Young Gifted And Black

[Intro]

And out of the mercy of Allah and the lord written in our nature

We call an individual into existence and when that individual comes

I make no apologies for what I'm about to do<a class="footnote"

href="#1">[1]</a>

[Jay-Z]

I'm America's worst nightmare

I'm young black and holding my nuts like shh-yeah

Y'all was in the pub having a light beer

I was at the club having a fight there<a class="footnote" href="#2">[2]</a>

Y'all can go home

Husband and wife there

My momma at work trying to buy me the right gear<a

class="footnote" href="#3">[3]</a>

Nine years old uncle lost his life there

Grew up thinking life ain't fair

How can I get a real job

China white right there

Right in front of my sight like here,

yeah<a class="footnote" href="#4">[4]</a>

There's your ticket out the ghetto

Take flight right here

Sell me, you go bye-bye here yeah<a class="footnote" href="#5">[5]</a>

Damn there's a different set of rules we abide by here

You need a gun n*ggas might drive by here

You're having fun racing all your hot rods there

Downloading all our music on your iPods there

I'm Chuck D standing in the crosshairs here<a class="footnote"

href="#6">[6]</a>

Y'all straight, chicks got horsehair here<a class="footnote"

href="#7">[7]</a>

You ain't gotta be in fear of your bosses there

Y'all lose your job, your pop's rich,

y'all don't care<a class="footnote" href="#8">[8]</a>

So I don't care, y'all acting like y'all don't hear

Hear all the screams from the ghetto all the teens

ducking metal here<a class="footnote" href="#9">[9]</a>

Trying to take they mind to a whole different level here

Yeah, we're real close to the devil here<a class="footnote"

href="#10">[10]</a>

There gotta be a better way. Somebody call the reverend here

Yeah, y'all must really be in Heaven there

Somebody tell God that we got a couple questions here

My little cuz never got to see his seventh year<a class="footnote"

href="#11">[11]</a>

And I'm so used to pain that I ain't even shed a tear