My 1st Show

My first show? Boy i mean, yeah
Every rapper remembers his first show
I mean, every artist,  full stop, no lie
That's su'in you never forget
And me, myself,  it was like
I suppose it was slightly
Different era to some
Of the up and coming cats now
You know, but, there's a lot of
Different experiences man can talk about
Still man there's so much I remember

Yeah, okay
The first time I stepped on stage
I remember that like it was yesterday
I was just another rapper
Thinking I'd never drop
Till my bredrin told me
About this record shop
It wasn't just somewhere to get
Clothes and buy CDs
You could spit the flows you write
At the open mic weekly
I wanted to go, even though I'd been delayin'
I finally checked it out to see
What this ting was sayin'
The first thing I noticed
The place was damn small on the mic
You gotta look in their face and stand tall
On the reals
Back then no one forced me to spit
I heard all the other rappers and
I thought they was shit
Then the host came round and asked me
(What, bruv, you wanna spit?)
I said, yes and he put my name down he said
(Lowkey, yeah
Someone else uses that name too)
And it just so happened that
The other dude came through

I spat some old verses and killed those beats
But the host said
"The other guy's the real Lowkey"
I said, "Fuck that
Come we battle for the name then
I play to win
I never came here to make friends
It's nu'in personal, I had to take your shine
I verbally merked you, now your name is mine"
After that day, somehow my name got round
What was the host's name? Oh
'is name was Doc Brown

I started off as a fan
Of parties and other jams in London
The younger brother of Varma G was the man
Used to stand with a dictaphone
Counting the tapes we got
From the jam called The Apricot
Blud, it was late 90s, and
Kind of a great time, see
If you was rappin' whack
You'd never escape lightly
Crowd'd all be hecklin' bredders
Who couldn't cut it
And clashers would spark quick if ever
You tried to chuck it
The vibe was aggressive, I'm guessing
And yes there was less chicks
But, in terms of war shows
That made for the best shit
For me it was a wonder on
The ground of the under
Where no one pulled their punches
Not the rappers or the punters
That's how it was in
And Nextjam in Camden Town was known
For bringin' all the mandem down
I'm in the ground, spittin' under my breath
Just waitin' nervous shit
Intimidatin' is a understatement

They're havin' clashes
My bredrin threw my name in
Blud, I've never done this before
I'm gonna be bait
"Can Doc Brown come to the stage?"
The host's callin'
Somehow I won two rounds with no stallin'
I think it was the quarters
Or semifinal battle
But sure enough, I got torn up by Sway DaSafo
Still lookin' back it made me stronger
And more on point with this
It made my flow improve and
Made my poetry poisonous

It's crazy, you know, when you think about it
The start of, like
Being in a battle startin'
Off your performin' days
Under that kinda intense, uh, pressure
D'you know what I mean, like, it was scary
You know
But, it makes you the artist you become
You know
It gives you balls, it gives you, uh
Just a little bit more knowledge of
What to expect from crowds
How to win people over
D'you know what I'm sayin'
For me a lot of people say, "yeah man, aight
You're good at just interactin'
With the crowd and
And really winnin' people's hearts and minds"
You know, and
That's what I try and do every
Time I step on stage now