I’m rollin’ up in a big grey bus

I’m shackled down, myself that’s who I trust

The minute I arrived some sucker got hit

Shanked 10 times behind some bullshit

Word on the pen the fool was a snitch

So without hesitatin’ I made a weapon quick

Found a sharp piece of metal taped it to a stick

Then the bullhorn sounds; that means it’s time to chow



My first prison meal the whole feelin’ was foul

It wasn’t quite my style but my stomach growled

So I washed the shit down and hit the weight pile

The brothers was swole, their attitude was cold

I felt the tension on the yard from the young and the old

But I’m a warrior, I got my ground to hold

So I studied the inmates to see who had the power

The whites, the blacks or just the gun tower.



Voice-over of prison inmate describing the ‘daddy’ inmates



In the blink of an eye a riot broke out

Blacks put their backs to the wall ‘cos it was North an South

Somebody shouts and everybody had doubts

Then the bullets started flippin’, took two men out

Then they rushed everybody back to their cells

Damn! the pen is different from the county jail

I’m in a one man cell, I know my life’s on the scale

I wonder if that gunman is goin’ to hell



This is my second day, I’m on a ten year stay

I learnt my first lesson; in the pen you don’t play

I saw a brother kill another ‘cos they said he was gay

But that’s the way it is, been that way for years

When his body hit the ground I heard a couple of cheers

It kinda hurt me inside that they were glad he died

And I asked myself just who had the power

The whites, the blacks or just the gun tower.



More prison inmate voice-overs



You see the whites got a thing they call white pride

Blacks got the muscle, Mexicans got the knives

You gotta be wise ya wanna stay alive

Go toe to toe with a sucker no matter what size.

A fool tried to sweat me acting like he was hard

I stuck him twice in the neck and left him dead in the yard

It was smooth how I did it ‘cos nobody could see

With my jacket on my arm and my knife on the side of me



Bam-Bam! it was over, another fool bites the dust

I went crazy in the pen with nobody to trust

I’m benchin’ 10 quarters so I’m hard to sweat

Use my tat gun to engrave my set.

They call me a lifer ‘cos I’m good as dead

I live in the hole so the floor is my bed

And I ask myself again who has the power

The whites, the blacks or just the gun tower.



Final prison inmate voice-over concludes;

There was tension all over, I could definitely feel that.

Then they rounded us up, took us over to another yard

Where there was more drama; the warning shot was a hit