Rise

I know it's difficult but
You know, the odds really are in our favor
Man

Things just ain't the same for gangsters
The whole world's changed
Everybody's a stranger
These young dudes running around
Saying they're bangers
Click their little bangers
They click and bang ya
And I done seen too many
Teens chasing a dream
End up blood stream contaminated and fiending
And now they leaning on words that
He said or she said, we said
Look at him, he dead
See, we ain't never know
Martin Luther the King
Most of us probably couldn't tell
You much about a dream
We like Malcolm X, cause Spike made the movie
And we saw him strapped up
With the AKs and Uzis
So excuse me, I'm trying to connect to you
A whole generation is raised by gangsters
Who probably never knew pops, we had 2Pac
An old boom box, chilling in our tube socks
And plus Dre taught us how to roll a 64
And Snoop Dogg taught us how
To roll a sticky dro
So if they wanna reach us with Jesus
They gotta do better than
Some screaming preachers
Cause homie, we don't believe ya
We've seen grandmas ride by these
Cold thieves with heaters so we skeptical
It's easier to believe that there is a heaven
For a thug then to mess with you
It's hard to rise

Hey, shout out to 9th Wonder
No you ain't gotta ask
We both on the same page like a paragraph
And our music ain't the target of discussion
But it seems the radio has
Got a problem playing substance
Listen partner, they lying to us
They selling pies to us
They teach us how to be
Gangbangers and nine shooters
I been where you been, seen what you seen
Grew up with Old Dog looking
Mean on the screen
When Nas was street dreaming and
Biggie was still breathing
And cash ruled everything around me, creaming
Folks trying to make the hood
Life the good life
While they in the burbs wishing
Us a good night
And some rappers teach us how chin-check them
But I still haven't heard a
Song about being movie directors
We in your hood, man
We've been where you've been
Been stabbed, been shot
Been pinned in the pen
Difference now is when we pick up the pen
We articulate about how God has
Made us all better men
I'm a college graduate
Got some God fearing role models
With daughters who do not aspire
To be pole models
You are not what the media impose on you
God made you and He rose for you
So you rise!