Lonnie Liston Smith - First to 100 lyrics

[Poem: First to 100] k**ing your brother over streets you moved on as a kid I guess the purpose of gang banging was Originally formed to protect the neighborhood with a clique Am I right? Formed because racism was chasing us into the slums Making us carry guns just to protect your blood brother from seeing blood Protect your cousin from being crippled Like we came together to dodge the bullet but hit the missile Wherever we came from I'm aware those days done enough damage against us as a race But it's only the beginning of the problems we face Rep yo set, yo hood, that's great But anyone can pull the trigger But it takes real power to consider It's 20-15. We watch movies in 3D now Black on black crime is weak now Hmm It doesn't make you any less of a thug if you come together with your neighbor Your brother to share ideas, make money Teach children of love amongst one another Be strong, lift weights, create One hundred black men gone One hundred black men acting on request to burrrr Leave shells all over your block like what is your gas tank on? And yeah, we know you go hard from the am to the pm And you'll spray him when you see him But it takes much more courage to pray with him instead of beat him We murder kids, but it's thugging to play with ‘em and feed ‘em We got enough a**ault from police, you really in these streets If you can reach the youth and teach them What happened to being inspired by gangsters like Martin Luther King Who broke rules just so we can dream Just because he had a dream Not so that I can whack yo' mans off because he mad at me But actually be a team That's what being in a gang really means We all a gang of people trying to meet needs We all a gang of people trying to eat We all a gang-banging on the doors of success And every color we represent only shows the pa**ion we express I can blast this thirty-eight through your chest But I think this time, I'll give you a pa** Let's put our heads together and do the math Yeah, it'll give me stripes to go to jail But let's turn our jails into school and our cells into cla** Let's turn our shells into cash Meaning the next time I shoot, it'll be a bunch of dead presidents in your bag So go ahead, sag your pants, it's a symbol you can't be f**ked with Trust me, I understand But on the other hand, it's not how many bodies you k**ed that makes you a man One hundred men empowered, one hundred men coming together to exceed expectation Each one teach one, the one taught reach one And eventually it will make Kings and Queens out of each of us Forget Hollywood, the real stars are in the hood Let's turn our hood into the promise land and I promise man Everyone will wanna follow our culture It's time to cultivate minds to grow and make minds grow And make minds grow a hundred times In a hundred days and a hundred nights