A Child Is Born Lyrics - Brand Nubian

[Lord Jamar - interpolation of Grandmaster Flash's "The Message"] 

A child is born with no state of mind 

Blind to the ways of mankind 

God is smiling on you but He's frowning too 

Because only God knows what you'll go through, uhh 

A child is born with no state of mind 

Blind to the ways of mankind 

God is smiling on you but He's frowning too 

[Sadat X] 

He grew up in an instant, the fourth of seven children 

The oldest male on the block was half and half 

Brown stones to neck bones, crack jonez to tones 

Where young girls spread out and drop seeds like they're farmers 

They're old as their momma's, the same age as their aunt 

and the neighbourhood drunk men 

and that lady with the dreaded disease is like hard to please 

And the house of ill fate with the metal gate 

Keep the thin people cracked out like munchkin monks 

The ole man with the fruit stand is on his man 

His hand, his ole heart just can't stand 

the CPR as they load him in the back of a car 

I'm on a world tour to help free the poor 

From the local drug cats to kids in front of the store 

Number runners, gangbangers and the big money spenders 

Reality check rings as we descend from the king 

[Grand Puba] 

Now a child is born with no state of mind 

Blind to the ways of mankind 

God is smiling on you but He's frowning too 

Because only God knows what you'll go through 

A child is born with no state of mind 

Blind to the ways of mankind 

God is smiling on you but He's frowning too 

Because only God knows.... 

[Lord Jamar] 

The home's filled with horror in my horoscope 

Tomorrow I could be broke, this ain't a joke 

I'm twenty dollars away from bein dead ass 

I'm bout to spend half on a bag to get my head blast 

Last week I lost to justice cypher born 

and spawned a riff with my wiz 

now she dead with my kids 

I live by the subway, niggas push drugs in my hallway 

All day everyday tryin to get the pay 

And I be tryin ta find a better way 

You see, when you're poor then you're forced to adore to raw play 

Survival be a forte, lookin forward to-a robble up your food stamps 

Projects' like boot camps 

wit generals cookin chemical warfare 

Ki's to a mayor, I ain't seen ya ass in four years 

The law bears down on anybody that's brown 

My complexion puts me in the direction of the section 8 

Rejection seems to be my fate 

As a kid, don't wanna ship my momma, always said I had to wait 

And it's been drama up to date 

Enough to traumatise people's lives and the eyes they try to fixate 

[Sadat X] 

A child is born with no state of mind 

Blind to the ways of mankind 

God is smiling on you but He's frowning too 

Because only God knows what you'll go through 

A child is born with no state of mind 

Blind to the ways of mankind 

God is smiling on you but He's frowning too 

Because... 

[Grand Puba] 

Born into existance with some resistance 

A struggle comin out my ol' earth's womb 

It was little past noon, three months before June 

I had a feelin I was headed toward the land of doom 

I came out and the doctor got ready to smack 

I grabbed the 'bilical cord and tried to pull myself back 

but it was too late for that cos in fact 

I'll slit the sack so I gotta maintain where I'm at 

Now I'm here breathin this diff'rent kind of air 

Poverty bound, headed for the welfare 

Drug-infested, rat-infested, people drownin in sorrow at neighbourhood bars 

Roaches bigger than my hot wheel cars 

Dope fiends with swollen arms lookin like rotten wood 

turn to crack monsters up and down the neighbourhood 

Liquor store business soar as the crowd pour 

or thru the corridors, echoin off the project walls 

That's why the Gods say 

[Lord Jamar] 

A child is born with no state of mind 

Blind to the ways of mankind 

God is smiling on you but He's frowning too 

Because only God knows what you'll go through, uhh 

A child is born with no state of mind 

Blind to the ways of mankind 

God is smiling on you but He's frowning too 

Because only God knows what you'll go through, uhh