[Chorus: Emily]
~#**************#~
I see people hating other people
~#**************#~
Tell me whats the reason
~#**************#~
That your kid is hungry, you aint got no money
~#**************#~
Whats the reason?
~#**************#~
[Verse 1: Nas]
~#**************#~
By the time of age nine Im already decidin
~#**************#~
If I can protect mommy from the hood by fightin
~#**************#~
Or usin a knife, or a gun when Im twenty-one
~#**************#~
By then them hoods woulda pushed their way in our apartment
~#**************#~
And wed die then, so I been a young nervous wreck in the projects
~#**************#~
Watchin them older niggas pass pot and get high, man
~#**************#~
Im just a young boy, snot nose, hair nappy
~#**************#~
Cops ride by, squeezin their trigger fingers at me
~#**************#~
So I would go to school and try to get good grades
~#**************#~
Teacher wrote mommy and kicked me outta school for havin braids
~#**************#~
So she cussed them, said “My son aint no motherfuckin hoodlum”
~#**************#~
They judged us, thinking that we dumb cause where we come from
~#**************#~
Got a little older and now I see
~#**************#~
Young niggas wanted by the powers that be (powers that be)
~#**************#~
[Hook: Emily]
~#**************#~
I see people hating other people
~#**************#~
Tell me whats the reason
~#**************#~
That your kid is hungry, you aint got no money
~#**************#~
Whats the reason?
~#**************#~
For these wars were fighting with each other
~#**************#~
Season after season
~#**************#~
When youre workin hard, but there aint nothing comin
~#**************#~
Whats the reason?
~#**************#~
[Verse 2: Nas]
~#**************#~
Uh, picture a Black nanny and a baby in a basket, pushin down 5th Ave
~#**************#~
She never had it, its not hers to begin with
~#**************#~
She gives it breakfast, baths, and dinners
~#**************#~
Treats it so tender, while her own kids live alone, at home, with no phone on
~#**************#~
Aint had a good meal in so long, but so long as mommys a maid
~#**************#~
Cookin and cleanin, she wanna feed her kids and her kids are dreamin
~#**************#~
“Wheres my daddy? Whos my daddy? Have you seen him?”
~#**************#~
I could imagine them asking – “What type of human being
~#**************#~
Could leave his family, go back to the Carribean?
~#**************#~
Was he locked up, shot up, does he have freedom?”
~#**************#~
Mom said wipe your tears, keep readin
~#**************#~
But Daddys somewhere, spirit broken, feelin defeated
~#**************#~
A man feels he has to conquer all
~#**************#~
The world is his oyster, his pearl, so yall know
~#**************#~
[Hook: Emily]
~#**************#~
I cant find no reason why we cant all live in peace
~#**************#~
‘Cause this world keeps spinning
~#**************#~
Tet still I wonder, whats the reason?
~#**************#~
I see people hating other people
~#**************#~
Tell me, whats the reason?
~#**************#~
When youre workin hard but there aint nothin comin
~#**************#~
Whats the reason?
~#**************#~
Oooh-whoa-ooh-whoa
~#**************#~
[Verse 3: Nas]
~#**************#~
I know a girl, her boyfriend was a fugitive
~#**************#~
Shes intuitive, be on some stupid shit
~#**************#~
She called the cops cause she hated his mother
~#**************#~
Now he away doin numbers, now she gay with her lover
~#**************#~
How many niggas gon die this summer?
~#**************#~
I pump life in my music, but still life is a wonder
~#**************#~
Theres a officer in a squad car, hes a prostitute serial killer
~#**************#~
Its odd, huh? ‘Cause hes the same cop in church with his wife
~#**************#~
Hes molesting his son and she ignores it at night
~#**************#~
Little bad ass bastard
~#**************#~
Lights a match and kills Betty Shabazz
~#**************#~
In her pad while she slept
~#**************#~
They said Prescott Bush funded Hitler, while the worlds in a twister
~#**************#~
Nigga, what you expect? Imagine whats next
~#**************#~
[Hook: Emily]
~#**************#~
[Outro: Nas, talking over Emily King harmonizing]
~#**************#~
Uh, uh, man–manll search the whole planet, looking for what?
~#**************#~
Try to conquer all. So what?
~#**************#~
To all my niggas with they kids, that love they kids, man
~#**************#~
All the daddies out there
~#**************#~
To all the niggas that died tryna figure out whats what
~#**************#~
Tryna be the biggest of the big, you know
~#**************#~
Yeah, yeah… ladies forgive us. Gotta forgive us
~#**************#~
For we know not what we do
~#**************#~
Breakin hearts, leavin the crib, buggin out and shit
~#**************#~
Just… man… man
