Talib Kweli, Phil Da Agony - For The City lyrics

No one said it'd be easy
Living just for the city i'm 'gon be alright
Cuz whatever I do
I'm gonna keep looking to you
Long as I'm on my grind
I'll know I'll make it by

Yo, money I'm down by law, we draw long arms
B-boy rock steady like Strong Arm
Shy by nature I gotta force
To get my words out
But then I rock monkey bars
Like a ghetto work out i ain't beefin'
But, I came up on these same streets and
I be seein' these people
Riding the train sleeping
Policemen reaching for they
Guns offering help
You get arrested and your choice is
Rehab or off in a cell
Now let me think: gotta do what
You gotta to get by give me a cell 'cause in
Rehab you can't get high now I can't sit by
Watch my fam just die
Roaming the street while society romanticize
We, living like roaches saluting
The black flag thieves in the night like the
Ali Babas of Baghdad
Pack your guns and shoot the black hawks down
Asking "Who wanna back talk now?"

We pulled up and it's quarter to eight
Ordered his plate got the whole town on lock
From border to state
Hate pouring out of his pores
Defying the laws
Had the fat Cuban cigar bite in his jaws
Jaws are sharp - always
Had hammerheads circling
Bitch stop tough ass niggas had 'em Urkel-ing
Indent - he just want his 20 percent
Getting bent paying his rent lay in his tent
Popped out five in the morn' getting it on
While most of ya'll still in
Bed and ain't even yawn he on the block hot
Pot holders holding his rock
That he boiled in pot spoiled his block
Mothers out four in the morn' waiting in line
Acting like Tita Divine is freeing they mind
Shots came rangin'
Old ladies started sangin'
Everybody in the hood started bangin'
The world we live in: scandalous ain't it?
You could spray paint it on the wall
That's for all of ya'll
The fall of your regime
The rise of me and my team
It's all love they owe us let's redeem
Cadillac the contract
Bubble back where my mom's at
You know a son go to war and combat
Yasser Arafat in track
The steady Aromatic is back
So get your Malcom X hats
Dust it off the rack
Like a Stevie Wonder 8 track agony, Kweli
Chemical, Ali
They probably waiting on us we hit heavy
The beautiful struggle, the Strong Arm Steady