Momma Don't Cry

[Chorus: Jaheim] Mama, don't cry for me Papa, don't feel bad Code in the streets that they gotta keep You bang so they bang back Our city, our ghetto, our boroughs So merrily, it's all we had [Verse 1: Jaheim] Mama, I know you're listening We hope our prayers we get up to heaven If we fall, we are not forgotten Don't let our little brothers end up like we did Let 'em grow up and get a job Don't let 'em grow up behind bars, tryna be hard Or oh and Father [?] my feet ([?] his feet) [?] the wrong color on the wrong street with no heat Rocking Dickie's and checkers, bandanas, my brothers Hate them or love them, they still got each other They twist their hands up, and pull their pants up Walk this way, throw your flag and your set up [Verse 2: Jay Rock] I came up in the ghetto where it's complete chaos Gang injunction had them boys sic'ing off the canines Product of my environment, violence had my people rioting We was doing 50/50 on the same odds On the porch with a red rag getting my hair cut Finished, jeans sagging, mama yelled "Pull your pants up" She knew I was born in it like a placenta Prays for me, but lord knows Rock is a sinner Rally through other neighborhoods reppin' my section My mouth cuss words, my palm clutching a western The streets turned a nigga out, before I was 12 Serving junkies, me and the homies had phone over cells Banged out like a motherfucker City of angels, but every corner the devil hug us, for real though It's cutthroat but I bleed the block till I be the block in a hearse I put that on my pops, you feel me [Chorus: Jaheim] Mama, don't cry for me Papa, don't feel bad Code in the streets that they gotta keep You bang so they bang back Our city, our ghetto, our boroughs So merrily, it's all we had Gotta cook beef or you can't eat And that's why they fly their flags [Verse 3: Jay Rock] Look, I do this for my niggas up state We're down for the hood, for the hood's sake And if I had the master key to open up them gates Then I would tell the warden that his plans was aborted They say incarceration supposed to make the hood safer They protect the neighborhood, then that's out of order They tryna take our soldiers, make servants out of daughters Call us rabbits to degrade us, that ain't right, we authors And that would mean my album was novel And the realest state of mind when I address the problems I'm no James Baldwin, I'm just saying I been praying, you got God's number? Somebody call him From [?] to New Orleans Concrete rose like a florist on Florence and [?] speech What up Mr. Shakur? I'm still thugging under surveillance confined by the law But they can't see me [Chorus: Jaheim] Mama, don't cry for me Papa, don't feel bad Code in the streets that they gotta keep You bang so they bang back Our city, our ghetto, our boroughs So merrily, it's all we had Gotta cook beef or you can't eat And that's why they fly their flags [Verse 4: Jay Rock] So I'm draped in my colors, spilling blood on the cement Smoking kush, high flying kites til the present Middle finger up as I ride in a fleet with The nine tucked, leave a coward stuck like leeches I swear on my unborn son I'm indecent Blame it on where I grew up on some street shit It's way too graphic for you to grasp it National Geographic couldn't capture it Turn my baseball cap to the back See I'm an activist, in fact the Black Panther of rap Fist up like I'm on the monkey bars when I held the bars Put the message in the jar then I left it by the shore That's a metaphor, did you catch it? Wasn't sure, too busy coming up with more The streets is a motherfucker, corrupt and all I say that to say this, walking out a door [Chorus: Jaheim] Mama, don't cry for me Papa, don't feel bad Code in the streets that they gotta keep You bang so they bang back Our city, our ghetto, our boroughs So merrily, it's all we had Gotta cook beef or you can't eat And that's why they fly their flags Mama, don't cry for me Papa, don't feel bad Code in the streets that they gotta keep You bang so they bang back Our city, our ghetto, our boroughs So merrily, it's all we had Gotta cook beef or you can't eat And that's why they fly their flags