Sometimes it's hard to wake up in the morning Mind full of demons, I don't want to hear them anymore Got me heartbroken, huh, so many babies screaming Cause they seeing destruction before they see a human being So they start smoking weak, we'll never get our day Until we learn to pray, keep our families in shape Cause they all broken, why do ghetto birds die Before we learn to fly, somebody else's child caught in gun Smoking weak can all make a change So I'm told, but I haven't seen the change unfold I keep hoping, please, if you prefer to breathe Communities in need of people that will lead Keep your eyes open, I can only say I'll try Until the day I die, I promise to be wise With my heart open, greed brings only misery A way to tragedy, so I stay sucker-free Only a few chosen rise, my ghetto queens rise Don't be afraid to try, too many of us die For the door to open, wise my brothers be wise Stay focused on the prize, though everybody dies If we can only learn to take our anger and our hate Control our mental state, settle down and set it straight Maybe we can learn to take a second to pump the brakes Before we set it, regret later and let it escalate Cause by then it's just too late, there's so much we can take And there's only so much someone can swallow or tolerate Up to the point that he just breaks, snaps, and that's all it takes You'd think that we was learning from other rappers' mistakes But we ain't, it's plain to go against With every artist comes an image he portrays And a picture that he paints But in the midst of all this anger and this angst Never once did you hear me say I'm a gangsta And I ain't hear no complaints But I know, that I will always continue to grow As long as I lead and never follow no one else's shadow There will never be another me, and that I can guarantee That's why the *** I remain so free to this day The game will never be the same No matter how much fame and success they attain There will never be another me And no matter what they do, there will never be another you You can search, but you'll never find You can try to rewind time But in your hearts and your minds, we will never die We are forever alive, and we continue growing One day at a time Don't get caught in the publicity and caught in the hype Rappers are regular people, modest money and life Searching for fortune and fame and superstardom All the jury, all the calls, who's cruise the hardest Now the hip-hop police of Dallas is watching And the kids think beef is they only option Outlaws gone filthy, guilty as charged My memories of Gaddafi, my Machiavelli lives on You think the industry is fun, ain't no pity with guns And when your money is up, that's when your enemies come So if he died and came back, would he try to save rap? We needn't have changed, the drama remains the same I spent my whole life, yeah Fighting myself, that I can't win So I'm inviting some help, and ain't now then I take rights from the left, I'm still Just like a kid looking for stripes on my belt, yeah And that there is a fight in itself So I just pray on who dies, take a life to myself No matter how much I try, stay alive I'm a dying man, still standing and in love with my pride Uh-huh, frivolous bitch, we past that I'm trying to keep some income coming in And collect on my ass, capping rappers in the game Ain't changed, and I finally realized That we're not in the same game The hating will never end, so I guess I deal with it Them four-fiber cop killers, yes, I'm still with it The streets is military, you gotta be a soldier Gotta stay leery and keep your eyes on the rollers They do what they gotta do, just shackle and hold it So we gotta do what we gotta do to keep growing One way at a time, keep the faith in your mind And we continue growing, one day at a time