[Intro]
Just put the headphones on
This sounds so nice
By the grace of God

[Verse 1: Joell Ortiz]
We all crabs in a barrel
Just chose to do my climbin' in barbed wire ankles
I was winnin’ half the battle
I'm from where the worst thing you could ever do is tattle
They'll zip your mouth shut, then zip you up and skidaddle
I used to walk through the P’s and jump from my own shadow
The mountain bike n***as'll clap you
You try to haggle for that chain or that bracelet
Or that watch or that ring
It's off the chain, brace yourself and watch out when it ring
Gum wrappers in my mouth folded up like fronts
I even took them shits out when I rolled up my blunts
I wanted to be like the dealers, feared like the killers
Fresh like the booster's attitude with the dealers
N***as ask me where I'm from and I'd say Brooklyn, proud
Wore my Timbs all year round and my kush was loud
And the police, they did the same shit y'all seein' now
Except camera phones wasn’t out

[Chorus: scratched and mixed]
By the grace of god
By the grace of god
By the grace of god
[Verse 2]
I’m just a product of where the young'ens move product
We all believe in God, but we look up to the shottas
Iron in my Goose, test my pride, I let it loose
There’s Boyz In Tha Hood that watch Menace II Society and Juice
I never wanted to go that route
I felt like Cuba in the car without the heart
To tell Dough to let me out
Hope God don't judge me when he judge me
The Devil work pretty damn hard to make it ugly
Know every thing that glitter ain't gold but, man
That ice made all that glitter look cold
Thought I was playin' without that flicker, that glow
Now that I’m wise I realize that all I did was hide
Long as they starin' at that chain
They gon' look inside my eyes and see the pain
See the hurt, see the person I disguise
Can't write about it all if there's no words that could describe
The images in my head that visit me in my bed
If I don't talk to the Lord, man, spiritually I be dead

[Chorus: scratched and mixed]
By the grace of god
By the grace of god
By the grace of god
[Outro]
By the grace of God, I escaped that place by the skin of my teeth
I'm here though
Still here though