You know, sometimes in life,
we try our best.
But no matter how hard we try,
things still go wrong.
But don't be discouraged.
If it's meant to happen,
it's gonna happen.
It's of a higher order, a higher design,
a divine design.
Divine design,
design's the rhyme.
My brother standing on the corner,
straight stranded in time.
Kids' favorite
MC's making records
that perpetuate crime.
Babies is having babies,
stick up kids is going crazy
Stray dogs is in the street,
watch that one he got the rabies
Had to knock this nigga out
because he tried to play me
No phone in my home dawg,
what the fuck you looking at?
Shot came on her prison
and quickly we laxed
Black on blacks,
got that nigga for his chain on the train
The shots wasn't fatal but they
damaged his brain
Cocaine numbed the pain like
Nova
I'm a do it for
Za di and now it's all over
Champagne wishes on a four -leaf clover
Living up in the hood
and pushing the
Range
Rover
Shorty bootylicious,
but you pay for her affection
Pimpin' told her this,
we'll get her up out of the 8th section
Nana in church, celebrating
Christ's resurrection
Poogie shot too much dope, he got that
HIV infection
Cops serve and protect them,
for us it's no protection
Guns and drugs and unnatural selection
I miss all this, brothers think it's still all good I guess they
just caught up in the hood
Divine design protects the blind
The twin towers fallin' down,
another sign of the times
The masses embracing ideas
that confine the mind
Little girls think they grown ladies,
what have you done for me lately?
Alcoholics in the street,
watch that one, I think he crazy
Had to bust off my gun
cause shorty tried to blaze me
Little kids on my block wildin' out
because they lack the fact
Ray got 5 to 10 for selling
DT crack
The dope man stacks,
don't hate the player, hate the game
Feds harass drug dealers
while terrorists hijack planes
Maintain hard times, it's almost over
In summer heat,
make the streets explode like supernovas
Battle scars, tattooed street soldiers
The pen make heathen
men seek a law or
Jehovah
Son's mad thugged out,
prime candidate for correction
Leaving seeds with no dad,
he rocks no hats when he sexin'
When he get that life term,
somebody test him
Solitary confinement is too
late for reflection
Cops serve and protect them,
for us there's no protection
Guns and drugs and unnatural selection
A missile list, brothers think it's still all good
I guess they just caught up in the hood
The way you rap has blown my mind
The way you rap has
blown my mind
Divine design assures that I shine
The truth a double -edged sword
that can sever your spine
My mental sprayed like a
map before I clap like a nine
The young black man's angry,
ain't no ifs, ands, and maybes
85s is in the street,
runnin' round in mental slavery
Got beef with the beast,
he always tryna lace me
Popo all up in the hood like a gang,
what the fuck is that?
So -called crooks get shot in they back
Fake niggas react, but make they move
Just for fame, from activist
To politician, humane
The tongue, they speak when sober
Power drunk,
they wicked like the last day in
October
Snakes in the grass,
here comes the lawnmower
Pork chops, crack and piss
What a terrible odor,
John's holly barn
Got the complexion for
the connection
Where I come from,
youth grow up day to day with no direction
Cops serve and protect them,
for us
There's no protection,
guns and drugs
And unnatural selection, a missile
Brothers think it's still all good,
I guess they just caught up in the hood
you
Jeru The Damaja 
