Released: February 17, 2012

Songwriter: Ryan Toby Robby Pardlo

Producer: Dan Smith and Mark Crew

[Intro]
Oh, oh oh
Oh, oh oh
Oh, oh oh
Oh, oh oh

[Verse 1]
Boys and girls, wanna hear a true story?
Saturday night, was at this real wild party
There was liquor overflowin' the cup
About five or six strippers trying to work for a buck
So I took one girl outside with me
Her name was Londy, she went to Junior High with me
I said, "Why you up in there dancing for cash?
I guess a whole lot's changed since I seen you last"

[Chorus]
She said, "What would you do if your son was at home
Crying all alone on the bedroom floor
'Cause he's hungry, and the only way to feed him is to
Sleep with a man for a little bit of money?
And his daddy's gone in and out of lockdown
I ain't got a job now; he's just smokin' rock now
So for you, this is just a good time
But for me, this is what I call life"

[Verse 2]
Girl, you ain't the only one to have a baby
That's no excuse to be living all crazy
So she stared me right square in the eye
And said, "Everyday, I wake up, hoping to die"
She said, "They're gonna know about pain
'Cause me and my sister ran away so our daddy couldn't rape us
Before I was a teenager
I done been through more of that shit you can't even relate to"

[Chorus]
"What would you do if your son was at home
Crying all alone on the bedroom floor
'Cause he's hungry, and the only way to feed him is to
Sleep with a man for a little bit of money?
And his daddy's gone in and out of lockdown
I ain't got a job now; he's just smokin' rock now
So for you, this is just a good time
But for me, this is what I call life"

[Bridge]
(What would you do?)
Get up off my feet and stop making tired excuses
(What would you do?)
Get up off my feet and stop making tired excuses
(What would you do?)
Get up off my feet and stop making tired excuses
(What would you do?)
Get up off my feet!

[Chorus]
"What would you do if your son was at home
Crying all alone on the bedroom floor
'Cause he's hungry, and the only way to feed him is to
Sleep with a man for a little bit of money?
And his daddy's gone in and out of lockdown
I ain't got a job now; he's just smokin' rock now
So for you, this is just a good time
But for me, this is what I call life"

[Chorus]
What would you do if your son was at home
Crying all alone on the bedroom floor
'Cause he's hungry, and the only way to feed him is to
Sleep with a man for a little bit of money?
And his daddy's gone in and out of lockdown
I ain't got a job now; he's just smokin' rock now
So for you, this is just a good time
But for me, this is what I call life"

[Outro]
What would you do if your son was at home
Crying all alone on the bedroom floor
'Cause he's hungry...

Bastille

Bastille is a British indie pop band. After releasing a limited single in 2010 and the Laura Palmer EP in 2011, the band was signed to Virgin Records. Following their signing, the band released two mix-tapes – Other People’s Heartache and Other People’s Heartache Pt. 2 — for free. In an interview with The Guardian, Dan Smith discussed the

Someone recently said to ‘The mixtapes were very clever, was that the label’s idea?’ Actually the label were completely against it; we were stealing and sampling illegally left, right and centre. The label ‘We want nothing to do with this.’ When it came to hosting the mixtapes, I had to register the website myself.

Preceding the release of their debut album, Bad Blood, the band released several singles — “Overjoyed”, “Bad Blood” and “Flaws”— to moderate commercial success. In February 2013, the band was catapulted into the charts by the album’s fourth single, “Pompeii”. The song was a commercial hit, going up to 5x Platinum around the world. In June 2014, “Pompeii” was confirmed to be the United Kingdom’s most streamed song ever. Unfortunately, it has since been overtaken.