DJ Premier - The Life lyrics

[Intro] It's always about money It's always about money because that's the way life goes Everybody want to appear to be rich Ain't nobody trying to appear to be broke You know 'Cause the appearance of money, you know, is the deception That everybody wants to put out there That's the way they live their life [Verse 1] It's the life that we live, it's not by the rules The lessons that we learn is not by school Any boy that wants to be a man before his time Is out of his goddamn mind, fiending for the life Full of pain, full of strife, full of gun, full of knife Full of good when you're a n***a's girl, full of sh** when you're his wife Full of dope fiends doping, full of crack fiends smoking Full of people that think the cops ain't watching Joking full of Jesse Jacksons hoping we can be free Full of n***as in the jailhouse that look like me Full of pimps, full of players, full of thugs, full of macs Full of hardcore rappers with a car full of gats Full of fake a** n***as that rap That will be exposed when they run into a real life scrap Full of little green people with dead people on them Got a graveyard full of flowers with dead people on them Full of men who don't like me 'cause I figured how to stack around tax Full of loved ones that ain't coming back Full of snitches, full of rats, check the stats We're losing real bad in this game that we call The Life [Hook] "Living on the line" The Life "Everything your hands could touch" The Life "Let's all be professional" The Life "You got to respect the game" [Verse 2] I sit and listen to the preacher talk about fair play And that n***a know the game don't play that way This life is full of n***as that can't buy a tank full of gas And sneak behind the building of a bank full of cash Temptation, they got sunshine While n***as feel Bill Withered, ain't no sunshine The life, full of n***as that got the funniest jokes And the biggest diamond rings and the longest mink coats And the best looking houses and they put them on Cribs And show the goddamn feds where the f** they live Full of n***as with too many kids they can't feed Full of n***as who went to college and still can't read Full of fake friends smiling in your face Plotting on a safe full of money while they're keeping full of grace Full of poorly run government that stole this land from the red man Now we celebrate Thanksgiving Thanks-taking, f** 40 acres and a mule Give me 40 million and I'm cool, then it's back to the motherland Not to live but to buy diamonds, flawless Shining, not this fake sh** that n***as where rhyming It's a life full of n***as climbing from the bottom to the top Full of n***as falling back to the bottom Urbanized culture got them, check the stats We're losing real bad in this game that we call The Life [Hook] [Verse 3] The Life Struggle for survival, watch the game That's why I'm glad Pops left me this Glock to aim Watch yourself now, you can be reckless Until your body gets snatched like mulberry necklace I know we're on the government checklist And soon they'll be dropping all the bombs and all our lives will be fleshless This life is full of fake saints that won't start praying 'Til they see this big room full of weak minds paying What's the message of the land, it's all in your head He says "giving it to God", we say "giving it to Rev" This life is full of people who wouldn't give a f** if I was dead 'Cause that means that they can come out from under their bed Why they're scared? 'Cause life is full of dudes like me n***as rude like me, taking food like me Full of jazz, full of soul, full of new, full of old ASCAP for the publishing that people done stole It's a life full of love, but people won't share it It's responsibility, but people won't bear it It's the hard cold truth, but people can't wear it That's why we all lose in this game that we call the life [Hook]