DJ Premier
The Life
[Intro]
It's always about money
It's always about money because that's the way life goes
Everybody want to appear to be rich
Ain't nobody trying to appear to be broke
You know
'Cause the appearance of money, you know, is the deception
That everybody wants to put out there
That's the way they live their life

[Verse 1]
It's the life that we live, it's not by the rules
The lessons that we learn is not by school
Any boy that wants to be a man before his time
Is out of his goddamn mind, fiending for the life
Full of pain, full of strife, full of gun, full of knife
Full of good when you're a n***a's girl, full of shit when you're his wife
Full of dope fiends doping, full of crack fiends smoking
Full of people that think the cops ain't watching
Joking full of Jesse Jacksons hoping we can be free
Full of n***as in the jailhouse that look like me
Full of pimps, full of players, full of thugs, full of macs
Full of hardcore rappers with a car full of gats
Full of fake ass n***as that rap
That will be exposed when they run into a real life scrap
Full of little green people with dead people on them
Got a graveyard full of flowers with dead people on them
Full of men who don't like me 'cause I figured how to stack around tax
Full of loved ones that ain't coming back
Full of snitches, full of rats, check the stats
We're losing real bad in this game that we call The Life

[Hook]
"Living on the line"
The Life
"Everything your hands could touch"
The Life
"Let's all be professional"
The Life
"You got to respect the game"

[Verse 2]
I sit and listen to the preacher talk about fair play
And that n***a know the game don't play that way
This life is full of n***as that can't buy a tank full of gas
And sneak behind the building of a bank full of cash
Temptation, they got sunshine
While n***as feel Bill Withered, ain't no sunshine
The life, full of n***as that got the funniest jokes
And the biggest diamond rings and the longest mink coats
And the best looking houses and they put them on Cribs
And show the goddamn feds where the fuck they live
Full of n***as with too many kids they can't feed
Full of n***as who went to college and still can't read
Full of fake friends smiling in your face
Plotting on a safe full of money while they're keeping full of grace
Full of poorly run government that stole this land from the red man
Now we celebrate Thanksgiving
Thanks-taking, fuck 40 acres and a mule
Give me 40 million and I'm cool, then it's back to the motherland
Not to live but to buy diamonds, flawless
Shining, not this fake shit that n***as where rhyming
It's a life full of n***as climbing from the bottom to the top
Full of n***as falling back to the bottom
Urbanized culture got them, check the stats
We're losing real bad in this game that we call The Life
[Hook]

[Verse 3]
The Life
Struggle for survival, watch the game
That's why I'm glad Pops left me this Glock to aim
Watch yourself now, you can be reckless
And feel your whole body gets snatched like mulberry necklace
I know we're on the government checklist
And soon they'll be dropping all the bombs and all our lives will be fleshless
This life is full of fake saints that won't start praying
'Til they see this big room full of weak minds paying
What's the message of the land, it's all in your head
He says "giving it to God", we say "giving it to Rev"
This life is full of people who wouldn't give a fuck if I was dead
'Cause that means that they can come out from under their bed
Why they're scared? 'Cause life is full of dudes like me
N***as rude like me, taking food like me
Full of jazz, full of soul, full of new, full of old
ASCAP for the publishing that people done stole
It's a life full of love, but people won't share it
It's responsibility, but people won't bear it
It's the hardcore truth, but people can't wear it
That's why we all lose in this game that we call the life

[Hook]