Life Is A Ghetto

[Intro]
Yo, what's up [?]
Hey, what's up [?]
What's up man
Is that my boy Lester Shockley over there, better known as Dr. Freshh
Hey, what up Body Rock MC
What's up my brother
Yo, check this out
Hey yo, what's up man, what you doin'?
Hey, check this out, one, right her
Y'all ready? Y'all ready?
Before y'all come to check this out, home

[Verse 1]
It don't matter what you see, brothers in the street
Hustle for a buck, trying to make ends meet
In the ghetto you must fight to survive
'Cause every day it's a struggle to stay alive
Now if there ain't one road, there's always another
When I was a child, I should've listened to my mother
She said, "Boy, you better learn, 'cause life is hard"
It ain't about pretty girls and driving fast cars
She said the world could tame the big and the small
But in the street, it's only dog eat dog

[Verse 2]
I didn't care 'cause I had money to spend
I found myself havin' all kinds of friends
But the money was gone, my friends went too
I was left with a bunch of I-O-Us
To all the fellas who have a lump sum
I wanna tell you this, one-to-one
Don't gamble with your money, stay with your honey
And make all your rainy days sunny
'Cause life is hard until you learn
That when you play with fire you will be burned

[Verse 3]
Politicians want peace in the Middle East
When there's a war going on in our own streets
And we elect presidents with strong beliefs
And then they make promises that they can't keep
To give the money to countries all the time
Unemployment's up and jobs are hard to find

[Chorus]
Life is a ghetto, it don't matter what city
So don't expect, to find no damn pity
So when you come, you come to my big city
Don't expect, to find no damn pity

[Verse 4]
So don't tell me what's bad
Or tell me what's good
Because you're not livin' in the neighborhood
'Cause when I go to work by the city subway
This is what I see on any given day
A junkie's in pain, he got a bad fix
Young girls on the corner just turnin' over tricks
I see winos sleeping in the slums
Getting warm by a can when their fingers are numb
Brothers hanging on the playground, being cool
Some kid selling reefer trying to buy [?]
Fellas standing on the corner talkin' jive
Saying he's gonna be a pimp and own a [?]

[Verse 5]
Time is just so hard, people committin' crimes
'Cause the money that you're makin' isn't worth a dime
And when you get your paycheck, it's ate up by inflation
You work so hard 'til you need a vacation
The place where I live, the rent is sky high
Hey, I'm working two jobs just to try to get by
I hear mothers weeping and babies crying
And when the winter months come, old people are dying
So much noise at night 'til I can't sleep
With the police sirens going up and down the streets
There's nowhere to hide, there's nowhere to dwell
Livin' in this part of town is like living in hell

[Chorus]
It's a ghetto, it don't matter what city
So don't expect, to find no damn pity
So when you come, you come to my big city
Don't expect, to find no damn pity

[Verse 6]
[?] at night, getting into trouble
Living off of love like a gigolo's double
Punks walk about like they got a big chest
Trying to put me and you to the test
Street gangs [?] under the bridge
Wait a minute y'all, let me tell it like it is
Abandoned houses, that should be condemned
Still have children sleep in them
Beer bottles on the ground, trash at my feet
Fellas break dancing to the beat
Hanging out at the pool room, shooting eight ball
Brothers holding squares laying up against the wall
Every Friday night there is a fight
And all the girls wanna see which guy's got the mic
It's a never ending battle, there is no peace
And our older generation is becoming deceased
People say "America, land of the blue, where all dreams do come true"
But for those in the city, it's a different life
For the Blacks, Puerto Ricans and the Whites

[Verse 7]
Brothers stay alive by one rule
What you do to me, I do worse to you
Where gangsters and lone sharks form a bond
Businessmen give them money or they break the arms
You've got preachers living off the churches
Lil' kids downtown snatching purses
There's no sense of wrong, there's no sense of right
People living by the gun and dying by the knife
When a pimp got your daughter in the street
Selling stuff on the corner that is not sweet
Where dealers sell dope by kilos and pounds
Just to drive Cadillacs through your town
You'd think the streets a dream, but you're seeing the mirage
'Cause life is not like in the land of Oz
Where money can grow on trees
It's only poverty-stricken reality
A young boy of the world does not understand
He has a different outlook on being a man
When he is finally caught doing vandalism
Then he gets four years in a penitentiary prison
He is used by the inmates in his cell
And then he wished that he never had came to jail
'Cause it's a place where only the bad survive
And your only way out is suicide
So don't yell for help, 'cause no one wants to know it
Since you dug your grave, [locked?] in your hole

[Chorus]
'Cause it's a ghetto, it don't matter what city
So don't expect, to find no damn pity
So when you come, you come to my big city
Don't expect, to find no damn pity

[Outro]
[?] New york has a ghetto (a ghetto, a ghetto)
DC has a ghetto (a ghetto, a ghetto)
San Juan has a ghetto (a ghetto, a ghetto)
London has a ghetto (a ghetto, a ghetto)
[?] has a ghetto (a ghetto, a ghetto)
[?] has a ghetto (a ghetto, a ghetto)
Hong Kong has a ghetto (a ghetto, a ghetto)
Life is a ghetto, ghetto, ghetto