Today we're gonna do something scary   We're venturing into the mind of young black males   Let's take a peak...      [ Young Lay ]   Cuddies perved by the corner, stout, herb   Got me twisted, mo' cold killin murders   Them brothers gettin further   Got my pencil for utensil, this'll keep they mind knownin   Spot some thugs at the club, and they got the nines showin   Dirty pimpin g's, one of my dreams, player now listen   Lotta blacks locked down, but comin back around in '96   All the gals my six (what else?) my track crew and my mother   Make these police wonder: how is he so undercover?   Never been a lover, but America had broke my heart   I was told to tear up out this before this tear me apart   Eat through scrap, black tracks, free milk and cheese   While the Japs stack scratch with the Vietnamese   But I'm finna squeeze, stack cheese they left on a trap   A young playa mack, hit the bud', spit a rap   It's just that feelin, that feelin that I have for children   Are able to love us, but these crazy devils try to kill us      "I gotta survive, I try to stay alive, ho"   "Smokin that dank to deal with the pain"      (My nigga Ray Luv, when'd you get up out the pen, man?)      [ Ray Luv ]   June 2nd '93 I returned to the streets   Did 2 months in the county and I opt to the beat   Now the cops keep watch, cause they know that I rap   Tell the world that I'm a gangsta, cause I ride with a strap   But I ain't yo gangsta, just a young nigga caught up in the struggle   Born hustler, goin for the jugular   Out to take the beast down, piece down might be too late   The funk is on, high, drunk off Thunderbird and Grape Kool-Aid   Would love to catch a playa slippin, take me down and book me   Guilty as charged, hit the switch and try to cook me   Silence a nigga for the shit I'm spittin, I know I'm scarin ya   A poison you created in the veins of America   Miseducated, incarcerated, institutionalized    That 3rd strike will have a gang of them rollers dyin   Ain't no love where I'm goin, no love where I'm comin from   Remember me, that real-ass nigga you been runnin from   Got us sprung off the cocaine and the welfare   While the black babies die without health care      [ Mac Mall ]   Now how could I pledge allegiance to a racist-ass flag   When the rollers at my do' with a .44 mag?   Got my mother spittin drag 'bout I ain't home   Got a double homicide warrant on my dome   I hear em pushin in the do', I grab my Mac with two clips   Cut through the back window and like a g hit a fence   I'm thinkin 'bout my folks gettin sent for violation   Foes and punk police, them devils still at my do'   I peep a group of ten tryina get information   I threw the clips in the Mac, start lettin off frustration   It's better than incarceration any day, we gonn' die anyway   So if I go out blastin, call it my fate   I got niggas in the pen like my cousin Bud   Lunatic Insane, and my partner T-Love   Big Tom, Ray Ray, Killa Cuddy, Mac Dre   Cleek, Jamal, Jinx and Bluebonic, man      [ 2Pac ]   Now I been called a crook, a killer, a thug   A no-good dealer of drugs   And Blood or 'cause, doesn't matter what set you was   Cause where I'm at, if you black, we strapped   As long as ki's make g's these thieves attack   And ain't no rules on the streets these days   Muthafuckas better watch they back and take it eazay   I'm livin in the dangerzone   And learnin lesson from the game, it's on   Niggas was gone when the frame was on   I'm gettin breaken them balls daily   Is there a ghetto in heaven or do I go to hell?   See, seems I was senteced to death, takin my steps with my head down   Why pour I liquor for my niggas, cause they dead now   My memory since I was a little seed   Was a penitentiary full of niggas like me   These cops can't terrorize us, they despise us   Niggas, cause we on the rise   Plus everybody's searchin for a piece of the truth   And the youth turn the streets into a piece of Beirut   And the truth is      "I gotta survive, I try to stay alive, ho"   "Smokin that dank to deal with the pain"