

Uh, but I was ready to be paid

Truss, I know we're never getting saved

24, mixed-race, living 12 years a slave

Uh

(It was only yesterday)

Uh, my grandfather getting knuckled by the pepper spray

More fire, Brixton riot like a renegade

Seeing him setting fire to rain as the letters fade

No doubt, I was raised out the south

Tell your ex-boyfriend to keep my name out his mouth

I been in and out to drag the pain out the house

Being brave, something proud, say my name, I'ma bow

There comes a time (Oh, there comes a time)

In everyone's life

When you have to fall in love

Once or twice

Check

Uh, it never really feels like

(It was only yesterday)

Uh, back when I thought I'd never touch the Motherland

Uh, because my skin's a different colour to them other men

But still they're calling me the coloured man

So you can find me in a straight peanut-butter jam

Sticky, make a finger snap like a rubber band

We expand like a grand in another hand

Melts like butter in the pan as the others ran

Damn, uh, but me I stuck around

No doubt, pulled the finger, flower in the ground

Down south know what I'm about, just another clown

Red snout, running at the mouth in another town, drown

(It was only yesterday)

Uh, when everyone was in the same place

Uh, and we were stuck up in that same race

Same face, listening to beats with the same taste

Waste, but now my beats come from LA

Califor', king of the streets, kick it like Pelé

You see that dip the ground, it's bad soil

It's LC and Madlib, it's mad loyal

There comes a time (Oh, there comes a time)

In everyone's life (Uh, it's mad loyal)

When you have to fall in love

Once or twice

Cool