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