A Better Tomorrow

(album: Wu-Tang Forever - 1997)

[Inspectah Deck:]
Yo, this goes for all my brothers and sisters locked down
For all my peoples incarcerated, for those who ain't make it

Yo, in the housing, thousands seen early graves
Victims of worldly ways, memories stays engraved
All my live brothers is locked down with high numbers
The young hunger, blind to these lies, they die younger
In this New World, the Order slaughter men, women and children
Ten feet gates surround the building, keep us sealed in
The projects, lifeless like a Vietnam vet
Constant war, except for threats of enemy conquest
Crooked cops comb my building complex that's in the rumble
Streets are like a jungle, can't let my cypher crumble
Vivid thoughts, Devils resort to trick knowledge
They kick garbage, lust for chicks and quick dollars
I know the pain the game bring, I did the same thing
Spaced out in the staircase, performing a sting
It's hard to keep control, I bless those who seek a scroll
Trying to reach a whole nation and break the sleeper hold
Not a role model, I walk a hard road to follow
I sold bottles of sorrow then chose poems and novels
The gospel was told, some souls it swallowed whole
Mentally they fold, and they eventually sold
Their life and times, deadly like the virus design
But too minute to dilute the scientist mind

[Inspectah Deck (Masta Killa) {Both}:]
You can't party your life away, (drink your life away)
Smoke your life away, (fuck your life away)
Dream your life away, (scheme your life away)
{'Cause your seeds grow up the same way}

[Masta Killa:]
A voice cries from the wilderness of the North
A representation of the families that lost one
All victims of incarceration
Or other divisions of the family structure
Youths are injected with serums that leads to skin irritations
Babies being born with disfigurations, experimentations
On their faces, there bear worry-ations
Of mothers that carry the pain
Of blood stained streets where sisters mourn and wail
Fifth brothers been slain from hails of gun fire
It lightly begins to rain
Screams of terror are hidden by the passing trains
This can't be little Hussein
His uncle cries as he drops to his nephew's side, holding his cane
Just give me a name
Of who has inflicted this bitter sickness, and left us to witness

[U-God:]
Yo, curses from war, innocent blood spills for days
Soothe in godly ways, hands, solemn in praise
Tree of life, more precious than rubies, golden game
The wise shall flourish inherit, Halls of Fame
Crime visions in my blood got me locked in prison
While we die, hard-living people whine about religion, vision
Blow, spin, and sin and killing what's revealing
It's a never ending battle with no ending or beginning, listen
Zero process, progress, become the hunted
America's most wanted, good life, flaunt it, want it
Some love the speed, some satisfy a need
Some wanna be down, young gun seed, jungle breed
The strong must feed, someone die, someone bleed
One flew astray, and it caught my little seed
Can it be? The ice savage, trife life, made me grab the knife
The righteous man was beat with many stripes, pipes
Take in my energy, breath and know the rest
'Cause the good die young and the hard die best

[Inspectah Deck (Masta Killa) {Both}:]
You can't party your life away, (drink your life away)
Smoke your life away, (fuck your life away)
Dream your life away, (scheme your life away)
{'Cause your seeds grow up the same way}
{'Cause your seeds grow up the same way}
{'Cause your seeds grow up the same way}

[RZA:]
Y'all bitches love dances, and pulling down your pants
While your man's on tour, your spending up his advances
Your friends ain't shit, all they do is drink, smoke, and suck dick
The whole projects is trapped in six
You either high school drop-outs, one to three cop-outs
Fifteen years old, shorty ass and top out
Ninety-nine cent beer drinking, pussy stinking
Fucking so much, your ass and titties start shrinking
New World Order slave trade, minimum wage, Medicaid
Can a devil fool a Muslim nowadays?
Inside my lab, I'm going mad
Took two drags off the blunts, and started breaking down the flag
The blue is for the Crips, the red is for the Bloods
The white's for the cops, and the stars come from the clubs
Or the slugs that ignites through the night, by the dawn early light
Why is sons fighting for the stripe?

[Method Man:]
As we dwell through this concrete hell, calling it home
Mama say, "Take your time, young man, and build your own
Don't wind up like your old dad
Still searching for them glory days he never had"
So many bad want to scheme for American dream, no more kings
The cash rule everything now, we going down
These babies looking up to us, it's up to us
The Million Man March MC's, get on the bus
But envy, greed, lust and hate separate
Though the devil mind state blood kin cannot relate
No longer brothers, we unstable
Like Cain when he slew Abel, killing each other

[Inspectah Deck (Masta Killa) {Both}:]
You can't party your life away, (drink your life away)
Smoke your life away, (fuck your life away)
Dream your life away, (scheme your life away)
{'Cause your seeds grow up the same way}
{'Cause your seeds grow up the same way}
{'Cause your seeds grow up the same way}