Struggle & the hood: Page 4

I stay strapped like car seats

Been bangin' since my lil' nigga Rob got killed for his Barkleys

I believe hard times made me like this

I don’t leave the studio, I like makin' hits

There’s some broken relationships that I can’t fix

I'm a count my blessin', trouble but never no stressin'

Just called it a lesson

It was visionary, either I'm genius or you niggas scary

Maybe it's both, and this balance I deliver daily

For every nigga in these streets tryna feed the babies

The single mamas working hard not to miss a payment

Diamonds is Mediterranean

This for the ones who abandoned me

My heart is so full of some anger

All of you niggas in danger

Put his struggles on display for 'em, 'cause he gotta go and face the drama

With a different face from the one that he use to face his momma

If you look close, you'll see it consist of a smile that hurts

An ice grill, and a trace of trauma; little bit of his father

I'm right in front of my front steps thinking of a plan

Looking like Raggedy Ann, no dough in hand, kicking a can

Who shot ya? Separate the weak from the obsolete

Hard to creep them Brooklyn streets

It's on, nigga, fuck all that bickerin' beef

But, I can't fold, some poor soul got it way worse

We're all troubled in a world of trouble

It's scary to have a kid walk this Earth

Ready or not, refugees taking over

The Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta

On the twelfth hour, fly by in my bomber (Drop bombs)

Crews run for cover, now they're under, pushing up flowers

Fresh out of school 'cause I was a high school grad

Gots to get a job 'cause I was a high school dad

Have they come to spill my blood

Have they come to sentence me

Will I leave here with my life, my lord

If the lawmen capture me

Every day I wonder just how I'll die

Only thing I know is how to survive

Should've been a dentist, mom said it pain's the way that my craft expresses

Born in a little shop of horrors that I can't even afford to rent in

I believe the projects were a social experiment; we were laboratory rats stacked on top of each other, and people just knew, inherently, that there was something wrong.

We never gone lose if we handle this business

Took a turn on the road to the riches

Left my heart in the curb in the trenches

Everything that I want is expensive

Damn, G, the spot's gettin' hot

So how the fuck am I supposed to make a knot?

Police looking at niggas through a microscope

In L.A. everybody and they mama sell dope

Soles on my shoes winking, t-shirt is shrinking

Every day gets hotter than the one before

Running out of water, it's about to go down

My biggest fear was losin' it all

Scared to spend money, had me sleepin' from hall to hall

Scared to go back to Section 8 with my mama stressin'

Thirty shows a month and I still won't buy me no Lexus

So we live like caged beasts

Waitin' for the day to let the rage free

Still me 'til they kill me

If I hadn’t met the devil here I wouldn’t realize I was strong enough to overcome the obstacles that devil placed in my path.

Dead in the middle of Little Italy

Little did we know that we riddled two middlemen who didn't do diddly

You know the reasons, but still'll never know my life

Kendrick a.k.a. "Compton's Human Sacrifice"

You know the feeling, young black male, what y'all dealin'?

Take your whole life to get it, it only last you a minute

People wanna know how come

I got a gat and I'm lookin' out the window like Malcolm

Ready to bring that noise

Kinda trigger happy like the Geto Boys

'Til the roof comes off, 'til the lights go out

'Til my legs give out, can't shut my mouth

'Til the smoke clears out, am I high? Perhaps

Maybe it's beautiful music I made for you to just cherish

But I'm debated, disputed, hated and viewed in America

As a motherfuckin' drug addict, like you didn't experiment?

No, they don't like it when I'm down

But when I'm flyin', oh

It make 'em so uncomfortable

So different, what's the difference?

Look, on everything

I gave everything and got nothing back

Ain't looking for no pat on backs

Goin' through public housing systems, victim of Münchausen's Syndrome

My whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn't

I’m talking with a smile on my face, but I contemplated suicide

I was clawing my way back. I was snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat.

Call me a redneck, and I just tattoo it

Because of the abuse and I use it as therapy in music

Niggas know how it feel when you missin' your nigga though

Can't think, so you roll up that indigo

Stressin' while drivin' down Figuero'

Blowin' kush clouds until his ghost is in my Ghost, damn

If I didn’t get shot I’d be dead or in jail

Hip-hop is informed by the struggle. It always has been. It came from Africa Bambaataa talking about peace, love, unity — and having fun. You can’t leave out the fun, but you can’t forget the rest either.

I'm the highest in the room (It’s lit)

Hope I make it outta here (Let's go)

The chosen one from the land of the frozen sun

Where drunk nights get remembered more than sober ones

Stay down 'til you come up, I've been stickin' to that theory

Every day a battle, I'm exhausted and I'm weary

Make sure I smile in public, when alone, my eyes teary

So you can kiss my black ass

Fuck the White House, it ain't my house

So you can burn the motherfucker down for all I care

Cause t-shirts and khakis is all I wear

Life’s a bitch, so I don’t smile

We got arms but won't reach for the skies

Each and every day as I comb my city streets

Sometimes I wish I never had been a part of this mess

'Cause the system got us fucked up

Sometimes I look up at the stars, and analyze the sky

And ask myself was I meant to be here, why?

Back in elementary, I thrived on misery

Left me alone, I grew up amongst a dyin' breed

Got a lot to be a man about, got a lot to pop a xan about

I used to rock hand-me-downs and now I rock standing crowds

I hit the bottom, there ain't nowhere else to go but up

I been runnin' all my life, that's way before my life begun

I've been working this grave-shift

And I ain't made shit (Yeah, yeah)

I wish I could (Me, too) buy me a spaceship and fly (I swear I do)

In the Bible, it says what goes around, comes around

Hommo shot me, three weeks later he got shot down

Now it's clear that I'm here for a real reason

'Cause he got hit like I got hit, but he ain't fuckin' breathin'

Take my time to finish, mind my business

A life ain't a life 'til you live it, I was diggin' me a hole

Big enough to bury my soul

Weight of the world, I gotta carry my own, my own

It's like a never-ending cycle that just seems to come full circle

Everybody's gotta be so fuckin' hard

And I'm not excludin' myself, 'cause I been stupid as well

I put my life in these sentences

Fucking right, it's either that or life sentences

Damn, what happened to the summertime cookouts?

Every time I turn around, a nigga gettin' took out

Shit, my mama got cancer in her breast

Don't ask me why I'm motherfucking stressed

Check out the grays on the side of my waves

I grew those on Rikers Island, stressed out, balled up in the cage

I was servin' my auntie when she was a dope head just to go and cop Dolce

Married to the game, but she broke her vows

That's why my bars are full of broken bottles

And my nightstands are full of open Bibles

'Cause everybody dies in the summer

Wanna say your goodbyes, tell them while it's spring

I get up, when I'm down, had enough, almost drowned

When shit rough I get tough and when I'm beaten to the ground