COLD WORLD

People wonder why I rarely watch the news on television
Or when they discuss current events, it’s like I never listen.
I ain’t gotta watch a dude like Tavis Smiley first
To know the world is messed up and it’s only getting worse.
We live in a world of plots and schemes,
Where things were set up systematically to stop your dreams,
And if you make less than 70 grand your life is miserable,
There’s so much doom and gloom around, it’s hard not to be cynical.
Don’t be naïve and act like there isn’t a class divide,
You judge me by my status and overlook the man inside.
A kid from the projects doesn’t have the same access
As someone from the burbs with upper middle class parents.
It’s like comparing swimming pools to shark-infested waters,
Where you have to fight a little harder, and be a little smarter
If you want to get out, but then what’s waiting for you?
It’s hard to make a job that pay a decent wage employ you.
Makes you feel like you wasted four years
and all you got’s a piece of paper and debt up to your ears.
Everybody looks for someone to blame,
Not realizing we’re all pawns in the game. Professor Griff explained it,
Our victories are tainted, ‘cause no one expects it of us.
You try to hold me down, and have the nerve to call me brother?
This is my train of thought, forgive me if I’m rambling,
But we’re missing the mark like the first time you throw a javelin.

In this new millennium we’re supposed to be post-racial
But a black president has everybody most hateful
Turn on the television and you see fox news
Blaming blacks for everything like many blacks blames jews
They forget that my people are a minority
There ain’t enough of us to take your spots with no authority
It kills me when folk say brothas don’t want to work
But they’re afraid we’ll take the jobs and scholarships from all the jerks
It’s to the point where many think that they are justified
In shooting on sight, without regard for another life,
and walking through the suburbs in a hoodie all the while
Is a crime punishable by death without a trial.
See, all of their perception comes from watching rap videos
And movies where the black roles are little more than minstrel shows.
And people in the hood won’t give them reasons to think otherwise
They think responsibility only happens to other guys.
They don’t care about the blight they cause
When they spray gang signs on abandoned house walls
Or they break into a house just to steal all the coppery
Strip off all the siding like that’s not committing robbery
Cuz they don’t give a darn if they bring down all of the property
Values of the other houses that are kept properly
Destroy where they’re at and move to the next like locusts
That’s why it’s hard not to think the situation’s hopeless

Nations rise and fall like the old religious books foretold
Now’s a good a time as any to just consider your soul
Whatever you claim. Are you representing the name
Or is it in vain? Religion is not a game
Most people really only pay their faith lip service
Doesn’t matter if you’re fake in synagogues, mosques or churches
You’re still a faker. And when it’s time to meet your maker
There won’t be no excuses for the path that you’ve been taking
Your god knows your heart and your motivations
He knows every sin you cover up with false justification
He knows about the times you could’ve helped your fellow man
But instead chose to help yourself to further selfish plans.
Look, I’m not saying this to be deep and clever,
This message is so everyone will get their acts together
Take a look in the mirror and tell that guy he should do better,
And leave mother earth better off than when you met her.
Too many people only want to fill their own bellies,
Can’t feel good about themselves unless they make someone else jealous.
They take from everything and everyone, and never give back
Like a parasite, killing everything in its path.
And I’m not naming names but if the shoe fits ya,
Then you need to go barefoot. See the big picture.
This is bigger than you. Be not deceived: god is not mocked,
Reap what you sow, karma’s a ______, better watch out.

It’s a cold world, place your bets, you’re going all in,
No time for stalling; Are you rising, or are you falling?
Answer your calling, it’s time to get your act together
It’s now or never, take a stand and make the effort