I gave up a long time ago wanting to be free

Now am content with my eyes closed and can’t see

Only want to survive as long as I can

I don’t have any goals I am an ignorant man

I am a child of the night who is lost in the dark

I didn’t have a chance I lost from the start

I know there are choices for my to see

But I am to damn lazy and trifling

I treat my sister like a piece of dirt

I call her a bitch and other things that are worst

Traditions and manners don’t mean anything you see

I am raw and what you see is the real me

So don’t come around telling me to be cool

I ain’t cool old school

I am new school cruel

You made the beast that you see before you

You left me fatherless and homeless no clue

I am the hate that hate made the reflection of you

There is no compromise and you can’t talk to me

I am as dark and as low as you will find

I am a new age nigga

This is my state of mind

Hamzatu

Don’t do drugs, don’t need a fix

Getting away from the bricks, the pain, and other disease

Going out to the burbs to catch a breeze

Got to make some money  my family needs to eat

I am not that nice and when I come I come strong

I am the child of the night who don’t play, no fun

Everyone studies my style to see how I do

I study everyone cause I am about to rob you

You think that this is a sport that you watch on TV

You don’t know anything about me

And many of you have never heard of me except on TV

I roll with the flow way down low

I am out in the night looking for that cheese dough

Have to do what I have to do

I can’t live in peace living with you

Around the way is where I flow

A place you won’t live, a place you can’t go

And a place that you will never know

When you see me do you fear the man who I am

When I play ball you’re my biggest fan

It’s after the game is through when the trouble comes

Life in the ghetto there is no fun

You want everything better than you give to me

You think my life is cool on TV

Separate ain’t equal where I come from

Around the way brothers live under rule of gun

No justice no peace is the way we roll

Brothers stuck in the ghetto hole

Think that the burbs is far removed from me

Close your eyes so you can’t see

There is one little thing that you fail to realize

I see everything that you do with uncovered eyes

The thing you don’t know, realize and can’t see

Is that you’re in the same boat as me

Hamzatu

I’m the janitor at Harvard University

Do you think you can come push me around

Just because my skin is brown

Why did you come bursting through the door?

Did you think I was robbing a store

They hired me to do a  job

But you think I’m in this neighborhood to rob

Put the handcuffs on me

And throw away the key

How come I feel like you’re robbing me?

It’s my job to turn the lights down real low

It’s also my job to clean the flo

I am only the janitor at Harvard University

But I got a special friend with a law degree

I think I’ll give him a call and then you will see

He will tell you that you are “acting stupidly…”

