Where You From

They ever ask you, "Where you from?"
Like, "Where you really from?"
The question seems simple, but the answer's kinda long
I could tell 'em Wembley, but I don't think that's what they want
But I don't wanna tell 'em more, 'cause anything I say is wrong

Britain's where I'm born, and I love a cup of tea and that
But tea ain't from Britain it's from where my DNA is at
And where my genes are from, that's where they make my jeans and that
Then send them over to NYC, that's where they stack the P's and that

Skinheads meant I never really liked the British flag
And I just got the shits when I went back to Pak
And my ancestors Indian, but India was not for us
My people built the West, we even gave the skinheads swastikas

Now everybody everywhere wantin' their country back
If you want me back to where I'm from, then bruv, I need a map
Or if everyone just gets their shit back, then that's bless for us
You only built a piece of this place, bruv, the rest was us

Maybe I'm from everywhere but nowhere
No man's land, between the trenches, nothing grows there
But it's fertilized by the brown bodies fought for you in the wars
So when I spit, a poppy grows there

Yeah, I make my own space in this business of Britishness
Your question's just limiting, it's based on appearances
Stop trying make a box for us
I'll make my own and break your poxy concept of us
Very few fit these labels, so I'm repping for the rest of us
Who know that there's no place like home and that stretches us
Who code switch, so don't piss me off with cricket tests for us
Or question us about our loyalty, our blood and sweat's enough

Born under a sun that you made too hot for us
Kidnapped by empire and diaspora fostered us
Raised by bhangra, garage and halal Southern fried chicken shops
A junglist, a jungli, I'm Mowgli from The Jungle Book
I'm John Barnes in the box, I blaze hard after mosque
I bend words like Brown and West until they just spell "What"

My tribe is a quest to a land that was lost to us
And it's name is dignity, so where I'm from is not your problem, bruv