Life in Crooklyn

[Intro]
One, two, one, two
It's the original dirty rhyme
Jeru The Damaja in the building
Representin', holding it down for Brooklyn
Holdin' it up for Brooklyn always
We about to drop a jewel on all 'em
How we used to grow up
How we grew up, that's what I meant to say

[Verse 1: Jeru The Damaja]
Yo, I was on the scene when Ed got shot
'88 in the East the streets was real hot, and not 'cause it was Summer, and the Summer's was real hot
But it was drugs everywhere, TNT raided the block
Dubious teams of teens that schemed on what you got
Playing video games where the dregs hustle pot
They found my cousin chopped up in the box in a lot
Hard to believe where I'm from, things like that happened a lot
So I pour out my drink for the brothers that some forgot
My uncle Ponki taught me things that I never forgot
Block parties, crime scenes, and fiends that I forgot
2017 back with the same fiends on the block
On the surface things looked better, but I know that they not
Ghetto mentality, got families livin' in a box
Can you imagine livin' in the same projects for thirty years?
I heard [?] shot back into the world after he did like thirty years
Hear babies slept in the same place as crack was cookin'
It's actual and factual, that was life in Crooklyn

[Interlude: Jeru The Damaja]
I grew up in the ghetto's of east New York, where most of my friends have been dead before I was seventeen years old. Shot, killed, thirty years in prison, and I'd probably be one of them; because I was, I was, lead in the wrong direction. It's not because I'm not intelligent or I didn't know what to do. I was just been caught up in the peer pressure so much and it was so enticing; but Hip-Hop is something that enticed me more

[Bridge]
I respect the young, I respect them, and listen to them because they're the ones on the come up

[Verse 2: Buckshot]
Welcome to the Planet of Hank, they counting your kings, and Robbin' your bank, the louder you scream, the Brook-nam
No guns bust from shook palms, bad attitudes, good mornings
In hood-nam, make a good poem if I write it clear
Fuck a pen 20-20 if I write n' stare
You can see the world through my rear view
Cops shot, moms cry, shots fly, head through
Every renovation in the projects, generation after generation
Awww shit, even overseas like, "please", gentrified, unidentified, From A to Z (damn), tell me where we goin'?
Stress like Doug E. Fresh all the way to Heaven yeah I know it
That's that Brooklyn fly gangsta, be I, plus [?] that why I hate lust
Crown Heights up to Brownsville, Coney Island
And Long Island uuhh, I gotta chill (Brooklyn, Brooklyn)

[Interlude]
We respect the young people or the people that are coming up, and or anybody that has an opinion or view of creativity
Just give them a shot you never know

[Hook]
Life, life, life
Crook-, Crook-lyn-lyn-lyn
Life, life, life, life, where you at?, where you at?
Where-, where-, where you at?
Rep-, represent, Crooklyn, Crooklyn
Brooklyn's in the place, Brook-lyn-lyn-lyn-lyn-lyn-lyn

[Verse 3: AZ]
AZ, "County of Kings", caution
Brooklyn, "BK" borough
Bread from the bottom, but we stay thorough
B.I.G., Spike, Iron Mike, Carmelo, rhyme nice, mind sights on all Fellows, paint pictures of insane cocaine sniffers
Gang members, you as real as who hang with yah
Hot summers, drop top, and block runners
The cop stunner, I was ill a lot younger
Lost homies, had charges pressed on me
I guess they want me, but I was busy being horny
Grown now, can't forget the hometown, lowered my tone down
But you can tell I'm no clown, "BK's" finest, the kind like mine's Align with, from pretty dimes, to that prime-time mix
Make it rich, that's the moral of the story though
Like the Maury Show, the fathers with a glory goal

[Interlude]
We missing right now, we missing that knowledge from the OG's passin' on to the youngin's and that's why the streets is in disarray right now. They wandering around going crazy, but the
Knowledge gotta get brought back to the table, yah-kno-what-I-mean? So, I, I, wanna all the god's out here to come back to the table and pass that knowledge to the youth and we need to start all over again and rebuild. Yah-kno-what-I-mean? that's how I feel

[Hook]
Life, life, life
Crook-, Crook-lyn-lyn-lyn
Life, life, life, life, where you at?, where you at?
Where-, where-, where you at?
Rep-, represent, Crooklyn, Crooklyn
Brooklyn's in the place, Brook-lyn-lyn-lyn-lyn-lyn-lyn