Role Model gives another preview of 'Chuck Timely & The Hourglass' with 'Joy'•
Erin LeCount is hosting a free songwriting and production masterclass at Abbey Road•
Nia Archives has recruited Jorja Smith for her new single 'Get Me Down'•
The Linda Lindas' next album is called 'GOTTA GET OUT', and Hayley Williams is on the new single
•
Nell Mescal has released new single 'Settles' ahead of an intimate London pop-up show•
Jacob Alon has announced 'Live From The Roundhouse' and shared a cover of Nirvana's 'All Apologies'•
Frost Children have released their new EP 'Tweaker Poem' and shared a video for 'Creep'•
The Last Dinner Party have shared 'Knocking At The Sky' and its Hollywood-inspired video•
Lucy Dacus celebrates Richmond in her self-directed ‘Planting Tomatoes’ video•
Alessi Rose has shared vulnerable new single 'Dependent' ahead of her summer festival run•
KATSEYE are bringing new film 'WILD HEARTS' to cinemas worldwide•
Little Grandad have shared new 1940s-inspired single ‘Babe, We’ve Run Out Of Time’ and announced their biggest London headline show yet•
Gilla Band have announced their new album ‘Pugnello’ and two intimate UK shows•
Violet Grohl has upgraded her Manchester show and added a new Brighton date•
Beyoncé is celebrating 'B'Day' with her first new song in two years, ‘Morning Dew (Donk)’•
Audrey Hobert has unveiled a new video for 'Sex and the City' as she begins her headline tour•
The Dork 2025 Readers' Poll nominations are in, featuring CMAT, Turnstile, Wolf Alice, Djo, Hayley Williams and loads more•
flowerovlove has released her first-ever first Christmas track, 'wishlist'•
Mighty Hoopla and Olly Alexander have announced Trans Mission, a concert for trans solidarity•
JADE has announced a deluxe edition of her debut album, 'THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! THE ENCORE'•
Role Model gives another preview of 'Chuck Timely & The Hourglass' with 'Joy'•
Erin LeCount is hosting a free songwriting and production masterclass at Abbey Road•
Nia Archives has recruited Jorja Smith for her new single 'Get Me Down'•
The Linda Lindas' next album is called 'GOTTA GET OUT', and Hayley Williams is on the new single•
Nell Mescal has released new single 'Settles' ahead of an intimate London pop-up show•
Jacob Alon has announced 'Live From The Roundhouse' and shared a cover of Nirvana's 'All Apologies'•
Frost Children have released their new EP 'Tweaker Poem' and shared a video for 'Creep'•
The Last Dinner Party have shared 'Knocking At The Sky' and its Hollywood-inspired video•
Lucy Dacus celebrates Richmond in her self-directed ‘Planting Tomatoes’ video•
Alessi Rose has shared vulnerable new single 'Dependent' ahead of her summer festival run•
KATSEYE are bringing new film 'WILD HEARTS' to cinemas worldwide•
Little Grandad have shared new 1940s-inspired single ‘Babe, We’ve Run Out Of Time’ and announced their biggest London headline show yet•
Gilla Band have announced their new album ‘Pugnello’ and two intimate UK shows•
Violet Grohl has upgraded her Manchester show and added a new Brighton date•
Beyoncé is celebrating 'B'Day' with her first new song in two years, ‘Morning Dew (Donk)’•
Audrey Hobert has unveiled a new video for 'Sex and the City' as she begins her headline tour•
The Dork 2025 Readers' Poll nominations are in, featuring CMAT, Turnstile, Wolf Alice, Djo, Hayley Williams and loads more•
flowerovlove has released her first-ever first Christmas track, 'wishlist'•
Mighty Hoopla and Olly Alexander have announced Trans Mission, a concert for trans solidarity•
JADE has announced a deluxe edition of her debut album, 'THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! THE ENCORE'•
Dork
News
Features
Reviews
Magazine
Shop
Listings
Directory
Festivals
Hype-THE BEST NEW NAMES, FIRST
Upset-DORK'S HOME FOR ALL THINGS LOUD
Festival Guides-YOUR ESSENTIAL FESTIVAL COMPANION
Hype-THE BEST NEW NAMES, FIRST
Mixtape-DORK'S BEST NEW TRACKS
Play-DORK'S NEW MUSIC FRIDAY EDIT
Upset-DORK'S HOME FOR ALL THINGS LOUD
Playlist Covers
Playlist Directory
Recommender
Before Doors-LIVE SESSIONS
Music Video Directory
Down With Boring-THE DORK PODCAST
Chart Attack-UK NUMBER ONES, DISSECTED
Dork Live
Dork Radio
Live
Live 24/7
Dork Radio
Dork
Down With Boring

