Ghetto Prisoners

[Nas] Uh, regulate nigga Bravehearts nigga Live for this Some of y'all don't live at all Get yours nigga Get yours baby Uh, yo, yo As the night close down on the Earth like gray dark rings Light of cities in the nights, destination for Kings With big dreams, like Castro, overthrew Bautista From Cuba, and pointed nukes toward the U.S. About to shoot us for revolution, that's how you gotta move A lot of rules, some locked in solitude Curse the day of they birth confused, who's to be praised? The mighty dollar, or almighty Allah I'm like the farmer, planting words, people are seeds My truth is the soil, help you grow like trees May the children come in all colors, change like leaves But hold before you, one of those, prophetic MC's With blunted flows, seven hundred souls in me Each channeling, from past to present times, heaven shines Light on those, innocent to how the world grows Some men become murderers, and some girls become hoes And you accounted for, everything that you heard Do not speak to fools; they scorn the wisdom of your words My heart is wise, bloodshot eyes, the saga never dies Ghetto prisoners rise rise rise [Repeat: x4] Ghetto prisoners Yo we gotta be God's children, habitats in tall buildings Rats crawl in filthy hallways, incinerators Sinners who faithless, still there's hope, pray it's answered Dreams turned real, what's a wicked nation? One with blind men, not taking charge of the situation Empty arguments and real conversations needed The world'll need it, to hear it Evil tries to weaken my spirit, it's chronic herb This hurt come from the honest word I now try hardest to serve my maker, what I learned Find it's way on the paper, so I could dictate it Articulate it, luckily, I was put on one of the ships that made it Through strong currents and winds that left the others stranded To sink in the Atlantic Satan jigs the planet, not to get too religious, but Who decides when and if your life is finished? If Christ is in this, for the sake of your name, oh Lord May we break away from the chains abroad [Chorus] Ghetto prisoners rise rise rise [Repeat: x3] Ghetto prisoners, get up, wake up, rise Ghetto prisoners rise rise rise [Repeat: x3] Ghetto prisoners You want to buy time? I'm the seller of minutes I give you every second low-priced, if I so lies; the truth is Time waits for none of you, in fact He can't wait for the date to snatch the ground right from under you Small visions of better life if cheddar was right Lurk in the mind, of young ones ahead of they time Trapped in the slums, begging for nothing but taking Headed for nothing but the state pen, where they cousins be waiting Judges is not relating to pleas, guns busting where the kids play Richochet off lamp poles and leave damp holes In bystanders, get canceled, D.O.A. Around the way where we from Hope the future reduce the rate of those buried young Life is every man's kingdom, a dyin man's past And a newborn's, first time to be here at last And shouldn't have to grow up fast, and suffer our pain Hustling harder than the generations here before he came Going through the same bullshit as our fathers Reading history, but who's the authors? For some the game is easy, for most of us the game is much harder But never lose faith; through the years just get smarter Ghetto prisoners, ghetto prisoners [Chorus]