[Intro: Adisa Banjoko]

It ain't easy

Cats want to judge all these youngsters

But they don't know nothing about these youngsters

I'mma tell you like this, straight up bro

[Verses 1-3: Rakaa]

Ayo, keeping eyes wide is the way to survive

O.G.s like the Beegees, ‘Stayin’ alive’

Hat size, stack signs are shy

Anyone that says it ain't connected ignorant or liar

Mixed with community pride, state wide. (C.A.!)

Equate across international date lines (Worldwide)

Media fashion, but it ain’t play time

Bullets hit some, miss some, it ain’t time

Hollywood can be oh so misleading

Leaving some of your favorite rappers broke and bleeding

Safari, like: “Where’s South Central?”, “Where’s Compton?”

“East L.A., Watts, Inglewood, where’s something?”

Watch you colors homie, watch your slang

Watch how you make your fingers twist and change

A lot of neighborhoods out here ain’t playing

A lot of blocks out here still gang bang

[Hook: Krondon]

Please Father forgive us, cause we know not what we do (True)

How far we are going, quickly going no where. (Cause we right here!)

Please Father forgive us, cause we have so many reasons, for retaliation

Revenge and get back, keep your eyes wide

Crack hit the streets like it’s raining comets

Crash, hit the streets any way they want it

Art imitating life, imitating art

Powder keg California, rip the state apart

Experiments flashing on the big screen

The system loves thugs--cash in on the fiends

Reaganomics made gangs out of football teams

And a couple other things, that you might not have seen

Kings, Jerks, Posers, scandals and tapered Dickies

Chaos, Latin S??????, SD, the memories

Brown Crips and Bloods, black Cholo thugs

Sharp skinned, scrapping if Nazis showed up

Stoner gangs, Asian gangs with straight A’s

They studied at the range so they don’t spray strays

Crews got fame, when the paint was spraying

But got absorbed, chalk outlines ain’t the same

[Hook: Krondon]

Politicians get rich, the block gets ill

Politics from inside, hit the block and spill

Streets flooded, South-sided, Cripped and Blooded

Northsided Bulldog the kids they love it

So elders teach youth how to hate on sight

And they ain’t all white, and it ain’t all right

But it is by design, time tested, refined

As the soul of the city decline

And streets regress, beautiful cultures compete for death

Only a few really eat: the rest--”rest in peace”

And scarred, many more stay poor

While leaders get fat sending soldiers to war

I send love to my city, to the youth: stay strong

A generation used cause they want to belong

Their leadership started off right, but led them wrong

Pride and power without hate, that’s what I’m on

[Outro: Adisa Banjoko]

"This whole thing is, it’s..it’s like chess

It’s like the poison pawn, they put the pawn out there, you pick it up

And as soon as you pick it up, that’s what they want, that’s how they got you

That happens on every street corner everyday

You go out there slanging that...they got you

Whole team mobs through on the other side of the board

You don’t have to pick up, everything somebody tries to hand you

You got think three or four steps ahead, to survive on these streets

You understand?"