[Apani B. Fly Emcee]
Besides bein guilty, heads been jailed
for many different reasons, rottin away for what seems like
+2000 Seasons+, can`t afford bail
Ran out of cash or maybe Legal Aid failed
Like Christ in 33 A.D., they got nailed
Hard to breathe sharin air with, murderers and thieves
You can`t leave, situation look pale behind bars of steel
Eatin steal meals, waitin to appeal
Awakened by squeals, soft niggaz get a raw deal
Outside feels worlds away
Future hangs in the balance, stayin alive is a challenge for
underpriveledged negroes and latinos who, populate prions
Displayed in cages for the nigga exhibit
Dancin monkeys makin faces for parole boards
Speak low and tell em how you found the Lord
Keep your fingers crossed
Soldiers sometimes fall on they own sword
Chorus: Apani B. Fly Emcee + L.I.F.E. (repeat 2X)
Outamind and outasite
Seems like it rains all day and all night
Ain`t got no rights
Prayin for a ray of sunlight
Got everything to lose
but can`t afford to fight
[L.I.F.E.]
Son hold your head while away - ain`t things changed
Same shady looks, and money gettin schemes
while the trigger`s got us balancin on beams
Alphanumeric life sentences, cause they control what`s right
Just last week my man got bagged for a fight
or was it cause he was the defender on the other side
Stabbin to save his life, with a knife
It`s already been programmed, billboards, steel surroundings
Keep us grounded, like the worms that we are
My species, is in danger, considered endangered
The plan is to keep us behind bars
like the animals that we are
We runaway slaves like Douglass, lookin towards the North Star
Used to think freedom was up North, but instead those ideas got
torched and scorched, disfigurin my views
that this world was made for us, what substance?
Everytime we spend the green, written In God We Trust
we helpin our oppressors to build more iron steel resorts for us
Many of us get stuck in sticky no-win situations
We and the police, different world, where they tryin to
remove generations, physical evaporation by methods of incarceration
They lockin down this whole nation
while proclimatin martial law
And what bugs me out is we still at war
Chorus
[Apani B. Fly Emcee]
Seen brothers leave never to return
Respect they thought they earned left em tagged bagged and burned
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Hate to eulogize another crew member, but if I must, I must
Can`t disguise disgust, gone is faith and trust
in illusions of democracy, it`s nearly obsolete
Under government confines, the end of the line
is a long hiatus in, capital, institutions
No, rehabilitation
Bein conditioned, pre-programmed by oppression and religion
What kind of world we livin in when young men
envision prison as an extentsion, of ghetto heaven
Wanna gain respect and go out like a legend?
Gotta learn life lessons the hard way -- oh well
No details that the caged bird tells
Eyes and hearts swell when I think of my nigga Islam in a cell
Chorus
