Around My Way

[Hook x2: John Legend]

Around my way...

Around my way...

All the corners filled with sorrow

All the streets are filled with pain

Around my way...

[Verse 1: Talib Kweli]

People let me paint a picture

You know I ain't a Christian

I ain't a Muslim, ain't a Jew

I'm losing my religion

I speak to god directly

I know my god respect me

Cause he let me breathe his air and he really blessed me

I ain't knocking you, but I don't fuck with hospitals

Spit the gospel, truly knowing jesus like apostles do

Return like the prodigal son to honor Mohammed too

Stay away from ham like Abraham, Lord I follow you

Even when you took my man Chaka God and what I'm a do

You gave the hood a modern day martyr in Brother Amadou

I'm on the block, I'm tracing your footsteps, I keep the faith in you

Your love, plus hard work and ambition

We gonna make it through, my songs is psalms I'm spiritual when I'm lyrical

This is for my soldier niggas looking in the mirror who

Sitting home scratching off serials eating cereal

The way we find a way to survive, shit is a miracle

We got mice in the crib and roaches in the toasters, rice in the fridge

Bread in the oven by the roaster

We be takin' gypsy cabs and chasin' 50 bags

They be laced with shitty swag and it really get me mad

The way we saluting flags, wrapping them around our heads

When niggas ain't become American till 9/11

Feeling like you gotta sneak into heaven

When the reverend looking like a pimp and the pimp look like the reverend

[Hook: John Legend]

[Verse 2: Talib kweli]

These conditions make us strong

And we create our own businesses so later on

Our children have things in their name that they can say they own

A mix tape freestyle become your favorite song

No place like home when the cops ask you about your neighbors

Beat on you, threaten to incarcerate you

Till you spill your guts like you a Garcia Vega

We roll blunts not the papers

Cop the greatest take it coast to coast

L.A. to Chicago like Smooth Operators

Cop the Dro and cop the blacks

Cop the four, cock it back

Drop the flow, rock a hat on top a stocking cap

Be a doctor or a lawyer or make your momma a promise that

You'll finish school, but when you got a dream you gotta follow that

And make sure when you make it out the hood, you always holler back

Think about what you got from that

And always put your dollars back

On top of that, this is a legacy and we a part of that

The hood is where my heart is at

Catch me around my way

[Hook x2: John Legend]