They Force My Hand

[intro: Cormega and Tragedy]

Yo, son it's real, you know what I'm saying?

A man is often condemned or exalted by his words, you know?

That's why we feelin' my niggas going through the struggle

QB-Brooklawn

Y'all niggas hold on... if you can't hold on, hang on, you know?

[Cormega]

Yo, I seen it all, coke rise and kingdoms fall

Profits in sneaker boxes, riches hidden between the walls

The hood agony

I'm one of the few who ever understood Tragedy

Batteries not included in my music

Or holding up my spinal cord

Niggas be lyin' on wax

Committing vinyl fraud

Denyin' the fact

They never slung or fired a gat

Mega's tongue is ghetto, dun

Hello

Where I'm from is the crime and graffiti

And NYPD

Broken glass, .44's, open caskets

Shorty ballers pop shit when they' rock hits the basket

The only life we know

I flow so precisely, though

My chain got the icy glow

B-Mer Jeep shine with Lorenzos shine brightly, yo

Laugh now, cry later, one day I might be broke

And tellin' niggas I need coke

Shit is real

[Chorus x2: Tragedy Khadafi]

See the good Lord giveth and he taketh away

But niggas talk it and don't live it, then they forced to pay

I'm just trying to be a man in this poison land

Forgive me, Father - they forced my hand

[Tragedy Khadafi]

Yo, visualize Mahdi as a shorty Fidel Castro

Snotty nose, nappy afro

Never realized in due time what I would have, though, yo

Before I spit at a ho I used to bag up blow

Little bastard - rockin' Pumas under two-tones

As we roam from the streets to the group home, yo

Watchin' mob flicks, clappin' at imaginary targets

Adolescents up in Spofford, facing hardship

Newborns grew up on Anita Baker songs

In the 'hood, wonderin' why the police hate us all

Up late nights waiting for the next day to fall

We're up late nights waiting for the next day to fall

My stomach hurtin', still searchin' for a way out

On an Island where P.C. was a gay house

Made my first board, stabbin' niggas on the way out

I knew cats who got bagged they' first day out

Yo

[Chorus x2]

[Cormega]

Yo, Trag, we been down for years(word)

From rappin' in the 'hood

To promising careers

It's all good

The rap game is new to me

The crack game - true to me(my life)

Accept the consequences

And the blood money cruelty

Yo, remember you and me? Back in the days

You had a sheepskin, I had a goose and Pumas in gray

(You remember that shit!)

We even did the same dorm in C-74

More than boys we were fuckin' outlaws

[Tragedy Khadafi]

If I could break you out the courtroom, and clap through reporters

Kidnap the jurors - and whack all their daughters

The Montanas, Al Po's and Rich Porters

Mandela time - get smacked with two quarters

A life speed - fuckin' with cracks and weed

Yo, I sniffed so much coke, I froze with nosebleeds

Jumpin' over snow cliffs without the skis(shit is crazy, yo)

Then I saw shit was real, and I switched my steez

[Chorus x4]

[outro]

Trials and tribulations... you gotta shine...

regardless to what... nah'mean?

All of my niggas growin' up strugglin' - word

I see y'all out there - live ya life, man, stick your chest out, against all odds, you can handle that shit. If you couldn't handle it, it wouldn't fall on you, man - believe that. Nah'mean? Strap your shit up, pa. Keep it moving. Shit ain't nothin'. We live this, son! Word, that's what we do nigga. Y'all feel that