Caught in the Hustle

[Verse 1]
They say the odds against me are crooked and impossible
Like I was born with a hole in my heart as an obstacle
And left to die by the doctors in the children's hospital
But I'll never lose hope, success is psychological
The world is volatile and the street is my education
Shapin' the nation like the blueprint of a Mason
While Shawshank record deals get you raped on occasion
So I'm focused on my economic situation
I'm like the little kids on TV that dig through the trash
I hustle regardless of the way you talk shit and laugh
A lot of niggas drop science, but they don't know the math
'Cause they mind is narrower than the righteous path
It's funny how on the block, niggas'll kill you for cash
But never raise the gun to cry out, "Freedom at last!"
The Cold War's over, but the world is still gettin' colder
Atlas walkin' through the projects with the hood on my shoulders
I would like to raise my children to grow to be soldiers
But then a general will decide when their life would be over
So I work hard until my personality's split
Like the Black Panthers into the Bloods and the Crips
They said I'd never be shit, but now I sit and reminisce
Like Yeshua ben Yusef flippin' through Genesis
Ignorance is venomous, and it murders the soul
Spreadin' like a virus, runnin' rampant, out of control

[Chorus]
So if I should ever fall and get caught in the hustle
Let 'em know that I died while I fought in the struggle
From the hoodrats to rich kids lost in the bubble
Spray paint it on the streets and in the subway tunnels
Write it down and remember that we never gave in
The mind of a child is where the revolution begins
So if the solution has never been to look in yourself
How is it that you expect to find it anywhere else?

[Verse 2]
Immortal Technique in the streets, back on the hustle
‘Cause three strikes will get you life for stuffin' cracks in a duffle
Upstate, behind steel gates, attacked in a scuffle
Razor blades stuck on the side of pencils hacked through your muscle
But the emptiness is what bleeds you to death when it cuts you
And it's the lawyers, not the inmates schemin' to fuck you
Tryna fight the system from inside eventually corrupts you
But that's what you get when you put a corporation above you
And it's the people that love you that seem to hurt you the most
Sometimes when they die, you find yourself cursin' their ghost
But you make success, nobody delivers your fate
Sometimes you give and you take
Since prehistoric vertebrates crawled out of the lakes
And that's the truth about life
More to do with the ghetto than your car, rims or your ice
'Cause even though we survived through the struggle that made us
We still look at ourselves through the eyes of people that hate us
But I'ma make it regardless of the trumped-up charges
And semi-automatic barrages that empty the cartridge
Post-traumatically scar kids that try to be brave
'Cause niggas backstab each other just to try to get paid
Turn cannibal like knights during The Crusades
Afraid of responsibility, addicted to greed
Beatin' they girl, purposefully losin' the seed
As if we bound to the destiny we used to receive

[Chorus]
So if I should ever fall and get caught in the hustle
Let 'em know that I died while I fought in the struggle
From the hoodrats to rich kids lost in the bubble
Spray paint it on the streets and in the subway tunnels
Write it down and remember that we never gave in
The mind of a child is where the revolution begins
So if the solution has never been to look in yourself
How is it that you expect to find it anywhere else?

[Bridge/Outro]
I used to wonder why people don't believe in theyself
And then I saw the way they portrayed us to everyone else
They cursed us to only see the worst in ourselves
Blind to the fact the whole time we were hurtin' ourselves
I used to wonder why people don't believe in theyself
And then I saw the way they portrayed us to everyone else
They cursed us to only see the worst in ourselves
Blind to the fact the whole time we were hurtin' ourselves

I used to wonder