Hold on now, don't die now, be strong now

He said, 'I was born a crack baby
In a plastic bag in the alley
Raised in a foster home
With no mother to love and I never knew my papi'
Back in the days of Bobby McFerrin
Used to sing, 'Don't worry, be happy'
Lord how can I be happy
When I don't even know my own family tree Lord?

We are the next generation, we ain't scared to die
The only thing I fear is the after life
'Cuz I don't know what's there on the other side
But I pray the Lord forgives me, gives me one more try

Gang poppin' things, doin' drive-by's and angers
Kids goin' to school puttin' fears in their teacher
The teacher let them know that it ain't all good
'Cuz the gang was created to protect the neighborhood, now
All you red now, all you blue now
All you yellow now, follow me now
To that place of righteousness
Where the only thing that matters is your consciousness, he said

We are the next generation, we ain't scared to die
The only thing I fear is the after life
'Cuz I don't know what's there on the other side
But I pray the Lord forgives me, gives me one more try

In my father's kingdom there are many mansions
All the rooms are free, there is no tax collection
I can see Biggie, Tupac, Moses and Abraham
Jason, the one and two's, jammin' with the sun of man

I've been kicked, I've been stabbed
I've been shot, I've been [Incomprehensible] by a
Person that I thought I trusted, where I live
It's a war at the cribs, walk with a strap
Myself 'cos I don't want nobody's son on my back
My mind playin' tricks [Incomprehensible], to really
Me out in five unless I take another hit
I done seen the sunset on the other side of town
Now I'm driftin' in the darkness, Heaven hold me down

[Incomprehensible] but I know I'm born dyin'
Feel the tears of the angels lookin' down on me cryin'
For a lyin' *** but yo forgive us in a while
And I'm sorry, never let me forget that I'm your child
While I'm locked up in this ba*****t starin' eye to eye with Satan
In this cold dark world with no patience
We get plotted on by agents with talks of replacin'
The Africans, Jamaicans and the Haitians in this next generation

We are the next generation, we ain't scared to die
The only thing I fear is the after life
'Cuz I don't know what's there on the other side
But I pray the Lord forgives me, gives me one more try

Whoa, we the next generation, look at what we facin'
The kids raise themselves, all kind of temptation
Flowers and candles decoratin' all the pavements
No, the perpetrator ain't seein' no arrangements
Nobody cares about the feelings of the poor
Many suffer while we spendin' eighty billion on a war, uh
Cuttin' school budgets, U.S. stockmarket plummets
Condition's only worse and I wonder what become it

Metal detectors replace music cl***es
Angry little kids wanna beat their teacher's ***es
The red and blue's, somebody gotta lose
Reality TV be reality for who
I don't question what the Lord found in me
I just p*** it on to folks with no boundaries
Got a long road ahead of us, AIDS already gettin' us
Now we got stars, how many will there be left of us?

We are the next generation, we ain't scared to die
The only thing I fear is the after life
'Cuz I don't know what's there on the other side
But I pray the Lord forgives me, gives me one more try