[Verse 1:]
He say, man on the street, why can't you stand on your feet? Brother man, how could you sleep on the train?
He say it's better than the cold, bro, I used to lay bricks, and started playing where nobody should play
I ain't awaken one day and say it's better this way, I don't need your sympathy or your change
You lay the second brick crooked and look, the next will reflect it. Yes, indeed, he took my cents anyway
He say, it's how before the why, like that tower to the sky, with mans pride that had us lost in ourselves
Cause ain't no power to the I with the clouds in our minds, it ain't the how, it's why I'm locked in this hell
I built this shit with my hands out of sand and brillo pads, sit and wish for helter skelter to end
He said, be wise where you ride, then closed his eyes and just smiled, I get high with a little help from my friends
I felt tense when I heard it, like he could sense I was working, started hurting like a sweat on my brain
Man, I ain't asked for this script, I just mastered this shit, just then some little shorty stepped on the train
They wasn't stressing, just playing, though they was wet from the rain, but what he said was lead and sand on my mind
I lost my pops to these rocks and got a mom block, and I'll be damned if that's the spot that she dies
If I gotta climb these rocks to the sky so I can watch when God cries, you think He cried when we were starving, pops gone?
He answered not a reply, his arm just flopped to his side, a little piece of something dropped from his palm
His change clanged to the floor, the shorties playing no more, just standing like they could sense shit was wrong
My eyes locked with a child's, as I rocked to the aisle, I reached to peep it was a flick in his palm
I coulda died where I sat and spat you lie at that cat, you ain't nobody, but he wouldn't respond
A black and white of my crib, a Christmas tree in the back, and nobody standing there with my mom