(feat. 'POPS')



[Verse 1]

Night Blows, Stoves don't work, Hoes at work

A warrior, so I wear 'em on my shirt

Wish I was free as Che was,I spend a day buzzed

Trippin on heights, wishin for nights in different flavors

The age of Kane and Big Daddy,shown by the caddies

Uncles named Larry, that never really grabbed me

My mother gave birth but she really never had me

Left to the hood to play daddy

Raised by niggaz named Butch through the bay bay

With waists so they weigh they status on the streets

License plates that say they, motto This is Chicago in the hay day

Similiar to Good Times, I guess that I was Jay Jay

A skinny nigga, young girls with penny figures

So many niggaz, stacked upon each other

It's the black upon each other that we love so much

Wonder how many of us, these drugs gonna touch

Used to gangbang, ain't really thug that much

Rather have some thick broads then the dutch to clutch

Went to school in Baton Rouge for a couple of years

My college career got downed with a couple of beers

Came back home, now I gotta pay back loans

Same nigga, same block, same shit they own

Only thing different, quicker, they click that chrome

In my defense, yo I had to hit that zone

Man to man, I'm good workin with my hands

My generation never understood workin for the man

And, of bein broke I ain't a fan

Now I stand in the same spot, as my old man

My life I planned not to be on this corner

I still wanna see California

But this is my world



[Chorus Repeated Overlapping:]

"It's your world"



[Common] Yeah



[Verse 2]

Life and death law around us

Four pounds and pounds a verb from out of towners

It's hard to stay grounded

We stay high, thats why old folks down us

Lost, nobody found us, the force that sorrounds us

Ain't with us, they get us on the ground and hit us

We paint pictures of the chains under their names and scriptures

Removed from earth, only to return through birth

Knew this girl sellin her body, wish she knew what it was worth.

Between God and trash, lookin in every car that pass

With a walk that suggests head, to milk niggaz she was breastfed

She know dairy so she say cheese to get bread

In the area where it's more weaves and less dreads

Kinda scary, amongst thieves and base-heads

Said it was her toes, but I could tell her soul hurt

She was cold turk, growin up she got to know hurt

very well in a world where self hate is overt

Her step-father that he was ike, so her mother he striked

she got to like like minded niggaz, who liked crimes and figures

Doin white lines and liquor, see hard times had kicked her

In the ass, it used to be thicker

Life is fast, some choose to be quicker

I remember in high school she had a passion to sing

Now she see herself in a casket in dreams

These are the children of crack and rap, blacks done lack

Self-esteem, yo we forgot the dream

On our jeffersons y'all but we forgot the theme

In the Chi, we even rootin for a garbage team

This queen never seen herself on this Corner

She still wanna see California

But this is her world



[Chorus repeated several times]



[Kids stating their dreams]



['POPS']

Be, be here, be there, be that, be this

Be greatful for life, be greatful to life

Be gleeful everyday, for bein the best swimmer among 500,000

Be-nign, be you, be mom's mean pie, be little black sambo With bad hair

Be aware of what a lynch is, Be, be boundless energy

Be a four star ghetto general, be no one except I

Be a strong academic student, be an A student in sociology

Be food for thought to the growin mind, be the author of your own horoscope

Be invited, be long-living, be forgiving, be not forgetful

Be a proud run, only to return to fight another day

Be peaceful if possible, but justice in ways (?)

Be high when you low, be on time but knowin to go

Be cautious of the road to college, takin a detour through vietnam or the middle east

Be absent of wars at any past or present fought amongst themselves

Be visual of foreclosure over your shoulder while beggin

A nation built on free labor for reperation, Be a cartopogropher

Be a map maker, be able to find afro-american man

search thoroughly it may be close to black man

Be ammended 5/5ths, be ammended 5/5ths human

Be the owner of more land than is set aside for wild life

Be cupid, to world government

Be found among the truth, lost tribe

Be at full strength when walking through the valley

Be not foolish as tender 18 of the mountain tops

Be a brilliant soul, sparklin in the galaxy while walkin on earth

Be loved by God as much as God loved Ghandi and Martin Luther King

Be that last one of 144,000, be the resident of that twelfth house

Be....eternal!