Bm
Streets, streets
       Bm
Livin' in the streets

[Verse 1: will.i.am]
Bm
 Street livin', caught in the trap
Bm
 Guns or books, sell crack or rap
Bm
 Be like kings or be like pawns
       Bm
 They called us coons, now they call us cons
Bm
 Street niggas be packing pistols
Bm
 Terrorists be blasting missiles
Bm
 Crips and Bloods and retail thugs
 Bm
 CIA planes bring Colombian drugs in
N.C.
Don't push me 'cause I'm close to hell
N.C.
The teachers in my neighborhood can hardly spell
N.C.
And compare to them, prison guards get paid well
N.C.
Ten years no bail is 4 years at Yale
N.C.
So, forget about the statue of General Lee
N.C.
Because the status of blacks are generally
N.C.
Gonna end up in some penitentiary
N.C.
Systematically, that's how they made it to be
         Bm
Listen, they derailed the soul train
     Bm
And put a nightmare in every Martin Luther King
      Bm
And privatized prisons are owned by the same
  Bm
Slave masters that owned the slave trade game
     Bm
And racists no longer have to be racist
        Bm
'Cause niggas kill more niggas than the KKK did
Bm
 Now, every time I hear a new def jam
N.C.
Niggas killing niggas like they Ku Klux Klan
N.C.
I understand what's a nigga to choose?
N.C.
Be the killer or be the dead dude in the news
N.C.
I get it, what's a nigga to do?
N.C.
No education in the hood got a nigga confused

[Verse 2: apl.de.ap]
Bm
 Street livin', tough conditions
Bm
 Brainwashed by the television
Bm
 We lost in the world we live in
  Bm
 Double cross love lost no religion
Bm
 Street livin', oh my gosh
   Bm
 Another brother got shot by the searg'
   Bm
 Another cop got off with no charge
 Bm
 If you black in the hood, you at large
Bm
You're guilty until you prove you're innocent
    Bm
If you're ivory, they treat you different
    Bm
If you're ebony, they assume your temperament
      Bm
Will be vigilant and they call you militant
     Bm
And you'll get shot and they'll say the incident
     Bm
Is 'cause you're belligerent, what a coincidence?
Bm
 Born and bred but you're still an immigrant
N.C.
 And if you ain't dead, you can see imprisonment

[Chorus: will.i.am]
Bm
 There's more niggas in the prisons than there ever was slaves cotton picking
Bm
 There's more niggas that's rotting in the prisons than there ever was slaves cotton picking
Bm
 So, how we gon' get up out the trap?
Bm
 Guns or books, sell crack or rap
Bm
 Street livin', hustle or hoops
Bm
 Guns or books, get shot or shoot

[Verse 3: Taboo]
Bm
 Street livin', ain't no rules
Bm
 Break the law, make the breakin' news
Bm
 The life you choose could be the life you lose
Bm
 Niggas getting stuck for the Nike shoes
Bm
 Street livin', ain't no joke
Bm
 It's a cold world, better bring your coat
Bm
 Revoke 'cause the streets are broke
      Bm
 And now they wanna take away our dreams and hopes
Bm
 Street livin', no economics
  Bm
 No way out of the Reaganomics
    Bm
 Infected by the black plague, new bubonic
  Bm
 No comprende, we speak ebonics
Bm
 Street livin', what's your position?
 Bm
 You can take action or take a dick and listen
     Bm
 You can get fucked by the system
Bm
 Or you can say "fuck the system"