Green’s Dictionary of Slang

speech v.

[SE speech]
(UK black)

1. to argue.

[UK]C. Newland Scholar 22: I wanna speech the light-skinned one a way man!

2. to persuade.

[UK]C. Newland Scholar 201: ‘Save your sweet talk for Sonia,’ he told Sean. ‘You’re gonna need it to speech ’er, now dis is all over.’.