Hangman Lyrics
It's
Santan
ST, look
[Verse]
I see a lot of man let their jealousy creep in
Watch who you eat with, the girls that you sleep with
Watch who you talk with, walk with, speak with
The first to the motives, and last to the meetings
Ha, all I know is how to work, bruv
Start off as a worker, and that's just how it works, bruv
When I was tryna work, niggas never tried to turn up
But, when it's time to turn up, everybody turns up
And I don't know what I was thinking with the tweets about
The searches, but when Harry got murdered
Man was so emotional, tryna find solutions
I had some good intentions, but I guess I couldn't word them
Man, life's so funny
I got a message saying that the streets don't love me
The streets don't love you, if you died today
They wouldn't donate to your fuckin' GoFundMe
A lot of man hate me, but man can't touch me
That's why I gotta chuckle, I'm a Poet, no Chuckie
My mummy tryna wake me up for college in the morning
Is the only time a human on this earth has ever rushed me
Pshh, boy, it's true
I tell them yutes that skunk weed is gonna poison you
All you wanna do is go and score a point or two
It's ironic everybody's got a point to prove
When we were young, we never listened to them older man
How you beefing man if you don't even know the man?
Before you poke a man, you man wanna expose a man
All for some Instagram clout on Exposing Gangs
Pshh, so what's gangster then?
'Cause I don't really know if I'm honest
When we were young, we had dreams of being bosses
Ballers, doctors, lawyers in an office
So how did that turn into dropping out of college
Snaps in a prison cell, bodies in a coffin
London is cursed, this city's got a problem
My bro ain't got a bird he got an ostrich, a fucking life sentence
So don't talk about experience
I say what I want and that's period, my team serious
I still got a squad full of lifers
From Dovegate to Isis, freedom is priceless
And I see a lot of man tryna draw me out
I feel the tension in the air when I walk around
But would you rather be the person talking
Or the person doing all the things that people talk about?
Scratch that, I ain't with the backchat
My mum calls me David, girls call me Santan
And fam, I don't give a fuck if you're a badman
You madman, the only guy I'm dodging is the tax man
They say that fame is a game and it's true
'Cause if you say the wrong word, then everybody wants to hang man
Ask Serge about the times that I had, man
I brought the fam together like when Tommy got the black hand
And if you got a good girl, you need to keep her close
And let her in, because the difference is
When things hit the fan, they're gonna disappear
All them side chicks, and all them mistresses
All your broskis and your affiliates
And all the man that you were standing in the pictures with
They ain't visiting 'cause they ain't got a thing to give
I'm a hypocrite, but that line between
Stopping it and living it, I'm sitting in the thick of it
You would think I told my boys to come party in South
'Cause this year I said we need to touch Bigga Fish
Too many yutes are dying and I'm sick of it
About
“Hangman” is Dave’s first song that he has put out since the release of his EP Game Over. Its style is similar to the other serious songs that he has released in the past (like “71/End Credits”); consisting of a minimalistic piano backing with a trap beat
In the lead up to the release of the song, Dave was met with backlash after he proposed that stop and search checks should come back after the murder of young black model Harry Uzoka.
Stop and search checks were checks that could be done by the police to people who they think may have items that could be used to commit crimes. However, they were greatly disliked by the general public. This was because of the fact that black people were over 6 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people
This song helps Dave connect with his fans on a more personal level, stating the need for change in the young black community, and adding to the introduction that songs such as “Picture Me” and “Six Paths” from his Six Paths EP gave us.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
There was a lot going on in London at the time of me writing this, and I wanted to put it into a song and say how I felt about it. There was a lot going on around things that I had said online. I wanted to address some of those. Make it clear as to what I was thinking and feeling, so that’s how it came.
When I came and wrote it, I wrote it over parts. I think that I had linked Nana Rogues at studio, and I was just freestyling. I was just trying to be in a studio and say something.
I had worked with Nana Rogues on a beat before this one. So we had done a track. It’s actually a pretty small world. I saw him out in LA. I know him through a friend. And then we ended up coming back together and making music.
He was cycling through a lot of beats, and this had a completely different swing. It had a ‘90s hip-hop-type of feel. It had that sort of West Coast synth to it. And yeah, I sat down and said, “Remove everything apart from the piano.” So, we removed everything apart from the piano, all the drums, the bassline. And we started again. And then he beat a beat around the words. And a lot of it was very minimal, no drums, just the pianos.
And then it kicked in, and then a low bass line. And that was it really. The switch up at the end as well, a moment of genius from him. He just came and improvised some jazz chords on a light piano.
