Talib Kweli - For The City Lyrics

[Chorus:]
Nobody said it'd be easy
Livin just for the city
I'm gonna be alright
I'm gonna be alright
Whatever I do, I'm gonna be
Lookin to you
Long as I'm on my grind
I know I'll make it by

[Talib Kweli:]
Money I'm down but law, we draw long arms
B-boy, rock steady like Strong Arm
Shot by nature, gotta force to get my words out
Then I rock monkey bars like a ghetto workout
I ain't beefin but I came up on these same streets'n
I be seein these people ridin the train sleepin
Police more reachin for their guns,
Offerin help you get arrested and your choice is
Rehab or off in a cell
Now Lemme think, Gotta do what you gotta to get by
Gimme a cell cause the rehab, you can't get high
No I can't sit by, watch my fam just die
Roamin the street while society, while man [? ]
We livin like roaches salutin the black flag
Thieves in the night like the Ali Baba's in baghdad
Packin guns and shootin black hawks down,
Askin who wanna back talk now?

[Chorus]

[Phil da Agony]
We pulled up and it's quarter to eight
Ordered his plate, got the whole town on lock
From border to state
Hate pourin out his pours, defyin the laws,
Had a fat cuban cigar, bitin his jaw
Jaws is sharp, always had hammerheads circilin
Bitched out, tough ass niggas had him irklin
End it, you just want his 20%, gettin bent,
Payin his rent, layin his tent
Popped out five in the morn, gettin it on
While most of ya'll still in bead namin beyond
He on the block - hot - potholders holdin his rock
That he borrowed and popped, swore on his block
Mothers out four in the morn, waiting in line
Actin like [? ] it's freein they mind
Shots came rangin
Old lady startin sangin
Everybody in the hood startin bangin
The world that we live in, scandalous ain't it?
You can spraypaint it on the wall that's for all y'all
The fall of your regime, the rise of me and my team
It's all love, they owe us [? ]
Cadillac, a contract,
Bubbleback where my moms at,
You know her son go to war in combat
Yeah it's the arophatic track,
The steady aromatic is back
So get your [? ]
Dust it off the rack like a stevie wonder a-trac
Agony, kweli, chemical ali
They probably waitin on us, we hit heavy
The beautiful struggle, strong arm steady!

[Chorus]

Phil da agony ya'll
Talib kweli what up, what's good?
Defari had room in the house
King in the house
Nobody said it would be easy 'knowhamsayin
We livin for the city with this
Los angeles, 'knowhamsayin
It's gonna be alright
Whatever I do
'knowhamsayin we goin straight to the-
Future past the bullshit
See it before it happen, and make it happen