one morning i was chillin with my homie/a down ass nigga he was always there for me/i left his house at about nine/cossing the street listening to tupac at the time/saw my homies so i threw up westside but in the meantime/i saw a car creeping...oh shit a drive by!!/i then started running cuz i only had a shank/seen death from a distance when i got shot in the leg/but what ever i did wrong i was gods child with a heart/i knew he saved me cuz i fell in front of a car/bullets everywhere around me/sad to see my homie bloody he never took his eyes off me/rejected him after everything he done for me/now i have to live with it and his ghost haunts me/at night always thinking of that day now i have to take pills just to go to sleep/scared to death so i bought a charm/r.i.p young nigga so i got his name tatted on my arm

(chorus)
in the hood you gotta watch your back/cuz the devils in the merking shadows tryna getcha back/death by his side tryna take your last breath/welcoming your soul to the lonly wall of death/everytime you walk and see a black cat turn back/cuz in his mind your a rat tryna getcha trapped/a dead body on the ground just keep your mouth shut/cuz in reallity he makes the good die young

after that i moved with my aunt in compton/not alot of enemeys just crips hopin/dam my dream is comming true with lowriders that are painted blue/when to the store to get something to chew/but everywhere i go theres always a rival crew/it was about 10 when i walked to 7/11/ started gettin cold when i seen a black cat/a shoot out across the street i seen my cousin get clapped/again i couldn do nothing and i was fuckin mad/the car pilled out i was standing in the street/they came my way slowed down to a creep/felt like my heart dropped again i couldn breath/my eyes watered up my blood flow stopped/they pulled out a glock i was frozin in shock/i was scared shitless.....tic tic not a shot/i looked up and prayed crossing my hands/thanking god cuz he made that gun jam

(chorus)
in the hood you gotta watch your back/cuz the devils in the merking shadows tryna getcha back/death by his side tryna take your last breath/welcoming your soul to the lonly wall of death/everytime you walk and see a black cat turn back/cuz in his mind your a rat tryna getcha trapped/a dead body on the ground just keep your mouth shut/cuz in reallity he makes the good die young