Divine Design - Jeru The Damaja

You know, sometimes in life

We try our best

But no matter how hard we try

Things still go wrong

But don’t be discouraged

If it’s meant to happen, it’s gonna happen

It’s of a higher order, a higher design

A divine design

Divine design, design’s the rhyme

My brother standin' on the corner, straight stranded in time

'Cause favorite MC’s makin' records that perpetuate crime

Babies, is havin' babies, stick-up kids is goin' crazy

Stray dogs is in the street, watch that one he got the rabies

Had to knock this nigga out because he tried to play me

No phone in my home, dog, what the fuck you lookin' at?

Sha came home from prison, and quickly relapsed

Black-on-black's got that nigga for his chain on the train

The shots, wasn’t fatal but they damaged his brain

Cocaine, numb the pain like Nova

I’ma do him for his ID and now it’s all over

Champagne wishes, on a four-leaf clover

Livin' up, in the hood and pushin' a Range Rover

Shorty bootylicious but you pay for her affection

Pimpin' told her this would get her up out of the 8 Section

Nana in church, celebratin' Christ’s resurrection

Poogie shot too much dope, he got that HIV infection

Cops serve and protect them, for us there’s no protection

Guns and drugs and unnatural selection

brothers think it’s still all good

I guess they just caught up in the hood…

Where you at?

Has crossed my mind

Where you at?

Has crossed my mind

Divine design protects the blind

The Twin Towers fallin' down, another sign of the times

The masses embracin' ideas that confine the mind

Little girls think they grown ladies, what have you done for me lately?

Alcoholics in the street, watch that one I think he crazy

Had to bust off my gun 'cause shorty tried to blaze me

Little kids on my block whylin' out, because they lack the fact

Rae got 5 to 10 for sellin' DT crack

The dopeman stacks, don’t hate the player, hate the game

Feds harass drug dealers while terrorists hijack planes

Maintain, hard times is almost over

The summer heat make the streets explode like supernovas

Battle scars, tattoo street soldiers

The pen make, heathen men seek Allah or Jehovah

Son’s mad thugged out, prime candidate for correction

Leave MC’s with no dad, he rocks no hats when he’s sexin'

When he get that life term, somebody test him

Solitary, confinement — it’s too late for reflection

Cops serve and protect them, for us there’s no protection

Guns and drugs and unnatural selection

brothers think it’s still all good

I guess they just caught up in the hood…

Where you at?

Has crossed my mind

Where you at?

Has crossed my mind

Divine design ensures that I’ll shine

The truth — a double-edged sword that can sever your spine

My mental spray like a Mac before I clap like a nine

The young black man’s angry, ain’t no if, ands, or maybes

85's in the street, runnin' round in mental slavery

Got beef wit the beast, he always tryna lace me

Po-po all up in the hood like a gang, what the fuck is that?

So-called crooks, get shot in they back

Fake niggas react, but make they moves just for fame

From activist, to poli-tic-ian

Hu-mane, the tongue they speak when sober

Power-drunk, they wicked like the last day in October

Snakes in the grass, here comes the lawn mower

Pork chops, crack and piss, what a terrible odor

John Taliban got the complexion for the connection

Where I come from youth grow up day to day with no direction

Cops serve and protect them, for us there’s no protection

Guns and drugs and unnatural selection

brothers think it’s still all good

I guess they just caught up in the hood…