Street Corners

Looking on various street corners
I'm sure you've seen it yourself
Standing on the corner, is an alleged brother
Dressed in blue or green, red and black
And spouting the news that the revolution is coming and you better get ready
Sort of like, the end of the world is coming
Unfortunately, the world is just going to drag on and on
And we have a poem that we've written particularly (don't you know you can't win?)
For the brothers on the street corners (make up your mind)

Yo, standing on porches in front of houses and corner stores
I'm born to more horrifics than syphilis, 'cause where we live is
Hell on earth, where was heaven when shit's real?
We sold dope to get meals while white folks could sniff feels
Fuck Israel, it's Kill Hills, spill pills for my bills
Write wills for my seeds to live from
Who take some, who give some, for brothers that was lynched hung
The symptoms never go away, a stowaway for colder ways
Having ravenous savages, blasphemous, asking us to hold crosses
There's more of us than Florida oranges and lost orphans
I offer thought for food in full courses
I'm soarin' towards the night glow, my hat's low, my roots grow
For you to soon know, I reap what you sow

(Make up your mind)

When the revolution come, you can see me on the front lines
Firing my gun, standing there right beside my son
If I go, it's understood that I stood for something
When my whole life, they told me I was good for nothing
I was raised by the stray dogs
Blazed off, laid off
Breaking laws, graveyard shift, and every day war
Focused now, notice how things change
Told ya, I remain the same
I'm older now, I embrace the pain
I blame the struggle, nearly drove me insane
Thought I lost my head 'til my brethren told me the same
No tears for the reaper, I bury 'bout a thousand
In graffiti, "Rest in Peace" sprayed all throughout the houses

I try to stay civilized
The hood's a prison inside
The only difference is the doors don't slide
Still we trapped in the animal cage, 'cause we got animal ways
So we react with the animal rage
And my sex is real, weapons build, that is the deal
Seen the depths of hell, now I stare death in the grill
From the slave ships to today's bricks, same shit
I'm awake to the wickedness and one with the pavement

The hall of great minds stays divine
My hands remain deadly
We shine without the hung jury
Produce light that'll travel through mics
Now as the town ripened
We took words that were nourishing, encouraging
A nation to awaken those who are sleeping
Can you conceive the thought?
Transatlantic import, slave been bought
Secret relations between Blacks and Jews
Might set a fuse off in their head
Many dead, lynch hung, swung from trees
Brothers in the struggle together eat from one pot
Hold each other down to the sneaker
Nothing come between us
Fast money and chicks did it to the best of cliques
It's sickening

It's me and you, son
Forever in the struggle
No doubt, we hustle
Survival is the motto
That you'd soon follow
A better tomorrow
Life making waves
For a better tomorrow
It's me and you, son
Forever in the struggle
No doubt we hustle
Survival is the motto
That you'd soon follow
A better tomorrow
Take care, hold these stairs
For a better tomorrow

I catch a few flashbacks about going through the struggle
How we used to make dollars from all the snow we shoveled
In a broke neighborhood where the kids often dream
About a lavish life that is mostly seen on the screen
But some dreams are quickly cut short due to gang violence
From loud guns that kept witnesses in deep silence
Was it bad timing?
Jealousy from too much shining?
Or a set-up from a girl that he wined, kept dining?
It's a known fact, they will attack
'Cause it's like that
And depending on the kind of impact, they strike back
In a town where the talk is cheap and beef is brief
A mother sobs uncontrollably and exhibit the grief
Large holes in the front door of a housing tenement
Allows room to retaliate, so conflict is imminent
This hate in the brain destroys the cells like cancer
Even experts are stuck with more questions than answers

(Make up your, make up your mind)

We just land down from Liberia
Young black man in control of the pillars
Millions buried in dirt
How many railroads do you own?
How much clean chrome you own?
This for my ancestors' names engraved in stone
On the roads that the rebels once roamed
We built homes, civilized our own
King Solomon Childs, beautiful as black, this time
We will walk on water this time
We will see through the lies this time
Prepare troops to move in, expand the runways
Build bigger bridges, nine millimeters from Brady
We living in war, so prepare for submission
Apache helicopters, a black man's face on a dollar (word)
The pigs constantly watch us, the streets is obnoxious
Baby, you're the first to not hold me to toxic