[Verse 1: Loyle Carner]
Yo, I was just a kid, I was barely sixteen
Couldn't tell a man what this shit means
To shoot a man on a fucking split-screen
Take a life that was kinda pristine
Uh, I wasn't listening to Christine
And the Queens, I was listening to fifteen
Young men like me kick a sixteen
Full of pain in a city, let the shit stream
Deep in the consciousness, down south
Where the monsters live, abandoned houses and consequence
Yeah, heart breaks, it was common sense
Don't sit on that shit, man, we jumped the fence
Uh, 'cause certain areas are tense
Yeah, that's why I'm never at events
Uh, 'cause I was tryna make pence
Doesn't make bread, doesn't make sense

[Chorus: Wesley Joseph, Loyle Carner]
Mama, I lost a friend
(Ayo, it doesn't make sense)
(I lost a friend)
Mama, I lost again

[Verse 2: Loyle Carner]
Yo, it's the L, won't you pull it?
The destination of the bullet, the man living life to the fullest
Can't lie, yo, at times, was the purest
But now you're in another city like a tourist
The prayers can't cure this, deep rain, hop in the ride
I closed the door, told the cabbie to drive, uh
Late at night, see the mother that cried
The bullet whizzed past my face, saw her son as he died
My eyes wide, yeah
Ah, shaking up my belly from inside
Ah, I shoulda stayed, shoulda lied
Yeah, I shoulda prayed, shoulda tried
Trust, but like his mother, I cried
When they took the boy's life 'cause he's from the wrong side
Shit, I know I should have thought twice
Ah, washing off the blood from my Nikes
[Chorus: Wesley Joseph]
Mama, I lost a friend
(I lost a friend)
Mama, I lost again
(I lost again)

[Verse 3: Loyle Carner]
Yeah, and so I grew up, scared of the night bus
Scared of the boys that look like us, ah
No wonder why they want to fight us
They think the same, give a second and we might buss
Squeeze, bust caps, spray, say it's a wrap
I wish I'd given him a hug and a dap
Wish he could have felt my son on his lap
And seen life's for the living, to be done with the trap
But it's a fact, live for today, fuck tomorrow
No tomorrow if your life's feeling borrowed
He needs the money right now, fuck the sorrow
Spend it right now, right now feeling hollow
Then save it for a rainy day, if every day's grey
And tomorrow might never come his way
Ah, just another man went astray
The hate, tell him get from out my way

[Outro: Athian Akec]
The impact of knife crime on individuals is undeniable
And while politicians wish to police their way out of the knife crime epidemic
It is simply not possible
As food bank use rises, the climate crisis rages on
And despair spreads to every corner of our world
Hope must be the roadmap to our every step
Have faith, in the young climate strikers who take action even as politicians sit idle
Have more faith in young artists who spread unity through their poetry and prose, than fear the politicians who spread division and hatred
Have more faith in the power of creation than fear of the daily destruction that defines our age
Put more trust in youth workers than the man who occupies downing street
Put more trust in your community than the powerful
Put more trust in yourself than those who are raised on pedestals
It's a tragedy as true today as it was 5 years ago
As knife crime claims more lives within our country
Never has so much been lost by so many
Because of the indecision of so few