There are many problems in my hood

Even in a small town, the ghetto isn’t that good

We have no hope

Where I’m from, you’re either selling or doing dope

We are always saying, “Keep it real.”

But we never express how we really feel

Nobody should want to live in the ghetto

But I have some old friends who just can’t let the streets go

They would rather be on the corner shooting dice

They hang out until the wee hours of the night

Don’t get me wrong I can’t knock their hustle

But I just can’t piece together the puzzle

Half of them are just trying to get paid

The other half are just trying to get laid

They think they stand for something

When in reality they fall for anything

To them, it’s all about being hard

They want to be the biggest dog in the yard

They would rather do some time in a cell

Me, I’d rather build a life and try to do well

There are intelligent brothers from my hood

But they want to do dirt instead of using their minds for the greater good

Some of them have the ability to be a famous actor

Instead, they want to hang on the corner and call white people crackers

It isn’t cool to get an education

This belief is a major source of frustration

They might have a few cars but no house

Some of them still sleep on their parents’ couch

They sleep with each other’s baby mommas

I don’t know why, I guess they love the drama

But this isn’t a movie

That’s the problem in my community

They don’t like cops

I blame hip-hop

It’s the music I grew up on and I love it

Now it’s viewed as bad by the public

It’s only entertainment

But our actions give people the opportunity to blame it

It glamorizes smoking weed and getting drunk

If you’re not down with that, you’re considered a punk

On the good side, it influenced me to write this

On the other hand, it glorifies violence

It makes it cool to use a gun

Or sleep with a lot of women just for fun

It’s gone from getting the party started to cooking cocaine in the kitchen

It’s cool to be a player or say you’re pimpin’

Hip-hop has made us disrespect all women

It makes us covet the cars with the big rims

It doesn’t matter if we don’t take care of our kids

You gain street cred after you do a bid

Hip-hop makes you have to have the latest pair of shoes

Do you think B.B. King was worried about that when he was playing the blues?

They say more white kids buy more hip-hop music than we do

Ok, that might be true

But they can go home to the suburbs

We try to actually live the words

I’m not making this a black and white thing

I just want you to use your brain

A young black kid could probably give at least twenty slang terms for weed

But that same kid can hardly read

I bet that wasn’t in Dr. King’s dream

I have to be honest; I used to want to life the street life

That was before I got my mind right

I found out the songs were just lyrics

Rappers make money when you hear it

They don’t care about me or you

If you think they are speaking to you, you’re a damn fool

Wake my brothers and sisters

If you sleep too long, you won’t ever be madams or misters