[Intro: Fredro Starr]
Just to let you know: this is recorded 9/11/2001
The day the World Trade Center blows up
Shit is real, son
Shit hit home, kid, word up
Uh, yeah, hope you can feel this, come on
[Chorus]
Hope you can feel me (Hope you can feel me)
So much pain insi-si-ide (So much pain)
Hope you can hear me (All ghetto [?])
I'm cryin' through my hea-hea-heart
[Verse 1: Fredro Starr]
When I first heard the track, it made me cry
Brought tears to my eyes and I don't even know why
My life ain't nothing, but anger and pain
But tattoos on the back of my arm should explain
Blood, sweat and tears, ten years in the game
So many times all alone with the gat to my brain
It's "Me Against the World", n***a, I feel the same
I'm "Ready to Die" too, B.I.G., I feel the same
I'm America's nightmare—young, black and rich
Man, I'm paranoid—make me wanna clap my bitch
A hundred miles an hour, wanna rap my whip
Asking God, "Shit, where we going after this?"
I'ma thug, a thug 'til heart be stop
'Til they pick me off the street n***a, murdered a shot
My wars, my words, the only thing that I got
And I live by the gun and I die by the Glock
Sixteen shots, fuck that I'm takin' 'em all
I'd rather die on my feet, then live and crawl
My gun got powers like the 48 Lords
The ghetto superstar die—see my face on the wall
And don't forget me
[Chorus]
Hope you can feel me (I hope you can feel my pain)
So much pain in-si-ide (So much pain)
Hope you can hear me (So, so-so-so much pain)
I'm cryin' through my hea-hea-heart (I'm cryin' through my heart)
[Verse 2: Sonsee]
Growin' up in Brooklyn, times was rough, cuz
Poor as we was it couldn't get no tougher
On my ave., most of us was not blood
But as kids we shared that block love
But that faded, when my brother's got arrested
They thugged on the block to hard, we was ejected
To the creator: was it you that made moms pick Queens?
So her baby son could race the world, when he created things?
Why her elders always heard the sounds of sirens?
(So much pain)
Plus they ignored the divine guidance
Why was the time I was born 9/16?
Turn it upside down—it's the same thing
Why do I have a M-16, and the 9?
Will I have to go out, blazing one at a time?
When you took moms baby carriage, in the early stage
Was he too ill for this world, and you made a mistake?
Did he come back as me, to do something great?
To keep the fam strong and straight, help my brother's escape?
And have baby sis and us living on an estate
Do it big or die tryin'—is that my fate? (Oh, oh, oh)
[Chorus]
Hope you can feel me (Hope you can feel me)
So much pain insi-si-ide (So much pain)
Hope you can hear me (Oh, oh, oh)
I'm cryin' through my hea-hea-heart ([?] life)
[Verse 3: Sticky Fingaz]
Who really cares, what the world think about me?
If I die right now, is you comin' with me?
When I'm broke, who the hell got money for me?
Can't even trust half the team runnin' with me
I only know three people that'd kill for me
Break the 6th commandment, make blood spill for me
Life and death—the only thing that's real for me
'Cause I was born into the world with a guilty plea
Now shit hit the fan, is you ridin' with me?
When the whole world watchin', "All Eyez on Me"
Swear on a stack of Bibles, testify for me
Look the judge dead in the face and lie for me
If I go to prison, who gon do my time for me?
Start the revolution, get the chair, fry with me
Go out in a blaze of glory, guns to the sky with me
I'm all alone in this world—"All I Got Iz Me"
[Chorus]
Hope you can feel me (Hope you can feel me)
So much pain insi-si-ide (So much pain)
Hope you can hear me (Oh, oh, oh)
I'm cryin' through my hea-hea-heart
Hope you can feel me (I hope you can feel my pain)
So much pain insi-si-ide (So much pain)
Hope you can hear me (So, so-so-so much pain)
I'm cryin' through my heart (I'm cryin' through my heart)
Hope you can feel me (Hope you can feel me)
So much pain insi-si-ide (So much pain)
Hope you can hear me (Oh, oh, oh)
I'm cryin' through my hea-hea-heart
Hope you can feel me— me— me—