I see people hating other people   Tell me what's the reason   That your kid is hungry, you ain't got no money   What's the reason?      By the time of age nine I'm already decidin'   If I can protect mommy from the hood by fightin'   Or usin' a knife or a gun when I'm twenty-one   By by then them hoods woulda pushed their way in our apartment   And we die then, so I been a young nervous wreck in the projects   Watchin' them older niggaz pass pot and they high man      I'm just a young boy, snot nose, hair nappy   Cops ride by squeezin' their trigger fingers at me   So I would go to school and try to get good grades   Teacher wrote mommy and kicked me outta school for havin' braids   So she cussed them, said, "My son ain't no motherfuckin' hoodlum"   They judged us, thinking that we dumb 'cause where we come from   Got a little older and now I see   Young niggaz wanted by the powers that be      I see people hating other people   Tell me what's the reason   That your kid is hungry, you ain't got no money   What's the reason?      For these wars we're fighting with each other   Season after season   When you're workin' hard but there ain't nothing comin'   What's the reason?      Uh, picture a black nanny and a baby   In a basket pushin' down 5th Ave   She never had it, it's not her's to begin with   She gives it breakfast, baths and dinners   Treats it so tender while her own kids live alone at home   With no phone on ain't had a good meal in so long   But so long as mommy's a maid      Cookin' and cleanin', she wanna feed her kids and her kids are dreamin'   Where's my daddy, who's my daddy, have you seen him?   I could imagine them askin', what type of human being   Could leave his family, go back to the Carribean?   Was he locked up, shot up, does he have freedom?   Mommy said, "Wipe your tears, keep readin'"   But daddy's somewhere, spirit broken, feelin' defeated   A man feels he has to conquer all   The world is his oyster, his pearl, so y'all know      No, I can't find no reason   Why we can't all live in peace   'Cause this world keeps spinning   Yet still I'm wondering what's the reason      I see people hating other people   Tell me what's the reason   When you're workin' hard but there ain't nothin' comin'   What's the reason?      I know a girl, her boyfriend was a fugitive   She's intuitive, be on some stupid shit   She called the cops 'cause she hated his mother   Now he away doin' numbers, now she gay with her lover   How many niggaz gon' die this summer?   I pump life in my music, but still life is a wonder      There's a officer in a squad car, he's a prostitute serial killer   It's odd, huh? 'Cause he's the same cop in church with his wife   He's molestin' his son and she ignores it at night   Little bad ass bastard, lights a match and kills Betty Shabazz   In her pad while she slept   They said, "Prescott Bush funded Hitler while the world's in a twister"   Nigga, what you expect? Imagine what's next      I see people hating other people   Tell me what's the reason   That your kid is hungry, you ain't got no money   What's the reason?      For these wars we're fighting with each other   Season after season   When you're workin' hard, but there ain't nothing comin'   What's the reason?      Uh, uh, man, man'll search the whole planet   Looking for what, tryin' to conquer all   So what? To all my niggaz with they kids   That love they kids, man, all the daddies out there   To all the niggaz that died tryin' to figure out what's what   Tryin' to be the biggest of the big, you know   Yeah, yeah, ladies forgive us   Gotta forgive us for we know not what we do   Breakin' hearts, leavin' the crib, buggin' out and shit   Just man, man