[V1 will.i.am]

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
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 private complexes 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

[V2: Taboo]

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 because you're beligerent
What a coincidence?
If you ain't dead, you can see imprisonment

[V3: apl.de.ap]

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