As I lie among the crumpled sheets
Contemplating the hell I've reaped
If I should die while I sleep
Forgive me father
for I was weak . . .

Like a blast from a 12-gauge
my face across the front page
all dressed up and no where to go
Rather get paid and
ya’ know what I’m saying
I was po’ need I say mo’?

Momma told me to get out
said I hadda foul mouth
so she showed me the door
So to make ends meet
I sold cain on the streets
trying to make a score

Always misbehaving
but no doe was I saving
but I was earning a name
So I conspired
to quench my desires
by capitalizing on my fame

Arrested on priors
burnt by the fire
but that’s part of the game
You know
I’d wish someone would've told me
how it would control me
But that’s the game
it plays with your brain

A house divided against itself
is a house of pain
Trying to blow out the fire
merely fans the flames
But, like a thief in the night
I couldn’t see the light
I couldn’t stand the strain
And now it plays with my head
and sometimes I wish I were dead
and I know I’m to blame

Without a doubt
I was a sell-out, who put-out
jest for money sake
I’d sell my soul for a dime
ya’ know sometimes
gold-chains can a prison make
I was a mis-educated negro
holding my new nose
wearing Armani Suits

Acting real new
but what could I do
when the chickens came home to roost
Dressed to impress
straight from the projects
but someone drop a dime

They asked me,
Did ya’ do it?
Did ya’ do it?
Did ya’ do it?
Did ya’ do it?
Hell yeah, I did the crime

Cause I was hommies
with gold-chain wearin’ drug-gangs
sellin’ crack cocaine
thinking I had the juice
And my head was reeling
from all the killing and dealing
I was making beau coup loot

News at seven
film at eleven
oh yeah! I learned to play the game
All that reading, writing
and ripping-off
guess it wasn’t all in vain
They called me lethal
said I was a enemy to my people
but yo, what’s in a name
But, if ya’ really wanna play for keeps?
Huh, thanks a heap!
But, that’s just the game
it plays with your brain

A house divided against itself
is a house of pain
Trying to blow out the fire
merely fans the flames
But like a thief in the night
I couldn’t see the light
I couldn’t stand the strain
And now it plays with my head
and sometimes I wish I were dead
and I know, I’m to blame

Maybe, if I’d read the signs and
freed my mind
my Black behind would’ve followed
But, I was out with the boyz and
they gave me poison
and yes
I guess
I swallowed…

I tried to maintain
by taking cocaine
I thought it would ease my pain
But, the stuff I was smoking
my brain I was choking
it was driving me insane

Crack-head junkies lying
dealers stone dying
I jest couldn’t take the hint
Put us in jail
damn us to hell
but still
you won’t maka dent

Well! If it doesn’t come out in the wash my brother
it’ll come out in the rinse
Cause everyone
from half-wits to scholars
know selling drugs makes lots of dollars
but, no damn sense

Turning tricks, for a hit
ya’ see, I gets my kicks from cocaine
I tried to make excuses
but what the uses
my excuses were lame

On a roller coaster
rolling ever closer
ever closer to the flames
And sometimes I even forget my name
it’s a damn shame
But, dang
that’s the game it plays with your brain

A house divided against itself
is a house of pain
Trying to blow out the fire
merely fans the flames
But, like a thief in the night
I couldn’t see the light
I couldn’t stand the strain
And now it plays with my head
and sometimes I wish I were dead
and I know I’m to blame

Let’s face it folks
life’s no joke
and these are dangerous times
I’m one of the young Black men
in the lion’s den
cut-down in my prime

My hands blood-soaked
from dealing dope
and posing with uzis and 9s
Life of the party
free of the body
but not of the mind

Yo! I’ve got these chains
around my brain
that lock me in the bowels of hell
Poverty stinks so
it can make ya’ blink
Yo! smell its’ foul smell

But the cops went buck-wild
and acted real foul
when they put my ass in jail
But, cocaine controlled my brain
like a flame in a hurricane
and I couldn’t make the bail
It ran through my system
like a piston
driving me insane
Like the brothers who die high
on a 40-ounce
they use to numb their pain

But, for some
a bullet comes
calling out their name
But, as for fame and glory
Huh, end of story
That’s just the game
it plays with your brain…