(feat. Don Parmazhane, Tef)



[Hook x2: Guru]

Used to run with the older dudes

That's how I know the rules

Notice how these fools talk gats but can't hold the tool

What I know is true, I do what I'm supposed to do

Open you, you kids ain't sposed to speak till ya spoken to



[Tef]

Tell me what the fuck a hood do to make a young buck get dumbstruck

By the sight and the sound when the gun bust

Nigga tell me how to, fuck I know the smell of gunpowder

So well that when the shell spits sniffin it'll rouse ya

Why you send me like this to live a life with such malice

In the streets bound by the vows of marriage

To the game, I'm a hustler

Shellshocked from lettin the shells pop from the muffler

Get knocked, get bailed, with the bell heart just to touch ya

Fuck ya, I done paid all my dues in spades

and know the tools of the trade

Nigga fuck the police, I done spent life up in the streets

Ain't got plans for comin up in this peice

To give a nigga, every side of my struggle

To show y'all mothafuckas all the real ill shit they put a thug through

And they wonder why I let my pants hang, fuck with hoodrats

Cheap nigga and won't give up a God-damn thang



[Hook x2: Guru]



[Guru]

I sat by the door, but never call me a spoof

Go head and, call on ya troops, we'll have you callin a truce

I got here on pure guts, carve diamonds with pure cuts

Still the king of underground, you toilet tissue, pure butt

And just incase you wanna spread rumors

Me and Tef'll give you lead to the head tumors

Used to rock blue and red Pumas

I went to Farrakhan speak when I was 12 years old

He said, "Create your own job, know yourself, don't fold"

My uncle Clarence, rest in peace and do your music

For Giovanni, rest in peace, I hear guns in the Buick

Big Shug told me, "Boy you know we got talent"

I was always wylin, still iller than the most violent

From O.G. pimps, businessmen, to jazz niggaz

I learned how to, think past niggaz, and how to outclass niggaz

Your buggin dukes, yeah I know you got thug in you

And I got love for you, but all that shit ain't nothin new



[Hook x2: Guru]



[Don Parmazhane]

This can only get old, swear to God I was born in the ghetto

Where fiends fight all night, dogs bite like pedal

Been on the streets and yo, I shoulda worked the hustle then left

Twenty years old, 100 G's on the set

Tell me how long, must I take this struggle

All I know is to hustle, livin in this never-endin struggle

Why, problem after problem, cope with one half then doubles

Blast with hot glocks and whoop nigga'z ass with knuckles

Fuck the hard times, protect the jewels that the dog mined

Niggaz get stupid, so my nines stay cocked at all times

Going to court, for assault with the chrome nine

You "bout it?" Now you in jail, you bout to hold mine

Feel like I been to Hell four times

Fightin with the mothafuckin demon, I can't see him cuz I'm so blind

He spoke to me, in a voice that was so calm

Said I was dead already, killed by my own kind



[Hook x2: Guru]