Southside

278, you already know

It ain't really much to look at but it's home

Used to bus from the old bar which was to go

Into town rolling through Otahuhu depot

Thinking how we ended up here

Yeah no secret theres some people doing tough here

Could be rough here, if your parents come here from an island

In the hope of a better life for the child and an education

But they ain't got time to keep an eye on 'em

They workin' every day, they won't even see retirement

School don't teach you to deal with this environment

Another poly kid left to his own devices

And you look at what they reinforce

When they talk about us doing crime, playing sports

Standing in the dole line, or in the court

Think it don't affect us all?

Look at boys from the Southside

If you looking from the outside

Some scared to death when they see us

Cos every 10/7 they featurin'

Boys from the Southside

But we represent it with pride

When you feel you come from the bottom

Til you reach the top, ain't no stopping 'em

Boys from the Southside

It's about time, all the people talking shit now

Figure out why, this town is so influential

The real melting pot, immigration central

Culture, our knives be so instrumental

But still we never acting like we too damn special

Don't ever let nobody say we all just criminals

Round here it ain't all that simple

Raised there, struggle city a place where

A population, whorey five slash amazing

Most of 'em work 9 to 5 to pay rent

Go to church and sing songs and pray for better days

Better pay and a better location

The kids choose sport over education

And dream that one day the All Blacks take them

Somewhere, exposed to the drugs and the gang life

Think it's cool to get involved, end up in the can right

Got a lot of teens pushing prams before they see life

Cos their parents did the same thing so it seems right

Seem right to say the same, a product of pride over law so

When they got my back like the tat on my torso

That's why I give back, ask where my awards go

To the schools in the Southside

If you're looking for me outside

Some scared of death when they see us

Then they talk shit when they leave

Like the boys from the Southside

Are good for nothing so fuck 'em

Give 'em no chance just cuff 'em

If it was up to the cops and the judges

The boys from the Southside

Would be outlined

Shot on sight

Here we got crime in the area

If you got shine then it's any up

Only cos we broke tryna get our accounts right

What's going in our minds, six words

How we gonna get by

I dont know exactly

But we ain't gonna wait in the dole line

Yeah 267 landed a aeroplane

Back when my parents came

From the islands

With a Bible and a pair of J's (yeah Jandals)

Trying to set a better way to get our educa-

Tions that we found street smarts and a free pass to the green pastures

Around these parts we were blessed with the big heart

That can see past all the eat asses

Aw, what you thought I was gonna talk

All about walking with gangs where the drugs be

How about I touch on how

David Lange ran the country, right where the thugs be

John Walker might run at the tops, long distance

Scott Dixon on the track now

Rather a hand up than a hand down

All my people stand down

When I'm back out the Southside

Black white with the brown pride

Even yellows part of the picture

The boy all ups a perfect mixture

Here up out the southside

Everywhere this shit til the death

Walk with my head held high to the sky

My T-shirt say Southside til I die

The boy from the Southside

The bodies outlined with an aura

You can see it so clearly

I mean it looks like a (?) dairy

Or a Scorpians home crowd cheering

Or a Otahuhu mums eyes tearing

Not when the sons graduated from OC

26 to the 27 to the 29 of the 09 that's where the home be