N.O.R.E. - What I Had To Do lyrics

Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do

Peace to my street niggas
My hand in hand dudes that follow man rules
And give out samples
Yea, see I was you 10 years ago
But bloodshed, time served many years ago
Brown skin but I could mix
With a Spanish group (why?)
I'm half of that
So half of that you can't recoup
You can't find nothing to live for
You should find something to die for
Therefore
You should never hang around thieves
'Cause you are who you hang with
Like trees to the leaves
I used to sell dope to the dope fiends
And crack to the crack heads by all means
Hustling, getting money was a part of me
Right through my blood
Like some veins and the arteries
Apparently, the streets for the
Love wanna marry me down the alley, carry me
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do

Yea, I got the dope man blues
Still out here playin' dope man dudes
So come and take a walk off
In my dope man shoes
So I can show you motherfuckers
How the dope man do
Got niggas I've been down with deep
What I say that they down, don't sleep
Ask you got bloodstained hands
For my homeboys I lost to this fucked up plan
Goddamn, I think if I had one last wish
I want rance up out this shit
And resurrect the ones run down
In the streets gunned down
Put the slick one round now
Imagine your cocaine sold out
You get reckless and get
Your brains blown out
Street life's so deep and we might not eat
A dead man won't speak and
Revenge is so sweet

Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do
Yea, I grew up like the rag of the dark
So what? Soldier, proud about it
That's just what I gotta do