Yeah, uh All the youngins in my hood popping percs now Gettin' high they get by, it's gettin' worse now You gotta tell 'em put them guns and the percs down Them new jails got ten yards in 'em and that's your first down, uh And I ain't come here to preach I just had to say somethin' 'cause I'm the one with the reach Youngin' gotta quarter ounce, he tryna turn into Meech Ain't had no daddy, he's had to learn from the streets I used to be a honor roll student, damn Then I turned to a beast The first time I seen a nigga get some blood on his sneaks He had on Air Max 93s but was slumped in the street His mama cryin', that did somethin' to me, oh Lord The shit I'm doin' for my hood I won't get an Award I used to sell Reggie, damn how' I get to the Forbes I take a shot, if I miss I'm gettin' 'em boards Ain't quittin' no more, like give me some more We wearin' Old Navy, it felt like Christian Dior Was dead broke but rich in soul, was we really that poor? Was we really that dumb? 'Cause we carry a gun And every nigga in my neighborhood carryin' one 'Cause we had nightmares of our mamas got to bury her son I'm speakin' to you as a prophet as rare as they come, uh Gunshots sound like music hangin' out the Buick Why you wanna be a shooter? Mama told me not to do it but I did it Now I'm locked up in a prison Callin' mama like I shouldn't have did it Watch my dream shatter in an instant I'm on a visit posin' for the picture Like I'm going for my prom or somethin' Like I ain't facing time or somethin' Ride for these niggas like that shit ain't hurt my mom or somethin' Only one gon' get me commissary or even buy me somethin' When it all fall down I can call y'all now Even if I hit your phone That won't get me home Seen so many different times, these niggas did me wrong Shit that's the reason that I did this song Shit we was kids used to play on the step A couple years later we flirtin' with the angel of death I was eleven years old, I got my hands on the Tec When I first touched it that shit gave me a rush My homie's dying I'm like "Maybe we next" That just made me a threat Knowin' the niggas smoke my daddy it just made me upset Made me a man shit I was five when God gave me my test Go to court with a court appointed and he won't say object Now it's you against the state and you ain't got no cake Jail overpopulated they ain't got no space I know a youngin' that got murked ain't get to drive no Wraith But he in hearse on the way to church, I know his mom gon' faint When she smell like embalment fluid, cologne all on her baby Pastor said he sendin' you home, she goin' crazy When they drop that casket all in the ground, who gon' save me? How could you blame me? When I'm tryna stay alive and just survive and beat them odds When niggas die by twenty-five When I stop fearin' for my life, when I decide to change my mind and stop totin' Tryna smoke the pain away, they lock us up for smoking Put 'em on probation, lock you up if you ain't perfect Victims of the system like a rain drop in the ocean They closin' all the schools and all the prisons gettin' open Yeah See comin' from where I come from We had to beat the streets Beat the system, beat racism, beat poverty And now we made it through all that we at the championship