Intro
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Streets, streets
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Livin' in the streets
verse 1: will.i.am
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Street livin', caught in the trap
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Guns or books, sell crack or rap
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Be like kings or be like pawns
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They called us coons, now they call us cons
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Street niggas be packing pistols
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Terrorists be blasting missiles
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Crips and Bloods and retail thugs
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CIA planes bring Colombian drugs in
N.C.
Don't push me 'cause I'm close to hell
N.C.
The teachers in my neighborhood can hardly spell
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And compare to them, prison guards get paid well
N.C.
Ten years no bail is 4 years at Yale
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So, forget about the statue of General Lee
N.C.
Because the status of blacks are generally
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Gonna end up in some penitentiary
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Systematically, that's how they made it to be
Bm
Listen, they derailed the soul train
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And put a nightmare in every Martin Luther King
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And privatized prisons are owned by the same
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Slave masters that owned the slave trade game
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And racists no longer have to be racist
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'Cause niggas kill more niggas than the KKK did
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Now, every time I hear a new def jam
N.C.
Niggas killing niggas like they Ku Klux Klan
N.C.
I understand what's a nigga to choose?
N.C.
Be the killer or be the dead dude in the news
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I get it, what's a nigga to do?
N.C.
No education in the hood got a nigga confused
verse 2: apl.de.ap
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Street livin', tough conditions
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Brainwashed by the television
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We lost in the world we live in
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Double cross love lost no religion
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Street livin', oh my gosh
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Another brother got shot by the searg'
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Another cop got off with no charge
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If you black in the hood, you at large
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You're guilty until you prove you're innocent
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If you're ivory, they treat you different
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If you're ebony, they assume your temperament
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Will be vigilant and they call you militant
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And you'll get shot and they'll say the incident
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Is 'cause you're belligerent, what a coincidence?
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Born and bred but you're still an immigrant
N.C.
And if you ain't dead, you can see imprisonment
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There's more niggas in the prisons than there ever was slaves cotton picking
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There's more niggas that's rotting in the prisons than there ever was slaves cotton picking
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So, how we gon' get up out the trap?
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Guns or books, sell crack or rap
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Street livin', hustle or hoops
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Guns or books, get shot or shoot
verse 3: Taboo
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Street livin', ain't no rules
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Break the law, make the breakin' news
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The life you choose could be the life you lose
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Niggas getting stuck for the Nike shoes
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Street livin', ain't no joke
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It's a cold world, better bring your coat
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Revoke 'cause the streets are broke
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And now they wanna take away our dreams and hopes
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Street livin', no economics
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No way out of the Reaganomics
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Infected by the black plague, new bubonic
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No comprende, we speak ebonics
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Street livin', what's your position?
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You can take action or take a dick and listen
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You can get fucked by the system
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Or you can say "fuck the system"