The Black Eyed Peas - STREET LIVIN'

Streets Streets Livin' in the streets Street livin', caught in the 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 missiles Crips and Bloods and retail thugs CIA planes bring Colombian drugs in Don't push me 'cause I'm close to hell The teachers in my neighbourhood can hardly spell And compared to them, prison guards get paid well Ten years, no bail is four years at Yale So, forget about the statue of General Lee Because the status of blacks are generally 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 in every Martin Luther King And privatized prisons 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 KKK 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 searge Another cop got off with no charge If you black in the hood, you at large You're guilty until you prove you're innocent If you're ivory, they treat you different If you're ebony, they assume your temperament Will be vigilant and they call you militant And you'll get shot and they'll say the incident Is 'cause you're belligerent, what a coincidence Born and bred but you're still an immigrant And if you ain't dead, you gon' see imprisonment There's more niggas in the prisons Than there ever was slaves cotton picking There's more niggas that's rotting in the prison Than there ever was slaves cotton picking So, how we gon' get up 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 the breakin' news The life you choose could be the life you lose Niggas getting stuck for them 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 could take action or take a dick and listen You could get fucked by the system Or you could say, "Fuck the system"