Join thousands of music lovers getting the best new tracks, exclusive interviews, and breaking news delivered straight to your inbox every week.

In print now

August 2026

Latest issue variants

View archive
Dork, August 2026 (Fat Dog cover)

Fat Dog

Dork, August 2026 (Ravyn Lenae cover)

Ravyn Lenae

Dork, August 2026 (Yard Act cover)

Yard Act

Advertise
|
Support|
About Dork|
Privacy Policy|
Genres|
Years|
Sitemap|
RSS|
Cookie settings
© 2026 The Bunker Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
Powered by PlaywireAdvertise on this site.
  1. Tracks
  2. Freeway
  3. Philadelphia Freeway
  4. What We Do

TRACK

Freeway

What We Do

Release date: 4th September 2002

From Philadelphia Freeway
Spotify More on Freeway

About This Track

The lead single from Freeway's debut album, 'What We Do' pairs the Philadelphia rapper with Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel over a sample of Creative Source's 'I Just Can't See Myself Without You'. Produced by Just Blaze, the track builds its argument around survival and necessity, the hook's refrain of "even though what we do is wrong" threading through verses that refuse moral simplicity. Freeway and Jay-Z trade lines about hunger, incarceration, and the arithmetic of street life, each admission of criminality shadowed by the weight of dependents and empty cupboards. The song moves between confession and defiance. Where Freeway speaks of keeping his mother's teeth showing and her stomach full, the logic of desperation hardens into something closer to threat. Jay-Z arrives in the second verse with his own economy of motion, the verses compressed and efficient. What emerges is less a celebration of drug dealing than a portrait of its inescapability, the track's moral ambiguity left deliberately unresolved, neither condemnation nor endorsement but something closer to testimony.

"What We Do" is a track by Freeway, from the album Philadelphia Freeway, released 4th September 2002. Full lyrics are available below.

About the Artist

Freeway

Freeway

Lyrics

What We Do

[Intro: Freeway]

Man if I get rocked, this shit for my kids, nigga

It's that real shit

(Even though what we do is wrong)

[Verse 1: Freeway & Jay-Z]

We still hustle 'til the sun come up

Crack a forty when the Sun go down

It's a cold winter, y'all niggas better bundle up

And I bet it be a hotter summer, grab a onion just to rock it down

You hot now, listen up

Don't you know cops' sole purpose is to lock us down?

And throw away the key

But without this drug shit, your kids ain't got no way to eat, huh?

We still try to keep mom, smilin'

'Cause when her teeth stop showin'

And her stomach start growlin' then the heat start flowin'

If you from the hood, I know you feel me (Keep goin')

If a sneak start leaning (Uh-huh) and the heat stop workin' (Woo)

Then my heat start workin', I'ma rob me a person (Uh)

Catch a nigga sleeping (Uh) while he out in the open

And I'ma get him (Keep flowin')

We gotta raise our kids while we livin'

Make a million off a record, bail my niggas outta prison

Fuck a Bentley or a Lexus, just my boys in the squadder

Nigga talk reckless then I hit 'em with the Smith 'n

But I'm never snitching, I'm a rider

If my kids hungry, snatch the dishes out ya kitchen

I'll be wilding 'til they pick me out a line-up

(Even though what we do is wrong)

We keep the nines tucked, chop dimes up, rap about it

Wild out, fuck niggas up, laugh about it

I'm not tryna visit the morgue

But Freeway move out 'til I sit with the Lord

'Til I, get my shit together, clean up my sins

Freeway got it in like ten in the morning

And I can get it to ya like ten while you yawning, mane

(Even though what we do is wrong)