Hamzatu

Had to get away from around the way

I saw a new thing I had not seen

Like the grass and the trees

In the burbs I saw a pretty girl

A pretty girl from another world

She was a afraid because she saw me on TV

I told her that what she saw was not the real me

She said that our worlds were too far apart

A child of the night like me would be wrong from the start

I told her of crazy ghetto love

And the fun that we would have hand in glove

She never met anyone like me

A brother from around the way and on TV

I am a child of the night but this is sunshine I see

I’ll do anything so that she is with me

Her family drew back afraid

When they met the brother that is me

A thug down low they thought that they would see

But once they saw me coming around

And heard the science that I threw down

Still they said the girl was not for me

She needs a brother with an advanced degree

I told them about my PhD

I smiled and held my head up high

Cause brothers from around the way don’t cry

She made up her mind my world to see

To discover the life outside her family

The one that they saw on TV

Later that night when my trip was through

They found their daughter was  traveling free

Now she is rolling around the way with me

Hamzatu

In the daylight no dreaming

Brothers got to go down low

The police done brought war for show

All of the brothers got to go

There is a vendetta taking place

The extermination of an entire race

You are mesmerize and can’t see

It like you are watching a movie or TV

Everybody’s sleeping and fooled by the clown

They drew up the thirty year plan for the brown

Brothers stock has dropped from what I see

Get rid of him for lack of productivity

That’s the lie that their telling for you

Now listen while I reveal who

The police are real friendly around the way

They bring in the drugs everyday

The suckers they employ work for pay

Everybody’s a squirrel trying to get a nut

Now the bondsman, lawyers, and judges are in on it too

It’s a close knit industry made for me not you

As you can see I have a view from deep down low

I see all the shit they don’t want you to know

The truth is plain if only you can see

That what is taking place is their conspiracy

Hamzatu

The pigs and the dogs run and play

Stick em up bang bang

Get out of your car right now

Face down on the ground

It used to be easy the pigs we knew

Smelled like swine now they are just like you

They turned the brothers upon themselves

And brothers oversee  slaves like they used too

The fight for equality has been turned against you

Now brothers in blue killing me and you

They call it equality in the plantation we know

And the long arm of oppression lives next door

They give them a Glock and call them the man

And its in your crotch where he sticks his hand

The owners of the plantation has step back from view

Now he using your own kind to oppress you

Round em up Shoot em up

And bang bang too

The pigs are laughing while the dogs eat you

They learn to be puppies under their care

Now they are brothers in blue and your worst nightmare

Dogs in a police uniform patrol our streets

Ready to bite with vicious teeth

They have been trained as pups up from the ground

Trained to rip your hearts out and keep you down

Hamzatu

Did a double take  because there were two or three

Things are changing in the city of lights

Its something more than the usual gun fights

There something happening to the ones that I know

Everything is different it just doesn’t flow

The people are getting turned all around

Getting twisted into shapes that I never found

Like broken glass lying in the streets

Lives are shattered and lost in defeat

The struggle has faded from their eyes

People are tired and starting to believe the lies

I pick a piece or maybe two

I tried to rebuild but the glue would not do

I stacked up the glass for a house to be made

But glasses houses don’t stand once those in them start to fade

Still I tried to gather them up from the dust

But in the streets where I roll there is no trust

I shouted wake up as loud as I could

Everyone is deaf in this neighborhood

The jungle has become home although there are no trees

The people are like leaves falling to their knees

No need now for a plan to finish us all

The drugs, violence, and dirt has guided the fall

Piles of glass are broken lying before me

The people have stopped wanting to be free

Hamzatu

I don’t talk, don’t stare me down

What you need I don’t have

Helping you is not my command

If you need faith

Don’t look at me

Faith is in you but you don’t see

Don’t try to fool me

But be true to yourself

Reach for what you need

And don’t ask someone else

We are a mighty people

The people of the sun

The answer is in you 

From the truth you can’t run

Stop crying the blues

All about your life

What are you going to do 

Live or give up the fight

Make it better 

Don’t just complain

Everyday is your chance 

So make a change

A better day might just be near

The sun comes up after a night of fear

There are times when you are bound to cry

Keep your head up looking to the sky

It is in you that the answers lie

In you is the truth if you don’t deny

We are the people who are kissed by the sun

We are the people of the Mighty One

Hamzatu

I don’t care about nothing that you think or see

When in your neighborhood I come around

I will bring your property value down

I am lazy and have a thousand excuses

The sun was in my eyes or my shoes were to loose

Whenever you see me and I am hanging down low

I am one of the most trifling brothers that you will ever know

You can’t trust me because I am as low as they go

Watch your back and check your locks to be secure

I am sneakier than a rat and I am on roam for more

Trifling they call me and I’ll admit to that review

Anything that you possess and want, keep out of my view

I’ll take my homies girl too

I don’t have friends like you think that I do

I’ll stab them in the back just like you

You never met anyone like me

I don’t do it for the power

I don’t do it for the money 

I do it because I’m trifling

Hamzatu

I am the child of the night

If I could fly I would fly you to a better place

But its too late

You must know me by now

I listen to the beat of the night

Do you think that I am someone that you might want to see

Don’t get excited when you pass by me

I am burning deep down inside

So I can’t stop now

Not going to slow down

Cause the lights are low

No one knows my place in the world

But its alright

Believe that it is real

The time is now to follow the voice inside

If I could fly I would fly you to a better place

And wont be back

But I can’t stop now

When I whisper in your ear

No sudden moves

Hamzatu