Key: B
Introduction:
Bm
Streets, streets
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Livin' in the streets
verse 1: will.i.am
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Street livin', caught in the trap
Bm
Guns or books, sell crack or rap
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Be like kings or be like pawns
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They called us coons, now they call us cons
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Street niggas be packing pistols
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Terrorists be blasting missiles
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Crips and Bloods and retail thugs
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CIA planes bring Colombian drugs in
N.C.
Bm
Listen, they derailed the soul train
Bm
And put a nightmare in every Martin Luther King
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And privatized prisons are owned by the same
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Slave masters that owned the slave trade game
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And racists no longer have to be racist
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'Cause niggas kill more niggas than the KKK did
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Now, every time I hear a new def jam
N.C.
Bm
Street livin', tough conditions
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Brainwashed by the television
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We lost in the world we live in
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Double cross love lost no religion
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Street livin', oh my gosh
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Another brother got shot by the searg'
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Another cop got off with no charge
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If you black in the hood, you at large
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You're guilty until you prove you're innocent
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If you're ivory, they treat you different
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If you're ebony, they assume your temperament
Bm
Will be vigilant and they call you militant
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And you'll get shot and they'll say the incident
Bm
Is 'cause you're belligerent, what a coincidence?
Bm
Born and bred but you're still an immigrant
N.C.
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There's more niggas in the prisons than there ever was slaves cotton picking
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There's more niggas that's rotting in the prisons than there ever was slaves cotton picking
Bm
So, how we gon' get up out the trap?
Bm
Guns or books, sell crack or rap
Bm
Street livin', hustle or hoops
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Guns or books, get shot or shoot
verse 3: Taboo
Bm
Street livin', ain't no rules
Bm
Break the law, make the breakin' news
Bm
The life you choose could be the life you lose
Bm
Niggas getting stuck for the Nike shoes
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Street livin', ain't no joke
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It's a cold world, better bring your coat
Bm
Revoke 'cause the streets are broke
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And now they wanna take away our dreams and hopes
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Street livin', no economics
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No way out of the Reaganomics
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Infected by the black plague, new bubonic
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No comprende, we speak ebonics
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Street livin', what's your position?
Bm
You can take action or take a dick and listen
Bm
You can get fucked by the system
Bm
Or you can say "fuck the system"