Truth Is (Pete Rock)

Hey yo When you look at me and my brothers what's your first impression Does the sight of us leave you guessin or do you understand the stressin The aggression, the look of no hope on me and my niggaz faces Like the lord overlooked us when he handed down his graces You see embraces, fall short on the numb tips of street entrepreneur fingers Still stuck in the walls of the project halls where the coke smell still lingers External blingers is all we can be cause on the inside we been given nothin to shine on And a record deal's harder to get than coke, so my niggaz get they grind on Cause the TV tells us, aim high nigga, make all goals lateral But see that takes paper that we don't have so, niggaz put they souls up as collateral Now, some niggaz reclaim 'em, some blame 'em, make an excuse to sell 'em But when a nigga goes from not doin to doin, what can you tell him? Not to be a nigga? Shit I gots to be a nigga, that's how I pay the bills And I'ma do that whether I got to sling this coke or exploit these rhyme skills See America makes you an opportunist, and at the same time they institutionalize you So the fact that niggaz get, big record deals Big money and go to jail shouldn't surprise you That's what lies do, you see most of these guys Do have raw talent just an infinitile education So the business feed you all the weed and ecstasy And a little bit of paper to provide some pacification From all the bullshit frustration they serve you Meanwhile they corrupt your perception of what the real is See they takin all our businessmen, and givin 'em the mindsets of drug dealers Took all our messengers, made 'em rappers Just flappin they jaws afraid to admit their treason Took all our soldiers for the cause, made 'em killers for no reason And bein fucked up, well that's in this season So, if you're negative you're positive, and if you're positive you're called a hater But I maintain control of my soul cause I know it gets greater later And I told y'all the last show shit, a nigga no hater, I just know what the truth is Been intertwined in this puddin for 'bout a year now so I know where the proof is See, it lines these midtown Manhattan skyscrapers Where former hustlers like myself sign papers And pull off fucked capers like, 16 infamous stars of the time They got us choppin and, baggin and Servin that shit to niggaz 16 bars at a time now The crime is undetectable by the feds Cause in heads of our kids is where the track is And music is potent it's straight to the soul So it's much more addictive than crack is Now, the high is just an illusion all lies and confusion But to feel that rush just once, my young bucks'll go through it So in essence, they still floodin the streets with the thugs, drugs and the killing They just usin these record labels to do it Takin our hearts off demos, puttin us in limos Tryin to fuck up divine direction But, young black men have been trained to chase money And pussy, so we fall victim to our own erection And begin to convince ourselves we're on our way somewhere where we're not goin But ignorance is bliss and niggaz love this so, niggaz take pride in not knowin We not growin, nigga I give a fuck how slick you flowin If you ain't showin nuttin to these kids or addin nuttin positive to the earth Black Ice been destined to touch the world ever since I was born To be real, fuck a record deal, God gives me what I'm worth "Soul Survivor" nigga {*echoes*}