[Intro: Adisa Banjoko]
It ain't easy
Cats want to judge all these youngsters
But they don't know nothing about these youngsters
I'mma tell you like this, straight up bro
[Verses 1-3: Rakaa]
Ayo, keeping eyes wide is the way to survive
O.G.s like the Beegees, ‘Stayin’ alive’
Hat size, stack signs are shy
Anyone that says it ain't connected ignorant or liar
Mixed with community pride, state wide. (C.A.!)
Equate across international date lines (Worldwide)
Media fashion, but it ain’t play time
Bullets hit some, miss some, it ain’t time
Hollywood can be oh so misleading
Leaving some of your favorite rappers broke and bleeding
Safari, like: “Where’s South Central?”, “Where’s Compton?”
“East L.A., Watts, Inglewood, where’s something?”
Watch you colors homie, watch your slang
Watch how you make your fingers twist and change
A lot of neighborhoods out here ain’t playing
A lot of blocks out here still gang bang
[Hook: Krondon]
Please Father forgive us, cause we know not what we do (True)
How far we are going, quickly going no where. (Cause we right here!)
Please Father forgive us, cause we have so many reasons, for retaliation
Revenge and get back, keep your eyes wide
Crack hit the streets like it’s raining comets
Crash, hit the streets any way they want it
Art imitating life, imitating art
Powder keg California, rip the state apart
Experiments flashing on the big screen
The system loves thugs--cash in on the fiends
Reaganomics made gangs out of football teams
And a couple other things, that you might not have seen
Kings, Jerks, Posers, scandals and tapered Dickies
Chaos, Latin S??????, SD, the memories
Brown Crips and Bloods, black Cholo thugs
Sharp skinned, scrapping if Nazis showed up
Stoner gangs, Asian gangs with straight A’s
They studied at the range so they don’t spray strays
Crews got fame, when the paint was spraying
But got absorbed, chalk outlines ain’t the same
[Hook: Krondon]
Politicians get rich, the block gets ill
Politics from inside, hit the block and spill
Streets flooded, South-sided, Cripped and Blooded
Northsided Bulldog the kids they love it
So elders teach youth how to hate on sight
And they ain’t all white, and it ain’t all right
But it is by design, time tested, refined
As the soul of the city decline
And streets regress, beautiful cultures compete for death
Only a few really eat: the rest--”rest in peace”
And scarred, many more stay poor
While leaders get fat sending soldiers to war
I send love to my city, to the youth: stay strong
A generation used cause they want to belong
Their leadership started off right, but led them wrong
Pride and power without hate, that’s what I’m on
[Outro: Adisa Banjoko]
"This whole thing is, it’s..it’s like chess
It’s like the poison pawn, they put the pawn out there, you pick it up
And as soon as you pick it up, that’s what they want, that’s how they got you
That happens on every street corner everyday
You go out there slanging that...they got you
Whole team mobs through on the other side of the board
You don’t have to pick up, everything somebody tries to hand you
You got think three or four steps ahead, to survive on these streets
You understand?"
