[Intro]
They felt like they were laying tracks, for the generation to come. I think my mother knew that freedom wouldn't come in her lifetime, just like I know it won't come in mine. It's a matter of, either we stay like this or somebody sacrifice, somebody laying tracks, so we can stay in a 360 degree. Deadly circle, somebody used to break out and risk, you know losing everything and being poor and getting deep down. Cause someone has to do something, had I had a father, had I had some of these opportunities. I would be able to handle my mother more

[Verse 1: Punch]
I was taught never trust a n***a, far as you can see him
Teach a n***a how to fish, as apposed to try'na feed him
Look a man in the eyes, that's the best way to read him
Cause faces they change, but point of views remain
I got a strange feeling, that I'm a lil bit different
Beyond the customs and tradition of a project living
My Korean war vet, grandfather's affliction
Was stress and I inherited his heart condition
And Van Arthur's addiction, was heroin needles
Petty hustling, d'evils, that street men lust
So I'm mixed with that lethal combination but trust
I've only scratched the surface, what's underneath this verse is
The feeling of a young boy lost, without a purpose
Still waters run deep in the street we were submerged in
Police lurking, try'na catch a n***a serving
He ain't going back to jail, so he bust a verse

[Hook: Kendrick Lamar]
This is for my everyday young n***a
It don't really matter where you from n***as
Before you leave the house, kiss your moms n***a
Cause you don't know when that day'll come n***a
Cause only Lord knows that I know how you feel
What we gotta do just to live
Is try not to get our cap peeled, try not to get your cap peeled
[Verse 2: Punch]
It's hard to get to know me, unless you hear between bars
Tortured soul self contained on my childhood scars
I was involved from a far, affected by the street laws
Concrete walls, not even earthquakes could shake them brick walls
Nickerson garden projects this is me y'all
Where Dope dealers have it all and then freefall
Caine numbs the pain up and down the ghetto seesaw
The voice of the youth, they hear me and they see y'all
They don't see a diamond in the rough, they see flaws
They should see how we was raised and they would be in awe
Against all it gets hard not to kill n***as
It's like a full-time job not to grab the semi-auti
And go kamikaze on somebody who plotting
Probably on my body laying lifeless, ungodly sacrifices
To the streets, this is the trinity
Money malice and murder the hood's deity

[Hook]

[Verse 3]
They say the average black man only lives to 25
Well I made it past that and a n***a still alive
Which means I'm in the red, I'm indebted to death
That's the wages that sin pay, I'm still tracing my steps
Leaving my footprints in the sand, the concrete rose
That grew on infertile land and blossomed to a grown man
My only fear is pops holding moms hand
Dripping tears on my casket, I refuse to let it happen
By any means avoiding the city traffic
Shooters got the green light, they blocking your right of passage
A young kid turned savage, city madness
A picture painted on the street's canvas, excuse my brashness
I'm trying to live to see past this
Staring at the world and my rear view past tense
In no particular fashion, I'm on borrowed time I'mma grind with a passion
[Hook]

[Outro]
Generation to generation to come
They won't come in mind
Sacrifices, sacrifices, sacrifices
Deadly circle, deadly circle