J. Period, Rakim, Black Thought, John Legend - In the Ghetto (Wake Up!) lyrics

Yo, if you're coming here to
Keep you a gat close
Ain't a lot of tolerance
For people that lactose
You can get your back broke, stumped out
Choked or slashed throat or poked in
A cloud of black smoke
Old heads tell you 'bout the
Trouble with black folk
Coke heads tell you 'bout the
Difference in crack smoke
Chicken heads doing the back stroke
Lot of sleep niggas that act woke
People cashed in on their last hope
In the city of brotherly thuggery
Stitches in hospital recovery
They get at you suddenly
That love don't exist
When glove's on your fist
Brothers be literally shit with
Snuffs on they hip
With a package out of their strip
And dubs on their whip
It's madness, you say is it bad, yes
You see a whole lot of
Death threats and bad checks
You the place, your money or your
Life, or bad best sonny, you're in the

Ghetto (and don't think)
Ghetto (everything I did since I came)
Ghetto (God let this fortune spell)
Ghetto (everybody let that for me)

Yeah, welcome to the concrete city
Everybody carry metal when
It's impossible to settle in
You can hear the seven sins
Blowing through the ghetto wind
My eyes seen the evil
That'll make the devil grin
Paying in misery's heroin
It gets depressing when the
Bad news never end
Pops shot and killed, robbing the bodega
I was eleven and moms was a shot of booze
Away from shooting heroine
Too true, my element, my future's irrelevant
It's evident
Then I'mma either end up dead or in the pen
Drug using and selling it
Thug shooting and killing it
A desert land, trying to bring dinero's in
Crime free, I ain't losing better bet again
I'm trying to find heaven in this hell I'm in
I'm more clever then I've ever been
I'm too thorough when the
Attitude is better win, when you living in a

Ghetto (and don't think)
Ghetto (everything I did since I came)
Ghetto (God let this fortune spell)
Ghetto (everybody let that for me)
Ghetto (nobody smiling)
Ghetto (nobody smiling)
Ghetto (nobody smiling)

Talk about the ghetto, ay ay, ay
The ghetto, dub, dub, du-dub dub
The ghetto, talk about the ghetto
Nobody smiling the ghetto, nobody smiling
Talk about the ghetto, yeah
The ghetto, hey yeah, nobody smiling
Talk about the ghetto, nobody smiling