I Must Stand

Nobody ever said life was gon' be easy But damn.. [ VERSE 1 ] Just a kid, moms died when I was seven Pops died, eleven, what's up with heaven? It's hell when you're an orphan at a early age This impressionable stage, no love breeds rage In the heart of a child who never knew his roots Looked up to pimps and to hustlers in the eel-skin boots Parkin Caddies on the sidewalk, gangsta talk Truckin diamonds and gold Rubberbands around the bankrolls Fly girls to make your head spin Seemed they partied all night long I was like, "Put me on" But they said, "Little fellow, run and go play Take your butt to school or else you'll have to be like us one day" I didn't understand, but I tried to get a job While all the players got the girls cause they'd hustle and rob I was like makin 'bout 1-50 a week And after taxes, you know what that is - lunch meat And I know I can be better than this I gotta get me a car, man I gotta get a girl I know I can do it out there, man I'm finna go for it, man I gotta get some money Word [ VERSE 2 ] Streets of anger, trouble and crime I had it hard, had to sleep in my car sometime But I never let another player see me down I kept my front up, my gear clean Even when checkin minor green Brothers knew my game was true So I hooked up with the real crew That knew excactly what to do Bank jobs and jewels, quick to flex with tools Pimpin hoes on the block Checkin cash non-stop Crack spots, armor with interior bars No lie, I used to own 'bout 15 cars Every piece Fila made Drape my women in suede Pavet Piaget, Cesar's Palace holidays It was on, crazy out of control We made up the word 'ballin', that was how we rolled But the FBI had a-whole-nother idea It's called multiple indictments for hundreds of years What Daff is dead? Carter got 25 years? Nah.. Spike 35 to life? Nah, don't tell me B.O.'s dead, man I don't want to hear that, man I was just with him [ VERSE 3 ] The game is vicious, no retirement, you die young Listen to a fake, he might tell you to grab a gun I get phone calls from condemned row Brothers I ran with, brothers I really know They tell me, "Ice you got much love in the pen You're the one that got away, don't want to see you in" They tell me, "Tell the little homies the deal Don't let em come up in this hellish habitat of shanks and steel" I marched two million strong in D.C. Lookin eye to eye with brothers that I used to think below me Damn, my mind was twisted in my hustlin days But God spared me, I got a baby son to raise And bein black ain't easy, prejudice is real But health and liberty is all we need for us to build We gotta come together, unseparated Check yourself like I did, blackman, because we're all related