Talib Kweli, Problem, Aloe Blacc - Every Ghetto Pt. 2 lyrics

Here in the ghetto everywhere
Children are killed, children are dying
In the ghetto yea

Silence is prayer, prayer is
Love, love is faith, faith is service
When I’m cuttin’ the strings of the puppets
That live in the ghetto
Geppettos is always nervous
They love when we clutter the gutters
And never discover our truest purpose
And praying in vanity
That’s the real profanity
Not all that swears are curses
"I swear!" Play it loud
Like Spike Lee’s father
Bangin’ the drum, when we hang in the slums
The beat is knocking the odds are never even
It’s far from the Garden of Eden
The starving is robbin’ and theivin’
We bobbin’ and weavin’ the mark of the beast


Like Muhammad Ali
No you’re not gonna keep me here

Here in the ghetto everywhere
Children are killed, children are dying
In the ghetto

They only let you school ‘em
When you got money, drugs and guns
All up in your backpack
Got it for days when it get
Darker than them Aloe Blacc naps
Respect my name
I get disrespectful as back slaps
When I shoot your dog then some
Alley cats gon’ sure clap back
Put holes in heads like snapbacks
But in that fact I don’t
Mean this right, yes, demon fight
He lean to write, bullets hit his soul
He cling to life that’s just what I seen
But I’m tryna change it too
But stayin’ aware at the same time
See that’s what the change’ll do to you
This money done fucked me up a tad
I could blame it on life
Or the fact that I was an early dad
But fuck that, that’s some cop-out shit
Sleepin’ them stereotypes on
Some knock-out shit
Show these marks I ain’t playin’ no
Games on some lock out shit
This for them niggas that keep the
Work movin’ when the cops out
Cause even if I’m doing right
Y’all throw the tear gas up in my house
So I might as well get the bread cause
The billy club gon’ hit my head anyway
War time, make me innovate
Cop I emulate what you demonstrate
Cause it’s here

Here, in the ghetto everywhere
Children are killed, children are dying
In the ghetto here, in the ghetto
Everywhere children are killing and dying
In the ghetto

The leaders are asking what good is a rapper?
(Good question)
Well what come first, the hood or the rapper?
(Good question)
When factoring the nigga factories
That we trapped in
The rappin’ is pretty accurate
With love, we cold-blooded assassins
In the ghettos are lingos
Children with polio sellin’ smack in
The grid of traffic
Killing each other for scraps
This shit is pretty graphic
Where love resides
Like This American Quilt except
It’s a shitty fabric
Malcolm said "Make it plain" but
Still we getting’ elaborate
The labyrinth, the towers of Babylon
The road less travelled on
We tapping into the power within
The stables rattle on
We put the saddle on, but hold a pale horse
Black on black crime is a myth they
Make us believe with sheer force
You can change what you wear and
The effects will never wear off
The cops shot the dealer to stop
And got a man off
Scientists too busy trying to reverse
Erectile dysfunction and hair loss
To worry about these niggas who
Shootin’ after a stare-off

Here in the ghetto everywhere
Children are killed
Children are dying in the ghetto
Here in the ghetto everywhere
Children are killing and dying in the ghetto
Everywhere here in the ghetto
Everywhere
Children are killing and dying in the ghetto
Yea

Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere
Everywhere
Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere
Everywhere make me wanna say
Oooh, oooh, oooh make me wanna say
Oooh, oooh, oooh