If I could I would, if I can't I won't Please forgive me if I don't, son should be I come from the strangest streets I come from the place where love and danger meets A house full of noisy kids, boys avoiding bids Unemployed on Skid Row, we had no toys for kids We would bang our thumbs, gunshots they rung We would bang on drums, made from garbage cans Even garbage men, made more than mom They made more than teachers, next door to preachers They were shorted with reaches, but we never listened Niggas drunk and pissing, on the side of the building Can't provide for children, someone stop the squirreling Turn to drugs for healing, thugs sneaking and killing Cop sirens are screaming, it's out of cards we dreaming One day we could own one, right now we can't bump fronds My brother would sell Jones, my mother would yell son You end up in jail son, or ghetto in hell son A worker she'd tell son, that money excel thun Tony got knocked up, now looking for Bell son Making collect calls, inspecting that mail son Doing push ups in a 6x4 cell son A hard head, makes a soft tail son And my loaded brother, on that same trail son Life is a puzzle, and everyday is a struggle And we ignore the ones, who truly loves you As we do foolish things, we see the others do I try to do the same things, my big brother do Life's a struggle, we get trapped in this puzzle And we ignore the ones, who truly loves you As we do foolish things, we see the others do I try to do the same things, I saw my brother do Loaded guns in the shoe box, been the prince on the UROP Ziploc plastic bags, with black and blue tops We slung on the block, and watch out for the blue coats Sets blunts, we pass after two toasts Starving for a Gino, back and forth on the ferry boat Coming up from poverty, we were very broke To 28 grams, expand to a thousand grams Weekly $20 bills, pass through a thousand hands Multiproject apartments, spots bubbling Never went to clubs, with less than a dozen men We treated young gunners and runners, let my cousin in Spock gets knocked, my brother locked the *** up again Another momma's son, stuck in a ***ing pen Through the space, no one to trust, back to struggling Now I'm on the streets, trying to get my hustling Cheap wine guzzling, life is so puzzling Life is a puzzle, and everything is a struggle And we ignore the ones, who truly loves you As we do foolish things, we see the others do I try to do the same things, my big brother do Life's a struggle, we get trapped in this puzzle And we ignore the ones, who truly loves you As we do foolish things, we see the others do I try to do the same things, I saw my brother do I try to do the same things, I saw my brother do