[Nas]
Uhh..
Uh.. speak without thinkin..
speak without speakin.. huh..
Feel without reachin, uhh
That's what it's about
It's about that, inner, inner love, yaknawmean?

[Chorus: Nas]

God love us hood niggaz (I know)
Cause next to Jesus on the cross was the crook niggaz (I know)
and the killers, God love us good niggaz (I know)
Cause on the streets is the hood niggaz, uhh
And I know he feel us, uhh
God love us hood niggaz (I know)
Cause he be wit us in the prisons
and he takes time to listen, uhh
God love us hood niggaz (I know)
Cause next to Jesus on the cross was the crook niggaz, uhh
but he forgive us

[Nas]
He who has ears, let him hear
And he who has sight, let him see
He who has life, let him be
See everything goes through change
Those who know don't talk
and those who talk don't know a thing
Men are born soft and turn tough
Dead lay a stiffened heart, I've been kissed by God
I've been hurt, I've been marked for death, almost ripped apart
by the beast but he missed his mark
Alone in the dark my thoughts had sparked up
when I saw my body on the floor, from above I watch it all
Yo it came to me, the pain in me
Many slain empty skulls where a brain should be
It strangely seemed, like it was a dream
but the si-rens had never woke me
Only reason I'm here now is cause God chose me
And to me, I'm only just a crook nigga
But God love us hood niggaz

[Chorus]

[Nas]
Day by day by day I sit back and pray
My thugs get packed away, in a maxi-cage
They pass away, they went off the casket way
My gats will spray, but that won't bring em back today
So long my crimies now gone for eternity
The team we got left on the set, now turn to me
Can't speak, tears in my eyes, revenge in my mind
I ride past the church where they got his body and find
they takin him to the hearse to put his body in dirt
That's it, pay my respects, wipe my tears with my shirt
Now it's time to do work, out of love and retribution
As loyalty, he would die for me, no excuses
Loadin clips up, countin bullets carefully
For self, though it feels like, he was there for me
Saw the enemy, I ate him, saw Jakes behind me
They ain't knock me, it's obvious that God's watchin me

[Chorus]

[Nas]
Jealousy in the hood, felonies in the hood
Thugs wit guns become celebrities in the hood
Yo it's beef in the hood, smoke trees in the hood
Little girls have seeds by O.G.'s in the hood
It's food in the hood, it's drugs in the hood
You can choose if you would, coke to sniff
Dope to ooze in your blood, parolees
ex-cons live in the hood, it's jobs in the hood
You can starve in the hood
Your best friends'll fuck your baby moms in the hood
But it's good in the hood
I was raised in the hood
Was taught how to walk and duck strays in the hood
I stays in the hood, got my ways from the hood
Learned to play ball go to the NBA, in the hood
There's AIDS (uh) in the hood (WHAT?)
Our lives are the worst, on top of that, we broke
That's the main reason why God, love us the most

[Chorus 2X]