[Verse 1: Jay Rock]
Growin up I was a knucklehead
Boy you never listen to me!
Thats what my momma said
Im from the projects
I ain't never had shit
Me and my older brother
We had to share a mattress
No heat, no lights
Had to keep them candles lit
My daddy left me at 8
In an out my life and shit
Gang bangas dope dealers replaced my father
Neighborhood hustlas taught me to get them dollars
Thats when I became a problem
Product of my environment
It's hard to grow up be a doctor or a fireman
When you constantly seein that g ride tires screeching
And them shots firin all the time it happens frequently
The hood inspired him, to be a G
I bled for the game did it all for the letter B
The big homie gave me the name jay rock
This ain't no rap gimmick
It's a real life story on watts livin n***a

[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar]
You can take, me out the hood, but you can't take the hood out me
And that's the way it will forever be
And I can’t help it i’m gutter
Why should I change now
When all my life I been gang banged out
That project shit run deep in my veins now
And I can’t help it
Ooh my lord knows that I can’t help it
[Verse 2: Jay Rock]
Let me take you on a detour
East side watts
N***as will go in projects
Follow me home to my black and white apartments
Police roll thru with caution, scared to death
The homies got tats across them
Capitol BH over they necks
Since birth banging the set
Even the hoes banging the set
Some ain't, but most is hood rats
That looking for that buck
Them trash cans lay in the street
Ghetto technique for drive bys
For the low them 5 dollas will get you high
Dice games, YGs, fist fights
Six fo's, el co's, g rides, and mini bikes
Might see a couple of zombies late night
Off what? off pipe membrane dead right
No lie something in the bushes
Either the AK or the .45, no lie
Raised in the ghetto
With rats and roaches
Smokers on porches
Getting high off yola
It's colder north
But my city's the coldest
Where we ain't promised to see the morning, n***a
[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar]
You can take, me out the hood, but you can't take the hood out me
And that's the way it will forever be
And I can’t help it i’m gutter
Why should I change now
When all my life I been gang banged out
That project shit run deep in my veins now
And I can’t help it
Ooh my lord knows that I can’t help it

[Verse 3: Jay Rock]
You could take me out the hood
But the hood will never leave me
I'm still bangin
I'm still hangin
The only difference is
I'm not slangin
Nickels and dimes
More like slanging these rap lines
Verses of truth
When I step in the booth
N***as know I pour my soul out for the struggling youth
For that fatherless son who needed love so he ran with a crew
Grew up before his older brother did
Gin and juice
Replaced the pain I knew
Carrying them thangs to school
Them n***as was tripping I wasn't bangin the blue
But they had to respect me
I never ran from who?
Nobody, put my faith in god
It's amazin how I overcame them odds
On my momma this past year my life has slightly been revised
But notice I said slightly
Cuz me being absent from where I came from
That's unlikely
[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar]
You can take, me out the hood, but you can't take the hood out me
And that's the way it will forever be
And I can’t help it i’m gutter
Why should I change now
When all my life I been gang banged out
That project shit run deep in my veins now
And I can’t help it
Ooh my lord knows that I can’t help it