The Gospel

It's like, like all of New York City is singing to you
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah

I said, we're all God's children
Products of the ghetto
Momma cooked the soup
Daddy did the yelling
Uncle was a drunk
Cousin was a felon
And when he got pinched
He told them he wasn't tellin'
Auntie was a cook
Her husband was a crook
'Cause every job he had
They be payin' him off the books
Ghetto University
Knowledge is all it took
In the tenement I was listenin' to the hook
Change gon' come
Spirit of Sam Cooke
And when the Feds coming
Everybody be shook
Now we doing life like Eddie Murphy and Martin
On the chain gang
I was singing into the coffin

Roaches and the rats
Heroin and the crack
Couldn't blame me
I'm just giving the facts
I'm tryna hit the top
The bottom ain't where it's at
Everybody got a past but you could never go back

Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I'll tell it like it is
How we ever gon' live?
If we ain't gettin' money
How we feedin' the kids?
It's a revolving door
When brothers be doing bids
I know it sound wrong but the dope'll be what it is
Survival of the fittest
This poor girls the illest
Broke mirrors and black cats give me heebie-geebies
Life seems hard, but nothing ever comes easy
Whatever's in the dark
Will always become the light
If you ain't in a battle
How you gon' win the fight?
Gotta speak the truth
When I'm up in the booth
The streets be flyin' birds
But they don't be on the roof
Poverty is a pain like you pulling a tooth
Told the streets don't let me go
Like I'm bishop and juice

Roaches and the rats
Heroin and the crack
Couldn't blame me
I'm just giving the facts
Tryna hit the top
Bottom ain't where it's at
Everybody got a past but you could never go back

Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (sing)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (you gotta sing)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (since a kid)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Enough
Ali, upstairs now