STREET LIVIN'

[00:04.95] Streets
[00:09.84] Streets
[00:14.01] Livin' in the streets
[00:19.45] Street livin', caught in the trap
[00:21.90] Guns or books, sell crack or rap
[00:24.28] Be like kings or be like pawns
[00:26.26] They called us coons, now they call us cons
[00:29.18] Street niggas be packing pistols
[00:31.54] Terrorists be blasting missiles
[00:33.98] Crips and Bloods and retail thugs
[00:36.12] CIA planes bring Colombian drugs in
[00:38.55] Don't push me 'cause I'm close to hell
[00:40.86] The teachers in my neighbourhood can hardly spell
[00:42.91] And compared to them, prison guards get paid well
[00:45.55] Ten years, no bail is four years at Yale
[00:47.75] So, forget about the statue of General Lee
[00:50.03] Because the status of blacks are generally
[00:52.68] Gonna end up in some penitentiary
[00:55.14] Systematically, that's how they made it to be
[00:57.39] Listen, they derailed the soul train
[01:00.02] And put a nightmare in every Martin Luther King
[01:02.34] And privatized prisons are owned by the same
[01:04.78] Slave masters that owned the slave trade game
[01:07.05] And racists no longer have to be racist
[01:09.63] 'Cause niggas kill more niggas than the KKK did
[01:12.23] Now, every time I hear a new def jam
[01:14.59] Niggas killing niggas like they Ku Klux Klan
[01:17.25] I understand what's a nigga to choose
[01:19.05] Be the killer or be the dead dude in the news
[01:21.87] I get it, what's a nigga to do
[01:23.62] No education in the hood got a nigga confused
[01:26.71] Street livin', tough conditions
[01:29.21] Brainwashed by the television
[01:31.54] We lost in the war we live in
[01:33.76] Double cross, love lost, no religion
[01:36.22] Street livin', oh my gosh
[01:38.32] Another brother got shot by the searge
[01:40.73] Another cop got off with no charge
[01:43.31] If you black in the hood, you at large
[01:45.67] You're guilty until you prove you're innocent
[01:47.92] If you're ivory, they treat you different
[01:50.23] If you're ebony, they assume your temperament
[01:52.63] Will be vigilant and they call you militant
[01:55.28] And you'll get shot and they'll say the incident
[01:57.65] Is 'cause you're belligerent, what a coincidence
[02:00.29] Born and bred but you're still an immigrant
[02:02.34] And if you ain't dead, you gon' see imprisonment
[02:05.69] There's more niggas in the prisons
[02:06.97] Than there ever was slaves cotton picking
[02:09.78] There's more niggas that's rotting in the prison
[02:11.78] Than there ever was slaves cotton picking
[02:14.61] So, how we gon' get up out the trap?
[02:17.03] Guns or books, sell crack or rap
[02:19.57] Street livin', hustle or hoops
[02:21.96] Guns or books, get shot or shoot
[02:24.36] Street livin', ain't no rules
[02:26.51] Break the law, make the breakin' news
[02:28.75] The life you choose could be the life you lose
[02:31.12] Niggas getting stuck for them Nike shoes
[02:33.77] Street livin', ain't no joke
[02:36.01] It's a cold world, better bring your coat
[02:38.55] Revoke 'cause the streets are broke
[02:40.69] And now they wanna take away our dreams and hopes
[02:43.44] Street livin', no economics
[02:45.69] No way out of the Reaganomics
[02:47.95] Infected by the black plague, new bubonic
[02:50.46] No comprende, we speak ebonics
[02:53.21] Street livin', what's your position?
[02:55.38] You could take action or take a dick and listen
[02:57.87] You could get fucked by the system
[03:00.49] Or you could say, "Fuck the system"
[03:02.61]