Still deliver the order, mane

And I ain't talkin' 'bout chicken and gravy, mane

I'm talking bout bricks of yayo, halves and quarters

Four and a halves of hash, you do the math

Swing past us, scoop up your daughter

She wanna roll with a thug that rap, you do the math

He gon' blast 'til my stacks in order, mane

[Verse 2: Jay-Z]

Mane, let me get 'em, Free

Hov never slacking mane, zipping in the black Range

Faster than the red ghost, getting ghost with Pac-Man

One-time know I got a knack to get that change

Leader of the black gang, R-O-C, mane

Bang like T-Mac, ski mask, air it out

Gotta kill witnesses 'cause Free's beard's sticking out

Y'all don't want to witness shit, we squeeze hammers, mane

Bullets breeze by you, like Louisiana, mane

But I gotta feed Tianna, mane

So I move keys, you can call me the Piano Man

Rain, sleet, hail, snow, mane

Slang dope, E, hydro, mane

[Verse 3: Beanie Sigel]

You, know, B. Sige' in the third lane

Gramps still praying, working on my nerves, mane

Like, "Son, you gotta get your soul clean

Before they blow them horns like Coltrane"

But still I cry tears of a hustler

Wipe tears from my mother, pour out beers for our brothers

That's above us, make beds for the babies

Tuck kids under covers, buy cribs for their mothers

Shit, I'll probably be wilding with their fathers

Tell Ms. Robert, tell Anajmah that I'm riding for her father

That's like my brother, like same mother, different father

Any problems, dog, know I got 'em

And still we grind from the bottom

Just to make it to the bottom, sold crack in the alleyways

Still gave back Marcy on Dollar Day

Real gangstas make hood holidays

They ain't thank us but we still paid homage, mane

Soul Food Sunday looking like Big Mama's, mane

Tell the gang I never break my promise, mane

Mane, uh

[Outro]

Even though what we do is wrong

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong

Even though what we do is wrong

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong

Track details

From Philadelphia Freeway

2002
Listen
Album
Philadelphia Freeway
Philadelphia Freeway
Freeway
Release year
2002
  1. —

More from Freeway

Albums & EPs

The Statik-Free EP
The Statik-Free EP
Free At Last
Free At Last
Think Free
Think Free
Philadelphia Freeway
Philadelphia Freeway
Statik-Free

Explore

More tracks by Freeway

  1. I Can Hear Sweat
  2. Black Santa
  3. BlessedThink Free
  4. Blood PressureThink Free
  5. Cocaine WhiteThink Free
  6. DJ Drama Interlude
  7. Foreign Cars AMG
  8. Painful
  9. Real OneThink Free
  10. Ringin

Showing 10 of 20

If you like Freeway

Memphis Bleek

Memphis Bleek

Beanie Sigel

Beanie Sigel

Cam'ron

Cam'ron

Jadakiss

Jadakiss

Cassidy

Cassidy

Lloyd Banks

Lloyd Banks

Lyrics provided by LRCLIB

View full lyrics page →
What We Do
  • —We Get Around
  • —Hear the Song
  • —Don't Cross the Line
  • —You Got Me
  • —Turn Out The Lights (Freewest)
  • —On My Own
  • Statik-Free
    Jungle
    Jungle
  • Real OneThink Free
  • Swagger On MayoThink Free
  • The Nation (Think Free)Think Free
  • Cocaine WhiteThink Free
  • Still in Effect (feat. Neef)
  • I Can Hear Sweat
  • Tolerated
  • The Industry
  • True
  • DJ Drama Interlude
  • Black Santa
  • Two Kings
  • View all tracks by Freeway →

    Credits

    Production & Engineering

    Writer
    Beanie Sigel, Freeway, JAŸ-Z, Just Blaze, Skip Scarborough
    Producer
    Just Blaze
    Mastering Engineer
    Tony Dawsey
    Mixing Engineer
    Young Guru
    Recording Engineer
    Young Guru
    READ MORE ABOUT FREEWAYREAD MORE ABOUT FREEWAY
    READ MORE ABOUT FREEWAYREAD MORE ABOUT FREEWAY

    No coverage available for Freeway yet.