Ear2ThaBeat - They Say lyrics

Verse 1: Walk with me down the cell block of any prison See those who repented, let them know they're forgiven And let a man tell you his story before he had a sentence Before the handcuffs, before he made them bad decisions He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth In fact, he had to sleep in the living room on the couch With the roaches and rats, learned a little bit about the coke and the crack Felt school was holding him back His pops never stayed for his birth, moms loved him to d**h He's the only one she'd pray for in church But the streets are calling, mom ain't making a decent living He wants to be one of them people balling The girls making fun of him, ain't eating right and can't sleep at night That's what the sound of gunshots have done to him He needs some way to escape, now put yourself in his shoes Now what's really the choice you'd make? Hook: They say, it can't be that hard in the hood Same folk never lived in the heart of the hood They say, man n**uz just lazy For no apparent reason man n**uz just crazy Repeat hook Verse 2: This music's embedded in me, it's higher learning My residency continues through the years but evidently I do it for nothing, because on the radio this music they're pumping suggests I should let my pa**ion take a rest I don't seem to fit in, this dream that I'm living Makes me want to go to far extremes just to get inside The minds of the listeners, find myself wishing a Change would come sometime soon, my mind's consumed With hip-hop, can't get away Like a pit locked on me, jaws tight at the height of this gridlock Where the streets cage you, peeps hate you Everybody trying to eat, limited seats at each table I'm connected in the hood like free cable Where snakes are up to no good and police chase you Like we all got drug paraphernalia Assuming we're just all thugs and failures Hook Repeat hook Verse 3: Some of y'alls political views, can only lead me to one a**umption Y'all are a little confused I'm gonna tell you what the streets have become Everybody's hands inside the same cookie jar reaching for crumbs My heart ticks with the beat of the drum Nerves twitching in rhythm with feelings that's as deep as they come My bloodline is traced back, to a slave that was raped and gave birth To a baby in a haystack Soon as his eyes were open they told him keep them on the prize Until he realized the prize was stolen A billion dollars a week for the war? And not enough money to set aside for feeding the poor? I see the picture real clear I'm not an ignorant heathen And I ain't justifying nothing I'm just giving you reasons And it ain't too many different options Because even if we do stop the struggle isn't stopping