What We Gonna Do?

Yeah
Let's get into it...

For my people around the way (way, way)
For my people around the way (way)

Yo

New York, Brooklyn born, mornin' to evening
Whether warm or its freezin', people stay schemin' all season
Walls with graffiti, homeless rush your car with a squeegee
Ask you with signs, and try to pump your gas for a dime
Worse places, sinners that hold church sacred
And curse Satan, praying they do their dirt safest
Pretenders, worst cases, friends since first-graders
Turned traitors, talkin on TV with blurred faces
But women had Words anxious, before I knew what first or second or third base is
Words was flirtatious
Bus trips, Six Flags, Blueberry common
Looks change they outlooks, readin' books that's Islamic
Acquire knowledge, and haters stay looking to comment
Cuz you make moves and they on the stoop cuz they ain't do what they promised
Health issues got you scared, so you don't wanna go
To the the doctor, cuz if you got something, you don't wanna know (I ain't gonna get checked out)
White tees long like dresses, you booked and questioned
Shook witnesses, don’t get good looks they guessin'
Old-timers, radio with the Commodores jammin'
Playing checkers, chess, backgammon, domino slammin'
In the shade, negativity is normal on the news
And your parents been here so long they don't wanna move
From these harbors a girl whose father that used to harm her will write a saga
And be the next best selling author

(Hook)

Headlines
Knicks lose, drug bust, city gets sued
Kid shoots up a school, what we gonna do?
Headlines
Suicides, less jobs, government lies
Kids crime on the rise, what we gonna do?
Headlines
War overseas, man mugged on the train
Kid stabbed for his chain, what we gonna do?
Headlines
Lord knows, the kids have gotten out of control
What we gonna do?

Barely news, kids missin', bodies are found
Kids babysittin' kids til the apartment burns down
You fifteen, look twenty, twenty, look thirty
Lips purple, smokin' eyes with dark circles lookin' worried
Bodegas let you slide, owin' a quarter, the new order
At the window after closin' the store up
Loosies and liquor
House parties, you out front watching the women
Cuz anything with food the block trying to get in
Got on a suit, had an interview
At a funeral a jersey and some tennis shoes
Depends on what they meant to you, jeans and some winter boots
None of us invincible, somehow its sensible
You hard from them fingerprintin' you
Females mature faster than men
And they mom would think they behind
From how they clothes attach to they skin
Underage guys give them caskets a spin
Security maximum, pens practice
Its all happening then

Headlines
Knicks lose, drug bust, city gets sued
Kid shoots up a school, what we gonna do?
Headlines
Suicides, less jobs, government lies
Kids crime on the rise, what we gonna do?
Headlines
War overseas, man mugged on the train
Kid stabbed for his chain, what we gonna do?
Headlines
Lord knows, the kids have gotten out of control
What we gonna do?