[Chorus: Emily]

I see people hating other people

Tell me what's the reason

That your kid is hungry, you ain't got no money

What's the reason?

[Verse 1: Nas]

By the time of age nine I'm already decidin'

If I can protect mommy from the hood by fightin'

Or usin' a knife, or a gun when I'm twenty-one

By then them hoods woulda pushed their way in our apartment

And we'd die then, so I been a young nervous wreck in the projects

Watchin' them older niggas pass pot and get high, man

I'm just a young boy, snot nose, hair nappy

Cops ride by, squeezin' their trigger fingers at me

So I would go to school and try to get good grades

Teacher wrote mommy and kicked me outta school for havin' braids

So she cussed them, said "My son ain't no motherfuckin' hoodlum"

They judged us, thinking that we dumb 'cause where we come from

Got a little older and now I see

Young niggas wanted by the powers that be (powers that be)

[Hook: Emily]

I see people hating other people

Tell me what's the reason

That your kid is hungry, you ain't got no money

What's the reason?

For these wars we're fighting with each other

Season after season

When you're workin' hard, but there ain't nothing comin'

What's the reason?

[Verse 2: Nas]

Uh, picture a Black nanny and a baby in a basket, pushin' down 5th Ave

She never had it, it's not her's to begin with

She gives it breakfast, baths, and dinners

Treats it so tender, while her own kids live alone, at home, with no phone on

Ain't had a good meal in so long, but so long as mommy's a maid

Cookin' and cleanin', she wanna feed her kids and her kids are dreamin'

"Where's my daddy? Who's my daddy? Have you seen him?"

I could imagine them asking – "What type of human being

Could leave his family, go back to the Carribean?

Was he locked up, shot up, does he have freedom?"

Mom said wipe your tears, keep readin'

But Daddy's somewhere, spirit broken, feelin' defeated

A man feels he has to conquer all

The world is his oyster, his pearl, so y'all know

[Hook: Emily]

I can't find no reason why we can't all live in peace

'Cause this world keeps spinning

Tet still I wonder, what's the reason?

I see people hating other people

Tell me, what's the reason?

When you're workin' hard but there ain't nothin' comin'

What's the reason?

Oooh-whoa-ooh-whoa

[Verse 3: Nas]

I know a girl, her boyfriend was a fugitive

She's intuitive, be on some stupid shit

She called the cops 'cause she hated his mother

Now he away doin' numbers, now she gay with her lover

How many niggas gon' die this summer?

I pump life in my music, but still life is a wonder

There's a officer in a squad car, he's a prostitute serial killer

It's odd, huh? 'Cause he's the same cop in church with his wife

He's molesting his son and she ignores it at night

Little bad ass bastard

Lights a match and kills Betty Shabazz

In her pad while she slept

They said Prescott Bush funded Hitler, while the world's in a twister

Nigga, what you expect? Imagine what's next

[Hook: Emily]

I see people hating other people

Tell me, what's the reason?

That your kid is hungry, you ain't got no money

What's the reason?

For these wars we're fighting with each other

Season after season

When you're workin' hard, but there ain't nothing comin'

What's the reason?

[Outro: Nas, talking over Emily King harmonizing]

Uh, uh, man–man'll search the whole planet, looking for what?

Try to conquer all. So what?

To all my niggas with they kids, that love they kids, man

All the daddies out there

To all the niggas that died try'na figure out what's what

Try'na be the biggest of the big, you know

Yeah, yeah... ladies forgive us. Gotta forgive us

For we know not what we do

Breakin' hearts, leavin' the crib, buggin' out and shit

Just... man... man