Artist: Rakim Album: Visuals - Unreleased Studio Set EP Song: Living for the City Typed by: mchakko@bilbo.bio.purdue.edu In the city where life is animated with colors Contaminated with aggravated brothers, who knows where the love is? Growing up swinging, through my upbringing My limits is the sky from the all eye seeing Of so-called realities filled with technicalities I watch my steps, stay on my p's and check my casualties Not to get played, equipped with all the tricks of the trade I even learned from the mistakes that the next man made I know to choose and pick the people I grow up around I know to grow and get to know the town up and down But there's no instructions, so many directions A lot of crooks look to get hooked with connections Some thought they knew all adolescence could teach They graduated from school but fail life in the streets Your pops taught you to strive and stay a live, no ditty It's easy to die when you're living for the city That's how I'm living (x3) Yeah that's how I'm living That's how I'm living (x3) Yep that's how I'm living I grow according to my environmental habitat I hang where everything seem to happen at I seen it all, and I've been doing that since I was small Catch a flashback y'all, if I can recall The days on the corner we watched the world go by Or nights that wasn't right like when a good friend dies I quest for the best for prepare for the worst Never scared but I cared if I'm blessed or I'm cursed Yes I fear no man but Allah I'm Gomar Oras Dubar Which is God so It's hard to see Ra I do what I gotta do, with or without a clue Run through any obstacle including you Cause I ain't got to bust you, cause I got the muscle A push any clown that tries to slow down my hustle I gotta get by, but there's no time for pity It's easy to die when you're living for the city That's how I'm living (x3) Yeah that's how I'm living That's how I'm living (x3) Yep that's how I'm living That's how I'm living (x3) Yep that's how I'm living That's how I'm living (x3) Yeah that's how I'm living I'm in a zone everywhere I seem to roam is home A rolling stone, I hold my own just like a microphone I stay in tune, travel in harmony and set the tone Being young but I'm grown and well-known Try to take me out New York but you can't take New York out of me Cause that's the only way that I know how to be My neighbors is jealous they label us drug sellers We may be hood dwellers, we're just a bunch of goodfellas Cause we run wild with a passion, my style and my fashion Is getting, kid, I'm making cash and crashing Parties that everybody's talking about, we turn it out I'm just a native New Yorker with clout I know my way around any borough and any town I make a lot of ground and I'm hard to be found I get down to the nitty gritty, wake up with something pretty It gets me through another day living for the city That's how I'm living (x3) Yeah that's how I'm living That's how I'm living (x3) Yep that's how I'm living That's how I'm living (x3) Yep that's how I'm living That's how I'm living (x3) Yeah that's how I'm living