Brother Ali - Whatever lyrics

We live on the edge like mountain
Climbers and we worship clothes designers
If I changed my name to Ralph Lauren
I really would shine
In the streets we compete
For who tag our name the best
But we blow our paychecks
Stickin' Tommy on our chest
Since the death of dashiki
We made our women freaky
They blind like Stevie
Thinkin' that life is TV believe me
In the streets we be bangin' it out
Content to let Uncle Sam be
The man in our house
We waste money and call it cheese
Smoke plants and call 'em trees
While subsidized daycare workers
Raise our seeds
We swap body fluids with who's ever with it
And think marriage is a big commitment
So we want the sex and not the kids
We want the check and not the job
But most of all we want the blessings
But don't answer to God
Got a closet full of clothes
And empty bank accounts
If you got your hand out we
Ain't got nothin' we bounce
Amounts are too costly for us
To go to college
But we pay them high interest bail
Bonds when they lock us
This soap opera life got us all hopped up
And we don't touch the scriptures
'til we get locked up

So we do whatever eat whatever
Smoke whatever - whoever
Wear whatever shake whatever
Sell whatever it's now or never

Ayo if grandma and grandpa saw how we behave
They would probably spin around like
Yo-Yos in their grave
Whether is projects or trailer parks
We're all in the dark
There's no connectedness
Our families falling apart
And White suburbanites think they're
Fleeing the games
But then their kids go to school and
Shoot 'em up like Jesse James
The projects are just a carbon
Copy of the prisons
So when we get locked we're
Just gettin' more original
A 6-year-old at the park could probably curse
Do the streets make us crazy
Or is it the vice-versa?
We might hurt you if you
Talk bad about our wife but at night
We beat her within an inch of her life
We kill our unborn kids
And no one blows the whistle
If you want it it's a baby
If you don't it's only tissue
We only miss you and cry for you if you die
But we ain't got time for
That - when you're alive we don't apologize
And do get caught with red fingers
We don't read newspapers
We watch Jerry Springer
Our so-called leaders whine for legislation
When the biggest problem we have
Is our decision making

Ayo we shake our -es and life skates past us
We love welfare and hate taxes
So we pour money in the lotto
Dice games and the numbers
And think it's too risky to
Invest in one another
We call our mothers fleas
But what could that mean?
Cuz to stack green would turn
Em' into crack fiends

We act mean, we act sharp like razor blades
We act like animals but we
Say we hate the cage
I said this soap opera life
Got us all hopped up
And we don't touch the scriptures
'til we get locked up
Our so-called leaders they
Whine for legislation
When the biggest problem we have
Is our decision making