The Ghetto

[Intro: Woman]
Stay with me, please, don't leave me, baby
I love you, stay with me, please, baby
Someone's coming, please, please

[Chorus: will.i.am]
It seems like everywhere I go, everybody’s in a struggle
Oh, the whole world is a ghetto
Oh, the whole world is a ghetto
The ghetto, the ghetto, the ghetto
The, the, the, the

[Verse 1: Nas]
It be jam-packed in front of the stoops in Siberia
Same way they are in the middle of Nigeria
Every part of the whole world, there's an area
That, if you're poor, another day alive is a miracle
The blocks in Watts got crooked cops that frame the innocent
No different from Flint, Michigan
Living in the D, checking in with the pimps and them
It's similar to O-Town, in the Southern Peninsula
Pretty city, skyscrapers will fool you, look through to
Inner cities the rich won't move to
The nice parts, they well-protected by a vanguard
The opposite of how these concentration camps are
Low-income housing, it dwells murderers
But children don’t qualify for health services
The bourgeois act like they don’t see starvations
Like they spraying Estée Lauder on sanitation

[Chorus: will.i.am]
It seems like everywhere I go, everybody’s in a struggle
Oh, the whole world is a ghetto
Oh, the whole world is a ghetto
The ghetto, the ghetto, the ghetto
The, the, the, the

[Verse 2: The Game]
Streetlights come on, cop cars' lights flicker
They smoke us like cigarettes, need a light, nigga?
Used to chastise or string us up to spite niggas
War to fight for the culture, instead we eaten by vultures
They mix us like mimosas, hang us on wanted posters
Ask for license and registration with they gun out the holster
Some of us guilty, some of us not, some of us filthy rich
Others just watch us niggas drive up the block
We think we keeping it one hundred coming back to the hood
They think we flossin' money, so they pull a ratchet: what's good?
It happens in Compton, happens in Queens, happened to Big L
Happened to Chinx and 2Pac in that passenger's seat
Sometimes it's internal, happens to you before you happen to blink
What's beef? Cops killing niggas dead in the streets
So before we look outside, we gotta look within
Cause, now, we the dinosaurs, I think the world 'bout to end

[Chorus: will.i.am]
It seems like everywhere I go, everybody’s in a struggle
Oh, the whole world is a ghetto
Oh, the whole world is a ghetto
The ghetto, the ghetto, the ghetto
The, the, the, the

[Verse 3: Nas]
I'm from the project buildings, high stories
My stories from violence to glory
Dog-eat-dog world, gory
In the gutter, brother despise brother
Throwing threats at each other
Broken bottles and bar fights with box cutters
Alcoholics, narcotics, organized
Families sleep from a gas stove, burned alive
They bagging up drugs with plastic gloves
On his way to the top with his cash, he shrugs
Kidnappers, degenerate thieves and gamblers
Stealing, panhandlers, wrapping grams up
Rubber bands on they Grams, what?
Playing cards and they bored
Members of gangs, living by and dying by the sword
Block parties, food stamp, debit cards
Your hood ain't no different from ours
We share the same dreams, same money
Same clothes and cars, instead we get the same jail bars

[Bridge: Nas & (will.i.am)]
The world's a ghetto, the world's a ghetto
The world's a ghetto (Ghetto)
The world's a ghetto

[Verse 4: The Game]
Me and God's son, jumping out of project buildings in black parachutes
Both classic, both ride through the hood in a pair of coupes
Flow sick, mix the Henny with the Theraflu
He told me I was ill at that Houston's, nigga, where was you?
Hip-hop critics, sit the fuck down, get a chair or two
I ain't tryna kick knowledge, just a pair of graphic parables
Grew up, spent the whole middle school in the same pair of shoes
Me and my brother sharing shoes, my childhood was terrible
That's why I spend nights on the rooftop, smoking medical
You got a minute, my nigga? Let me break down the variables
Adapted to my surroundings, flow better than I used to
Momma, this for us buyers, for the days I wore FUBU
Having beaucoup dreams, deuce-deuce in jeans, my nigga
Now, I'ma end your career in two sixteens, my nigga
If he the God's son, then I must be the prophet
And all this "King of L.A." shit, you niggas need to stop it
(The ghetto)

[Chorus: will.i.am]
It seems like everywhere I go, everybody’s in a struggle
Oh, the whole world is a ghetto
Oh, the whole world is a ghetto
The ghetto, the ghetto, the ghetto
The, the, the, the

[Outro: Anderson .Paak]
Uh, it's a ghetto
Uh, it's a ghetto
It's a ghetto
(You gonna take that top note or what, man?
We gonna do this harmony or we gonna do it right
This motherfucker Chuck gonna come here swinging
He's gonna come here drunk off that shit
Come on, now, let's get it right, tighten up, nigga
Hey, one, two, three, four)
It's a ghetto, it's a ghetto
It's a ghetto, it's a ghetto
One more time
It's a ghetto, yeah
It's a ghetto, it's a ghetto
Hey, it's a ghetto
(Alright, alright, alright, that sound good
But we need to work on this other one, now
Let's get it tight
Come on, Lyrica, JC, Pharaoh
Let's make this shit happen man, come on)
One, two, three, four
Oh, oh, oh, took your love away
I wanna know

[Produced by will.i.am]