[Crayon:] The hottest summers, coldest winters Kids play ball with frozen fingers While the gunsmoke often lingers We pack pistols by our penis Blow the brains from out them dreamers Blood spilling on the cement Painting walls making murals For the ones no longer breathing Writing raps for my eulogies Pawning TVs and jewelry Some of us perfectly happy Living in the lap of poverty Choices that apply to me Pay rent or be homeless By the way this shit is going We gonna never be owners Got no time to brush shoulders When police all up on us They be coming at us daily With evictions and warrants Trying to escape The corners and coffins Where stick up kids be warring And any face that's foreign Can get shot off of boredom
[Hook:] [Crayon:] A criminal mind when living behind Material times just seek and you'll find [Scratches] That's the life we livin [Crayon:] Surrounded by hate, we chasin for papes But sealing our fate, we hate it but wait! [Scratches] That's the life we livin
[Rock Shabazz:] New York streets is hell, shades of blue and oranges The rotten apple stuck in Adam or Eve's oesophagus Your head is a sarcophagus, your cranium's a coffin That's why street niggaz is mentally dead very often Amateur abortions, toilet bowls is coffins High school is warzones, educational system rotten Kids commit crimes out of boredom Started regretting as soon as the officers caught em We're stuck in Sodom and Gomorrah Same crime, bail varies Mama sayin Hail Marys Shorties getting knocked up, so now forcefully getting married Riding subway cars to entry level jobs Watching Black men hardened from years of tryna act hard I get slight chills from these niggaz' ice grills Civilzed still, thirst like a savage for the bills On the corner of Black Man boulevard and Nigga ave searchin for direction These streets is teachin valuable lessons
[Hook:] [Crayon:] A criminal mind when living behind Material times just seek and you'll find [Scratches] That's the life we livin [Crayon:] Surrounded by hate, we chasin for papes But sealing our fate, we hate it but wait! [Scratches] That's the life we livin
[Scratches:] I keep livin like this I might lose it Life (Life) as a shortie shouldn't be so rough I keep livin like this I might lose it I walk down the block with my stomach in knots Life as a shortie shouldn't be so rough Living in the ghetto trying to get the hell out That's the life we livin
[Rock Shabazz:] Nigga I gotta get paid! I've been waisting my life since the tenth grade It's time to get paid! By legal means, no sense in doing crimes Niggaz is so blind they take pride in doing time Different judge same case, different bid same place It's like having a different exponent with the same base Same mistakes with greater stakes, saddened by the lives we livin A grown ass man gotta make the wise decisions
[Crayon:] Catch post-traumatic syndrome From semi automatic shots flown In these cold city streets where I roam Same block different time zone Some cats is 7-30 I wake very early Landlord like Mr.Ferley And I never get no peace My mom is filled with grief At night I hear her crying Cause they ain't renew the lease I'm looking forward to some beef And each days a mystery And even if I D-I-E I swear 2 God I wanna leave
[Hook: Crayon] A criminal mind when living behind Material times just seek and you'll find (Scratches) That's the life we livin [Crayon] Surrounded by hate, we chasin for papes But sealing our fate, we hate it but wait! (Scratches) That's the life we livin [x2]
[Hook: Crayon] A criminal mind when living behind Material times just seek and you'll find