(feat. Ice Cube, MC Eiht, Jay Dee)



"This afternoon we want to talk about"

"Now I want you brothers to dig where we coming from"



[WC]

Five yers ago when I was in high school

No bills to pay, I used to say to myself "Life is cool"

I had a roof over my head and a part-time job

Slanging at OB's birdstand

Washington High was the school I attended

Til '87 graduation came and I wasn't with it

Kicked out the house at the age of 18

No money for college, mmm, how should I handle things?

I tried to go the so-called right way

And went to a JC but I wasn't getting paid

I'm working at a chicken stand now with the chicken

With a spring at the top of my hat getting clowned

I gotta pay my rent but my job ain't cutting it

So now I'm drinking gin saying "Here's my alternative"

To either keep doing what I'm doing, don't trip

Or go and buy gats y'all and come up on a grip

So like anybody else I went and bought a gun

Pulling burgs at night and now I'm counting my funds

Three times a day and I drive a coup on danas

Cruising through the alley bumping on "Hi" to players

Yo, you can say what you want but I was taught on the streets

That if a brother didn't work, then he didn't eat



"You don't work, you can't eat"



[Coolio]

Peep this, something kind if for weakness

Focus on the park and watch how I freak this

Subject for survival, got to stay alive

I gotta eat so I do or die

Not a full-time crook but I was born right

So if I want to eat, sometimes I got to jack

So jack I will and go get some presidents

A foot in the ground and the other on an oil slick

Money ain't everything but either is brokeness

Give me a knife cause I can't live off happiness

Once a brother said I can't work for the white kind

Standing on the corner in a soup line

Said he's too black, too strong, ain't done nothing yet

Waiting on the fifth for his government relief check

Humming and bumming, most hate to see him coming

And every first and 15th, these strongs on his life

But a hustle is a hustle and a meal is a meal

That's why I'm real and I ain't afraid to steal

Straight from the street, backed up by a funky beat

If you don't work, OG, then you don't eat



"You don't work, you can't eat" [x2]



[Ice Cube]

Ayo, I want y'all to meet a nigga from the Lench Mob

He gaffled for his meals (McDonald's is my spot)

Ayo Jay Dee, kick some shit for the Maad Circle, G



[Jay Dee]

If you don't work, you don't eat, need I say more?

Cause I'm a kick my rhymes in abundant while you stay poor

Since I was 14 I raised myself

I built a roof over my head and then I went for self

I sold cooked-up rock, made my way through school

I'm not saying you should do it cause it ain't too cool

Kicking ???, playing to start your back

Talking about that bullshit prize, you slay me right?

And you other motherfuckers out here banging for change

Need to wise up and seek personal gain

Or maintain some type of pain

Cause they don't give away hot lunches out here in L.A.

Yo peace to the Dub and the Maad Circle

For giving me the chance to let the rhyme just flow

So you can (So you can either sell dope or get your ass a job)

Jay Dee (I'd rather roll with the Lench Mob)



"You don't work, you can't eat"



[MC Eiht]

Eiht is stepping from the city down under

And I'm robbing more punk fools blind like Stevie Wonder

Ain't no punching a clock, I ain't with it

For a quarter an hour I make the shit every minute

And please, don't even let me catch a brother slipping

He'll be short, shorter than short

With my hands around his troat

Fool, come off the chain and bracelet

I know it's wrong but face it

A brother like me won't win the lottery

Ain't no faking when it's time to bring home the bacon

Cause I was taught get what you're gonna get quick

And don't get gaffled in the mix

So I guess I'll keep stacking, breaking the law

Checking a fool, wrecking and breaking his jaw

Gyeah, that's life in the Compton streets

Homeboy you don't work, homeboy you don't eat



"You don't work, you can't eat"



[WC]

This record was put together by Jay Dee, Coolio, and the W

Eight, Chilly Chill, and DJ Crazy Toons

Sic brothers out to get paid cause

Nowadays you got to go for yourself or go broke

I'm living day by day cause you see the future ain't promised

So save that drama for your mama

And make sure you're out of my path when I'm on the creep tip

Or have your first name changed to R.I.P.



"You don't work, you can't eat" [x2]