Street Livin' Lyrics - Black Eyed Peas

Street livin', caught in a trap 

Guns or books, sell crack or rap 

Be like kings or be like pawns 

They called us coons, now they call us cons 

Street niggas be packing pistols 

Terrorists be blasting missles 

Crips and bloods and retail thugs 

CIA planes bring Columbian drugs 

Don't push me cause I'm close to hell 

The teachers in my neighborhood can hardly spell 

And compare to them, prison guards get payed well 

Ten years no bail is 4 years at Yale 

So, forget about the statue of General Lee 

Because the status of blacks are generally 

Are gonna end up in some penitentiary 

Systematically, that's how they made it to be 

Listen, they derailed the soul train 

And put a nightmare into every Martin Luther King 

And privatized prisons are owned by the same 

Slave masters that owned the slave trade game 

And racists no longer have to be racist 

Cause niggas kill more niggas than the KKK did 

Now, every time I hear a new def jam 

Niggas killing niggas like they Ku Klux Klan 

I understand what's a nigga to choose? 

Be the killer or be the dead dude in the news 

I get it, what's a nigga to do? 

No education in the hood, got a nigga confused 

Street livin', tough conditions 

Brainwashed by the television 

We lost in the war we live in 

Double cross love lost no religion 

Street livin', oh my gosh 

Another brother got shot by the searg' 

Another cop got off with no charge 

If you black in the hood, you at large 

You're guilty until we prove you're innocent 

If you're ivory, they treat you different 

If you're ebony, they assume you're temperament 

Well, be vigilant, and they call you militant 

You'll get shot, and they'll say the incident 

Is cause you're beligerent 

What a coincidence? 

Born and bred, but you're still an immigrant 

If you ain't dead, you can see imprisonment 

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It's more niggas in the prisons than there ever slaves cotton picking 

There's more niggas that's rotting in the prisons than there ever slaves cotton picking 

So, how we gon' get out the trap? 

Guns or books, sell crack or rap 

Street livin', hustle or hoops 

Guns or books, get shot or shoot 

Street livin', ain't no rules 

Break the law, make or break the news 

The life you choose could be the life you lose 

Niggas getting stuck for the Nike shoes 

Street livin', ain't no joke 

It's a cold world, better bring your coat 

Revoke cause the streets are broke 

Now, they wanna take away our dreams and hopes 

Street livin', no economics 

No way out of the Reaganomics 

Infected by the black plague, new bubonic 

No comprende, we speak ebonics 

Street livin', what's your position? 

You can take action or take a dick 

Listen, you can get fucked by the system 

Or you can say fuck the system