Growing Up In This World
Jackson Turner - 《Long Time Coming》
Growing up in this world of enormous extremes
Separated by nation but together we bleed
Every struggle within reaches a point of release
Rather die on my feet than have to live on my knees
You need money to make money its simple addition
There’s people living with nothing I get the picture
Its bigger than individual lives and criminal minds
Hypnotized by the television listen and buy consume
Public schools teaching free market values
How to be exploited 101 and the house rules
Communities are packed Latinos and Blacks
No opportunity for ownership their people are trapped
Can’t invest in the quality of life when
All the money leaving following the white man
And he never gonna fight fair fuck a dream
Type cast living the American nightmare
Ghetto teens on the block with crack rocks and stash spots
Trying to eat and increase their back pocket
Ain’t no laptops pools or backyards
Just concrete steal bars and gat wars
The hood is part of your identity
So you struggle till the day you rest in peace and never leave
Trying to hide from the pain in a bottle of Pueto-Rock rum
Your job sucks cleaning shit with a mop bucket
At your local Block Buster
You knocked up a fast little cock-loving chick with no condom on
Now you gotta deal with child support
And the cycle continues trapped like a dying dog
Growing up in this world of enormous extremes
Separated by nation but together we bleed
Every struggle within reaches a point of release
Rather die on my feet than have to live on my knees
Look up the meaning of property its as simple as pie
They keep the pieces for themselves and they leave us the side dishes
If this is a contest it’s mission impossible
The business man is the pimp and the politician the prostitute
Guess who the one getting fucked is?
They call us criminals they don’t know dick about justice
Slums filled with laborers from the countryside
Thrown off the land cause the loan was two months behind
Sub-prime decency does not apply
Ain’t no competition when big business being subsidized
You try to find a job out in Islamabad
You in the factory from five to nine with your neck soar
Making textiles with an XLarge thats exported to dress shops
On West 4th street in New York
Living standards on a level thats unreasonable
So you sleep on the floor
Up in the morning praying for the fait of your two kids
Child labor violation lies and abuses
The union got you in a strangle hold
Cause their working with the management to keep your wages low
Bank rolled with a paper trail through the labor bureau
Plus they’ve got the union dues that you paying to them
Work you like a slave and it makes sense
Cause if the goods we buy are cheap then they can pay us even less
Growing up in this world of enormous extremes
Separated by nation but together we bleed
Every struggle within reaches a point of release
Rather die on my feet than have to live on my knees