Nas]

Uhh..

Uh.. speak without thinkin..

speak without speakin.. huh..

Feel without reachin uhh

That's what it's about

It's about that inner inner love yaknawmean?



Chorus: Nas



God love us hood niggaz (I know)

Cause next to Jesus on the cross was the crook niggaz (I know)

and the killers God love us good niggaz (I know)

Cause on the streets is the hood niggaz uhh

And I know he feel us uhh

God love us hood niggaz (I know)

Cause he be wit us in the prisons

and he takes time to listen, uhh

God love us hood niggaz (I know)

Cause next to Jesus on the cross was the crook niggaz, uhh

but he forgive us



[Nas]

He who has ears, let him hear

And he who has sight, let him see

He who has life, let him be

See everything goes through change

Those who know don't talk

and those who talk don't know a thing

Men are born soft and turn tough

Dead lay a stiffened heart, I've been kissed by God

I've been hurt, I've been marked for death, almost ripped apart

by the beast but he missed his mark

Alone in the dark my thoughts had sparked up

when I saw my body on the floor, from above I watch it all

Yo it came to me, the pain in me

Many slain empty skulls where a brain should be

It strangely seemed, like it was a dream

but the si-rens had never woke me

Only reason I'm here now is cause God chose me

And to me, I'm only just a crook nigga

But God love us hood niggaz



Chorus



[Nas]

Day by day by day I sit back and pray

My thugs get packed away, in a maxi-cage

They pass away, they went off the casket way

My gats will spray, but that won't bring em back today

So long my crimies now gone for eternity

The team we got left on the set, now turn to me

Can't speak, tears in my eyes, revenge in my mind

I ride past the church where they got his body and find

they takin him to the hearse to put his body in dirt

That's it, pay my respects, wipe my tears with my shirt

Now it's time to do work, out of love and retribution

As loyalty, he would die for me, no excuses

Loadin clips up, countin bullets carefully

For self, though it feels like, he was there for me

Saw the enemy, I ate him, saw Jakes behind me

They ain't knock me, it's obvious that God's watchin me



Chorus



[Nas]

Jealousy in the hood, felonies in the hood

Thugs wit guns become celebrities in the hood

Yo it's beef in the hood, smoke trees in the hood

Little girls have seeds by O.G.'s in the hood

It's food in the hood, it's drugs in the hood

You can choose if you would, coke to sniff

Dope to ooze in your blood, parolees

ex-cons live in the hood, it's jobs in the hood

You can starve in the hood

Your best friends'll fuck your baby moms in the hood

But it's good in the hood

I was raised in the hood

Was taught how to walk and duck strays in the hood

I stays in the hood

Got my ways in the hood

Learned to play ball closer to NBA, in the hood

There's AIDS (uh) in the hood (WHAT?)

Our lives are the worst, on top of that, we broke

That's the main reason why God, love us the most



Chorus 2X