Artist/Band:
Ice-T
Lyrics for Song: The Tower
Lyrics for Album: O.G. Original Gangster
(Eerie, 'Exorcist' style chilling intro, leading to...)
IÂ’m rollinÂ’ up in a big grey bus
And IÂ’m shackled down, myself thatÂ’s who I trust
The minute I arrived some sucker got hit
Shanked 10 times behind some bullshit
Word on the pen the fool was a snitch
So without hesitatinÂ’ I made a weapon quick
Found a sharp piece of metal taped it to a stick
Then the bullhorn sounds that means itÂ’s time to chow
My first prison meal the whole feelinÂ’ was foul
It wasnÂ’t quite my style but my stomach growled
So I washed the shit down and hit the weight pile
The brothers was swole, their attitude was cold
I felt the tension on the yard from the young and the old
But IÂ’m a warrior, I got my ground to hold
So I studied the inmates to see who had the power
The whites, the blacks or just the gun tower.
Voice over of inmate describing the ‘daddy’ inmates
In the blink of an eye a riot broke out
Blacks put their backs to the wall ‘cos it was North an South
Somebody shouts and everybody had doubts
Then the bullets started flippinÂ’, took two men out
Then they rushed everybody back to their cells
Damn the pen is different from the county jail
IÂ’m in a one man cell, I know my lifeÂ’s on the scale
I wonder if that gunman is goinÂ’ to hell
This is my second day, IÂ’m on a ten year stay
I learnt my first lesson; in the pen you donÂ’t play
I saw a brother kill another ‘cos they said he was gay
But thatÂ’s the way it is, been that way for years
When his body hit the ground I heard a couple of cheers
It kinda hurt me inside that they were glad he died
And I asked myself just who had the power
The whites, the blacks or just the gun tower.
More inmate voice overs about the screws and the guv'nor
You see the whites got a thing they call white pride
Blacks got the muscle, Mexicans got the knives
You gotta be wise ya wanna stay alive
Go toe to toe with a sucker no matter what size.
A fool tried to sweat me acting like he was hard
I stuck him twice in the neck and left him dead in the yard
It was smooth how I did it ‘cos nobody could see
With my jacket on my arm and my knife on the side of me
Bam-Bam it was over, another fool bites the dust
I went crazy in the pen with nobody to trust
IÂ’m benchinÂ’ 10 quarters so IÂ’m hard to sweat
Use my tat gun to engrave my set.
They call me a lifer ‘cos I’m good as dead
I live in the hole so the floor is my bed
And I ask myself again who had the power
The whites, the blacks or just the gun tower.
Final inmate voiceover, concludes;
“Man, the wardens was all over us, it was all goin’ down
Tension was all over, I could definitely feel that.
Then they took us out, moved us over to the other yard
Where there was more drama
The warnin’ shot was a hit”
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