Uhh..
 Uh.. speak without thinkin..
 speak without speakin.. huh..
 Feel without reachin  uhh
 That's what it's about
 It's about that  inner  inner love  yaknawmean?

 Chorus: Nas

 God love us hood niggaz (I know)
 Cause next to Jesus on the cross was the crook niggaz (I know)
 and the killers  God love us good niggaz (I know)
 Cause on the streets is the hood niggaz  uhh
 And I know he feel us  uhh
 God love us hood niggaz (I know)
 Cause he be wit us in the prisons
 and he takes time to listen, uhh
 God love us hood niggaz (I know)
 Cause next to Jesus on the cross was the crook niggaz, uhh
 but he forgive us

 [Nas]
 He who has ears, let him hear
 And he who has sight, let him see
 He who has life, let him be
 See everything goes through change
 Those who know don't talk
 and those who talk don't know a thing
 Men are born soft and turn tough
 Dead lay a stiffened heart, I've been kissed by God
 I've been hurt, I've been marked for death, almost ripped apart
 by the beast but he missed his mark
 Alone in the dark my thoughts had sparked up
 when I saw my body on the floor, from above I watch it all
 Yo it came to me, the pain in me
 Many slain empty skulls where a brain should be
 It strangely seemed, like it was a dream
 but the si-rens had never woke me
 Only reason I'm here now is cause God chose me
 And to me, I'm only just a crook nigga
 But God love us hood niggaz

 Chorus

 [Nas]
 Day by day by day I sit back and pray
 My thugs get packed away, in a maxi-cage
 They pass away, they went off the casket way
 My gats will spray, but that won't bring em back today
 So long my crimies now gone for eternity
 The team we got left on the set, now turn to me
 Can't speak, tears in my eyes, revenge in my mind
 I ride past the church where they got his body and find
 they takin him to the hearse to put his body in dirt
 That's it, pay my respects, wipe my tears with my shirt
 Now it's time to do work, out of love and retribution
 As loyalty, he would die for me, no excuses
 Loadin clips up, countin bullets carefully
 For self, though it feels like, he was there for me
 Saw the enemy, I ate him, saw Jakes behind me
 They ain't knock me, it's obvious that God's watchin me

 Chorus

 [Nas]
 Jealousy in the hood, felonies in the hood
 Thugs wit guns become celebrities in the hood
 Yo it's beef in the hood, smoke trees in the hood
 Little girls have seeds by O.G.'s in the hood
 It's food in the hood, it's drugs in the hood
 You can choose if you would, coke to sniff
 Dope to ooze in your blood, parolees
 ex-cons live in the hood, it's jobs in the hood
 You can starve in the hood
 Your best friends'll fuck your baby moms in the hood
 But it's good in the hood
 I was raised in the hood
 Was taught how to walk and duck strays in the hood
 I stays in the hood
 Got my ways in the hood
 Learned to play ball closer to NBA, in the hood
 There's AIDS (uh) in the hood (WHAT?)
 Our lives are the worst, on top of that, we broke
 That's the main reason why God, love us the most

 Chorus 2X