(Intro – Kendrick Lamar)
Life in the city, life in the city
Oakland, California, complicated for ya
But we survive
Only the strongest survive
Life, life in the city
In the city and ni**a’s tryna survive
Only the strongest survive
(Verse 1 – Kendrick Lamar)
You ever been a victim of being a prisoner inside your own mind?
The bright lights of the street lights will make you go blind
Handicap your senses, you was just an apprentice of watching ni**as jump fences
Now you in the Olympics and your hurdle was high enough to clear the tallest of clothes lines
Talented when they closing in on your behind
Life of a young delinquent even stole him a Lincoln
At fifteen, middle fingers walked out the precinct
I mean the cycle just continue
The vital information and fine print on the menu
So you’lla never read it even if a ni**a lend you
Money out my own pocket, to make it right
You’ll still attend to
Be on them corners with stop signs and a nine
Cause nine times out of ten, MAC 11’s cry
And twelve died yesterday and if anyone divides
The six that carried you eventually lose they lives
True story
(Chorus – Kobe Honeycutt)
When the night falls anything can happen
We just pray we make it out alive
We all wanna make it to the top one day
Success is a street only going one way
But we all wanna make it
Just try your best to survive
(Verse 2 – Mistah F.A.B)
You all wanna see a dead body?
Well, follow me across the train tracks
Where angry and insane Blacks
They slang crack
Candles burn where they were slain at
And bottles get poured where they would hang at
Close, I give you truth in this essence
Dead homies added to swears when truth is in question
Like Man I think he lying or he put that on someone
If I known you ten years, got the right to say we cousins
I’m from the city of broken homes, and often I was home alone
And momma started smoking cause daddy was scared to smoke alone
Section 8 policies, Top Ramen and sunflower seeds
June got kill’t cause he ain’t wanna lose his Wallaby’s
Constant atrocities, no one is safe
There’s no religion that can save you, say goodbye to your faith
Whether you Muslim or a Christian, Baptist, Jewish or Adventist, Atheist or non-religious
Put survival on your wishlist
Cause
(Repeat Chorus)
(Verse 3 – KXNG CROOKED)
You walked in the apartment and saw your father on the carpet
With a belt wrapped around his arm and a scarf under his armpit
And a needle shoved in his bicep
Earlier this morning you warned him
His addict habits are something you couldn’t digest
You cry saying I just…Don’t wanna see you die
Now you tryna dissect the fact that he hasn’t opened his eyes yet
You collapsed on his body and you started thinking
I could perform CPR, jump start his heart if it’s beating
But his pulse started to weaken
His cardio region depleting as you given him part of your breathing
He dead and gone and you had a bad feeling when you was heading home
Now it’s etched in stone, you’ve been left alone
So you grabbed his chrome gun, handle all pearl, aw nah girl
Put it to your head, thinking, f**k everybody like a call girl in a small world
Then pulled back but it didn’t clap…damn
(Repeat Chorus)
