[Verse 1: Tom Scott]
Just sittin' in my lonely cell, with my lonely self
And nothin more than my thoughts - no one else
I got my cell mate misery he knows me well
He keep me company and help me to, open my mail
And a, he'll never tell anybody my secrets
That I keep, deep, underneath sheets of refill
Cause, people are lethal, like the injection
You can never quite tell, despite the impressions so
I never let screws, up in my mind
You wanna search my cell I got nothin' to hide
You wanna frame me, kill me, milk me of my purity
But they can't penetrate my maximum security
We're livin' in a world, wild full of wickedness
Where people treated like they're prisoners with no visitors
Every day, but I'm gonna figure out an escape plan
Gotta get up out of this cage man, they say that

[Hook]
Prison is a state of mind
I'm doin' time
Misery is a mate of mine
I heard that

Prison is a state of mind
I'm doin' time
Misery is a mate of mine
They Say that
Prison is a state of mind
I'm doin' time
Misery is a mate of mine
It Feels like

Prison is a state of mind
I'm doing time...

[Verse 2: Tom Scott]
Sometimes i feel as if I'm doin' life
But, am I really alive?
Or just surviving inside solitary confinement?
In the mind, I'm too scared of thinking out side of
I've had these bars so long, I can't tell who's behind them
Shit, guess I sold myself to the cell
Turned myself in and told myself that I failed
It's like, my biggest monster is my own consciousness
A con conned by his own self confidence
Chained up in the cuffs of his own thoughts
Opportunity rung, I hung myself by the phone cord
Wanting for more than we hope for
Livin' in paradise, thinkin' 'bout jumpin' the gold wall
Sit and think in my wrinkled jumpsuit
About my life on the outside as a young dude
I take a blunt spoon out of the lunch room
And try to dig a hole to the old I once knew
[Hook]
Prison is a state of mind
I'm doin' time
Misery is a mate of mine
I heard that

Prison is a state of mind
I'm doin' time
Misery is a mate of mine
They Say that

Prison is a state of mind
I'm doin' time
Misery is a mate of mine
It Feels like

Prison is a state of mind
I'm doing time...

[Nas sample (scratched):]
"Even my brain's in handcuffs"
"Born alone, die alone"

[Voice clip:]
It's like this everyday. You get up, you go somewhere, you work, you comeback, and you walk an hour, and then you lay down, you take a nap, and you watch the news, and then you go eat supper, you come back and watch TV, and then you go to bed. And the next day, you get up and do the same thing over again. But it's not that different from what you do. It's prison!