Kanye West, Common, The Last Poets - The Corner lyrics

Memories on corners with the
Fo's and the mo's
Walk to the store for the rose
Talking straightforward to hoes
Got uncles that smoke
And some put blow up they nose
To cope with the lows
The wind is cold and it blows
In they socks and their soles
Niggas holding they rolls
Corners leave souls opened and closed
Hoping for mo'
With nowhere to go, niggas rolling in droves
They shoot the wrong way
'cause they ain’t knowin' their goals
The streets ain’t safe 'cause they
Ain’t knowing the code
By the foes I was told, either focus or fold
Got cousins with flows
Hope they open some doors
So we can cop clothes and roll in a Rolls
Now I roll in a Olds
With windows that don’t roll
Down the roads where cars
Get broken and stole
These are the stories told by
Stony and Cottage Grove the world is cold
The block is hot as a stove on the corners

I wish I could give you this feeling
I wish I could give this feeling, uh uh
Uh uh-ugh, on the corners, niggas robbing
Killing dying, just to make a living, huh?

We overstated, we underrated, we educated
The corner was our time when
Time stood still and
Gators and snakeskins in
Yellow and pink and collared blue
Profiles glorifying them

Street lights and deep nights
Cats trying to eat right
Riding no-seat-bikes, with work to feed hypes
So they can keep sweet Nike's
They head and they feet right
Desires of street life, cars and weed types
It’s hard to breathe nights
Days are thief-like
The beasts roam the streets
The police is Greek-like
Game at it's peak, we speak and believe hype
Bang in the streets hats cocked
Left or deep right it’s steep life
Coming up where niggas is sheep-like
Rappers and hoopers, we strive to be like
G's with three stripes, seeds that need light
Cheese and recite, needs and BE strife
The corner, where struggle and greed fight
We write songs about wrong ‘cause
It’s hard to see right
Look to the sky, hoping it will bleed light
Reality's a bitch, and I heard that she bites
The corner

I wish I could give you this feeling
I wish I could give this feeling, uh uh
Uh uh-ugh, on the corners, niggas robbing
Killing dying, just to make a living, huh?

The corner was our magic, our music
Our politics
Fires raised as tribal dances and war cries
Broke out on different corners
Power to the people black power
Black is beautiful

Black church services, murderers
Arabs serving burgers
As cats with gold permanents
Move they bags as herbalists
The dirt isn’t just fertile
It’s people working and earning this
The curb getters go where the cash
Flow and the current is
It’s so hot that niggas burn to live
The furnace is, where the money moving
The determined live
We talk shit, play lotto
And buy German beers
It’s so black packed with
Action that's affirmative the corners

I wish I could give you this feeling
I wish I could give this feeling, uh uh
Uh uh-ugh, on the corners, niggas robbing
Killing dying, just to make a living, huh?

The corner was our Rock of Gibraltar
Our Stonehenge our Taj Mahal, our monument
Our testimonial to freedom, to peace
And to love down on the corner