The Way It Is

(album: Let Em Ave It - 2010)

Let me take you back to the beginning
And explain to them exactly how I've been living
All the tragedies that I've been given
But nothing stop me from grabbing hold of my vision
I've never had it easy, I'm talking bout the days when
We had hangers on our tv's
When I never hide it to be greedy
I remember when I used to run and skank it on the P3
I'm talking bout the P3 bus, nothing in the bread bin, so niggas eating crust
Way before these beefing stuffs
When niggas biggest problem was being sluts
But now niggas hustle from 11
And then they're like, fuck girls, I'm grabbing hold of a weapon
And then they're like fuck school, I ain't catching none of them lessons
And I'm just thinking, what's happening in my presence

I'm just telling them the way it is
I'm just telling them the way I live
Hollowman, tell them bout the way it is
It's exactly how I say it is
I'm just telling them the way it is
I'm just telling them the way I live
Hollowman, tell them bout the way it is
It's exactly how I say it is

I never asked nobody for nothing, no one ain't helped me except my soldiers with the suttin
That's why I do anything I have to
I made the last straw, cause all the pain I put my back through, And the radio weren't laying down my rap tunes
Called me criminal, we ain't paying all them rap goons
Now you gotta understand where I'm coming from
Greasy hood nigga I was laying down the facts through
What I do best, should I have gone and got a strap too?
The only thing I know, no, I laid it on a rap tune
Cause I'm tryna change, they were forcing me to rap rude, you grew up 'round here you might be rolling with a strap too, Excuse me if I offended anyone
Through the pain in my heart, it's the struggle that I've come through, I never thought shit would get crazy over one tune
I'm just telling them the way it is

I'm just telling them the way I live
Hollowman, tell them bout the way it is
It's exactly how I say it is
I'm just telling them the way it is
I'm just telling them the way I live
Hollowman, tell them bout the way it is
It's exactly how I say it is

Before I be faded away, still running up the steps and I'm pacing away
Still ain't made it to the top but I'm paving a way
I know that I'ma make it so I'ma patient for change
I remember standing in the shop, waiting for change, as a youth man, grabbing a quick cherry ace
Thinking to myself I won't be a government slave
I'ma be something one day and nothing has changed
This ain't shit that I rap, could you stomach the pain
Or better yet, could you stomach the game
I did my sentence why should I be punished again? Sometimes I feel like I ain't got nothing to gain
They want me say fuck rap, back to flooding the caine, and getting wrapped up and stay in that government place, they want
Me in the box, calling the governer's name, and then the governer calls me my government name
Is this the message that they want for the youths of today, stop being a real gangsta that's trying to change
I threw a BET party, they locked up the rave, it never even started, there was feds at the gate, the amount of times I've told Buck I'm forgetting the game, and he says lowe it Giggs, you know you're just set in your ways, but at the same time you know that you're setting the way, if you forget about this, you're forgetting the pain
The feds hate me, they hate that I'm slipping away, I was just about to sign I was seconds away, they rang the record label up and they flipping complained, there they go again, are they flipping insane?
I thought that it was crazy when they banned me from Wayne, they nicked my little brother Spen when he stopped off the plane...