Inside Out (Mars Ill)

[Verse 1] Building in a cell block, shocked at the mystery Unlocked the misery kept inside his body's chemistry And when he's by himself, he has to cry to keep on living Reads letters from his children from far outside the prison And it isn't enough that he didn't pull that trigger Just a neighborhood fixture on the corner drinking liquor A two-time offender who got caught up in the moment Was close by when a robbery was operated sloppily And somebody got shot and son was fingered in the line-up Tossed into a 6x9, stuck because his time's up Fine luck, had to beat a brother on his first day To protect his own best interest in like the worst way Blames the system that built jails instead of schools Blames religion as a set of useless rules Blames his father that he never even knew Looks in the mirror. Yeah, he blames him too... [Verse 2] He starts to read books, an empowered resolution Malcolm, Dr. King, Mumia and Huey Newton Learns that nothing worth having is ever gon' be easy He studies philosophy while everyone's watching TV And after 33 weeks, he starts to do the science Sees God's handwriting there underneath the fine print It had been there all along just waiting for him to find it But he'd been blinded by his time spent trying to fight it But the spark ignited the fuel inside him And now he holds the flame that burns the brightest Because the slightest touch from the heavens can heavily change the tides Or tip the scales to either side of the problems in our lives He found faith in a cage and his mind's already free And he can float through these walls far beyond what he can see He sees his cell as a cross that he'll carry if need be But of course his body wants to join his soul and be free... [Verse 3] So he's a new man, motivated to slice through the hatred And radiate to those that play with death and want to take his breath He'll make each step count for something greater Understands that he can hate the game and still love the players He shares his cell with another one-strike-too-many-type of Jon Doe Who wants his rights back though The conversation words flow and get kind of thorough And it just so happens that they're from the same borough From the same neighborhood, from off the same freeway From the same ghetto and from the same PJ's And Jon Doe knows how his situation started How kids were busting shots at their local supermarket On that one fateful night that changed our hero's life And how he got knocked wrongfully and how it isn't right But strangely, our man is calm and doesn't lose sight He knows that he was broken so that he could find Christ And for that he's thankful, no shank pulled got him He's never felt so high while he was standing at the bottom And after six months, a judge heard his appeal Released into a city that becomes his mission field He pulls a free breath that feels fresh despite all the smog He used to hit the bottle but now he fights for God And since he's seen it all, he can say what it's about And to think this all started from the inside out...