SCUM Lyrics

Everyone calls him Ekun,

The very mention of that name rings fear in the community

He wears his frown like a uniform

Face decorated with scars like badges from a bloody war

This young black boy has been to places you wouldn't even dare

Drank concoctions

Had incisions for protection

Ate forbidden fruits

Fasted

Wore red, Wore white

Abstained from meat

Slept beneath the iroko tree and drank from muddy rivers

Held a gun and held an axe

You see

Busy hands can also be the devil's workshop

Area Boy, Tout, Cultist, Good for Nothing, SCUM

But beneath that frown is 19-year-old Bolaji

A mistake of a son to a misfit of a father

And a remarried mother who keeps him a secret

He was that child that defied contraceptives

And made his mother's teenage years a nightmare

So she hates him with a passion

Bolaji Had to be a man at the age of 8

Found a family on these streets at the age of 12

And at 16, he had been to prison twice

SCUM

Society cannot understand me

Good girl no dey pay oh

And Cynthia is living proof

Small girl big God, like small fish for big pond

Use what have to get what you want

A sexual channel

Between nature and culture

Prostitute

Absolutely not, just Oga Madam's substitute

She was the kind of girl your mother would warn you about

Society would scorn you about

Friends would boast to have had

A woman that sells her body to men who've sold their morals

Spits

Ashawo, Slut, harlot, woman of the night,

Good for nothing SCUM

But beneath the made-up makeup is a 17-year-old girl

With two younger siblings to care for

Trying to Live and figure out life with no father figure

No mother in the picture

Constantly drowned in liquor because she hates what she sees whenever she looks in the mirror

So when she has her back down every night it's in surrender

The world has not been kind and men who pay for sex are not tender

But you walk past her every night and whisper, Sinner

SCUM

Society cannot understand me

I understand you don't understand me

And that's okay

And what the mind doesn't understand it fears

But understand that If I had a choice I wouldn't be here

Behind every Frankenstein, there is a crazy scientist

Behind every bad example, there is a tragic story

And behind every person you call scum ... There is treasure