Restrictions

Life has uh, you know, seems like it has its ups and downs

And it hasn't been like I had planned for it to be, you know?

Yeah, somewhere, you know I got on the wrong track

And uh, fell into that gutter and like I been tryin' to get out of that

For the longest and I think the environment has a lot to do with

With keepin' a man down, you know?

Outside I must go

Where I'm greeted by the pusher-man

Rain, sun, sleet or snow

Lord, have mercy

Outside I pass corners filled with love and hate

Mama, wish me well

And pray for my fate

From the fast woman, crime and cars

That patrol my boulevard and I'm astounded

That I grew up around this

And somehow I survived it

Lord, have

The hustlers and gangsters, I know them well

They tried to recruit me since I was 12

And I have fought it

I have fought it

You know nothing 'bout these projects

And the people that come up out of it

Yeah

It's your restrictions

That create this jurisdiction

If you're not willing to fix them

Don't go judging our conditions

There's no economic balance

Disadvantage is our challenge

Don't you turn your back

What you look down on, you created that

Didn't ask for this environment

Inside I must go

Didn't know I was a child adult

Till I left my household

Mama worked and I had a job since I was 10

Cutting grass to make some dividends

Bagging groceries to help pay the rent

Lord, have mercy

The hustlers' game was temptin' me

But, papa, he died out in the streets

Lord knows I miss him

He's a victim of the system

A real job, he couldn't get them

No, no, he was arrested at 17

Once you're in the system you can't get clean

It's hard to manage

When you're caught inside the gambit

Knowin' there's no second chances

Oh

It's your restrictions

Mmm, that create a jurisdiction

If you're not willing to fix them

Don't go judging our conditions

There's no economic balance

Disadvantage is our challenge

Don't you turn your back

What you look down on, you created that

Didn't ask for this environment

No, no

Lord, have mercy

Lord, have mercy on us, my

Lord, have mercy

Yeah

How am I supposed to survive

Off eleven dollars an hour?

Yeah, mmm

The fact that a decision was made

And outlined in great detail

A great plan of how to destroy the black youth of the nation

The decision was to concentrate the distribution of drugs

On the black youth of the nation, beginning in elementary school

Of New York and other large cities where it'd be divided up into

Districts, the district commander, black, was to be given any kind of

Car he wanted, Mercedes, Rolls Royce, anything

'Cause this would be part of the sales pitch

'Cause blacks just love buying cars and you drive around through the

Community in this fine car and he'll be identified, he'll be known

But that's the began, in the spread over the country

And we fell for it, now one thing was imported

That the thing to attract the blacks

More than any other thing, more than the drug itself

It happened to a number of key young people and spread the word

That this is the in thing, so that'll get her

Just say, it's the in thing

And they'll brave the fires of hell to be a part of the in thing

I been tryin' to get out that gutter for the last four years but look like it's

Something always holdin' me down