Street livin', caught in a trap Guns or books, sell crack or rap Be like kings or be like pawns They called us coons, now they call us cons Street niggas be packing pistols Terrorists be blasting missles Crips and bloods and retail thugs CIA planes bring Columbian drugs Don't push me cause I'm close to hell The dudes in my neighbourhood got all the spell And compare to them, prison guards get payed well Ten years no bail is 4 years at Yale So, forget about the statue of General Lee Because the status of blacks are generally Are gonna end up in some penitentiary Systematically, that's how they made it to be Listen, they derailed the soul train And put a nightmare into every Martin Luther King And private complexes are owned by the same Slave masters that owned the slave trade game And racists no longer have to be racist Cause niggas kill more niggas than the KK did Now, every time I hear a new def jam Niggas killing niggas like they Ku Klux Klan I understand what's a nigga to choose? Be the killer or be the dead dude in the news I get it, what's a nigga to do? No education in the hood, got a nigga confused
Street livin', tough conditions Brainwashed by the television We lost in the war we live in Double cross love lost no religion Street livin', oh my gosh Another brother got shot by the searg' Another cop got off with no charge If you black in the hood, you at large
You're guilty until we prove you're innocent If you're ivory, they treat you different If you're ebony, they assume you're temperament Well, be vigilant, and they call you militant You'll get shot, and they'll say the incident Is because you're beligerent What a coincidence? Wanna brag, but you're still an immigrant If you ain't dead, you can see imprisonment
It's more niggas in the prisons Than there ever slaves cotton picking There's more niggas that's rotting in the prisons Than there ever slaves cotton picking So, how we gon' get out the trap? Guns or books, sell crack or rap Street livin', hustle or hoops Guns or books, get shot or shoot
Street livin', ain't no rules Break the law, make or break the news The life you choose could be the life you lose Niggas getting stuck for the Nike shoes
Street livin', ain't no joke It's a cold world, better bring your coat Revoke cause the streets are broke And now, they wanna take away our dreams and hopes
Street livin', no economics No way out of the Reaganomics Infected by the black plague, new bubonic No comprende, we speak ebonics
Street livin', what's your position? You can take action or take a dick Listen, you can get fucked by the system Or you can say fuck the system