Cuddies perved by the corner, stout, herb

Got me twisted, mo' cold killin murders

Them brothers gettin further

Got my pencil for utensil, this'll keep they mind knownin

Spot some thugs at the club, and they got the nines showin

Dirty pimpin g's, one of my dreams, player now listen

Lotta blacks locked down, but comin back around in '96

All the gals my six (what else?) my track crew and my mother

Make these police wonder: how is he so undercover?

Never been a lover, but America had broke my heart

I was told to tear up out this before this tear me apart

Eat through scrap, black tracks, free milk and cheese

While the Japs stack scratch with the Vietnamese

But I'm finna squeeze, stack cheese they left on a trap

A young playa mack, hit the bud', spit a rap

It's just that feelin, that feelin that I have for children

Are able to love us, but these crazy devils try to kill us

   

[Chorus:]

I gotta survive, I try to stay alive, ho

Smokin that dank to deal with the pain



(My nigga Ray Luv, when'd you get up out the pen, man?)



[Mac Dre:]

June 2nd '93 I returned to the streets

Did 2 months in the county and I opt to the beat

Now the cops keep watch, cause they know that I rap

Tell the world that I'm a gangsta, cause I ride with a strap

But I ain't yo gangsta, just a young nigga caught up in the struggle

Born hustler, goin for the jugular

Out to take the beast down, piece down might be too late

The funk is on, high, drunk off Thunderbird and Grape Kool-Aid

Would love to catch a playa slippin, take me down and book me

Guilty as charged, hit the switch and try to cook me

Silence a nigga for the shit I'm spittin, I know I'm scarin ya

A poison you created in the veins of America

Miseducated, incarcerated, institutionalized 

That 3rd strike will have a gang of them rollers dyin

Ain't no love where I'm goin, no love where I'm comin from

Remember me, that real-ass nigga you been runnin from

Got us sprung off the cocaine and the welfare

While the black babies die without health care

   

[Chorus:]

I gotta survive, I try to stay alive, ho

Smokin that dank to deal with the pain



[Mac Dre:]

Now how could I pledge allegiance to a racist-ass flag

When the rollers at my do' with a .44 mag?

Got my mother spittin drag 'bout I ain't home

Got a double homicide warrant on my dome

I hear em pushin in the do', I grab my Mac with two clips

Cut through the back window and like a g hit a fence

I'm thinkin 'bout my folks gettin sent for violation

Foes and punk police, them devils still at my do'

I peep a group of ten tryina get information

I threw the clips in the Mac, start lettin off frustration

It's better than incarceration any day, we gonn' die anyway

So if I go out blastin, call it my fate

I got niggas in the pen like my cousin Bud

Lunatic Insane, and my partner T-Love

Big Tom, Ray Ray, Killa Cuddy, Mac Dre

Cleek, Jamal, Jinx and Bluebonic, man



[Chorus:]

I gotta survive, I try to stay alive, ho

Smokin that dank to deal with the pain



[2Pac:]

Now I been called a crook, a killer, a thug

A no-good dealer of drugs

And Blood or Cuz, doesn't matter what set you was

Cause where I'm at, if you black, we strapped

As long as ki's make g's these thieves attack

And ain't no rules on the streets these days

Muthafuckas better watch they back and take it eazay

I'm livin in the dangerzone

And learnin lesson from the game, it's on

Niggas was gone when the frame was on

I'm gettin breaken them balls daily

Is there a ghetto in heaven or do I go to hell?

See, seems I was senteced to death, takin my steps with my head down

Why pour I liquor for my niggas, cause they dead now

My memory since I was a little seed

Was a penitentiary full of niggas like me

These cops can't terrorize us, they despise us

Niggas, cause we on the rise

Plus everybody's searchin for a piece of the truth

And the youth turn the streets into a piece of Beirut

And the truth is



[Chorus:]

I gotta survive, I try to stay alive, ho

Smokin that dank to deal with the pain