Living For The City Lyrics - Rakim

In the city where life is animated with colors 

Contaminated with aggravated brothers, who knows where the love is? 

Growing up swinging, through my upbringing 

My limits is the sky from the all eye seeing 

Of so-called realities filled with technicalities 

I watch my steps, stay on my p's and check my casualties 

Not to get played, equipped with all the tricks of the trade 

I even learned from the mistakes that the next man made 

I know to choose and pick the people I grow up around 

I know to grow and get to know the town up and down 

But there's no instructions, so many directions 

A lot of crooks look to get hooked with connections 

Some thought they knew all adolescence could teach 

They graduated from school but fail life in the streets 

Your pops taught you to strive and stay a live, no ditty 

It's easy to die when you're living for the city 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yeah that's how I'm living 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yep that's how I'm living 

I grow according to my environmental habitat 

I hang where everything seem to happen at 

I seen it all, and I've been doing that since I was small 

Catch a flashback y'all, if I can recall 

The days on the corner we watched the world go by 

Or nights that wasn't right like when a good friend dies 

I quest for the best for prepare for the worst 

Never scared but I cared if I'm blessed or I'm cursed 

Yes I fear no man but Allah 

I'm Gomar Oras Dubar 

Which is God so It's hard to see Ra 

I do what I gotta do, with or without a clue 

Run through any obstacle including you 

Cause I ain't got to bust you, cause I got the muscle 

A push any clown that tries to slow down my hustle 

I gotta get by, but there's no time for pity 

It's easy to die when you're living for the city 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yeah that's how I'm living 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yep that's how I'm living 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yep that's how I'm living 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yeah that's how I'm living 

I'm in a zone everywhere I seem to roam is home 

A rolling stone, I hold my own just like a microphone 

I stay in tune, travel in harmony and set the tone 

Being young but I'm grown and well-known 

Try to take me out New York but you can't take New York out of me 

Cause that's the only way that I know how to be 

My neighbors is jealous they label us drug sellers 

We may be hood dwellers, we're just a bunch of goodfellas 

Cause we run wild with a passion, my style and my fashion 

Is getting, kid, I'm making cash and crashing 

Parties that everybody's talking about, we turn it out 

I'm just a native New Yorker with clout 

I know my way around any borough and any town 

I make a lot of ground and I'm hard to be found 

I get down to the nitty gritty, wake up with something pretty 

It gets me through another day living for the city 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yeah that's how I'm living 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yep that's how I'm living 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yep that's how I'm living 

That's how I'm living (x3) 

Yeah that's how I'm living