Third World Wide

D.C., Somalia, North Philly, Philippines, Houston, New Orleans All ghettos, all barrios, worldwide What you know about this poor man's journey He's got holes in his shoes and his jeans are hell of a dirty Smile on his face with a wealth not worldly With a style and a grace that got all these heads turning High hopes and debts and pockets stay broken No dope, high stress, in the streets discerning Through all the false hopes and the lies they feed to you Tryna build a future out of something feasible But average income to some is just unreachable Me, living like a cross of Che and Piñero Resembling 'em both in that same scenario Survivor of the third world since he was a day old You learn to bundle up when you heat your house with a stove Same house is a home for like 20 of your folks Yo I've grown from a war-torn family That came to America and still don't understand me, why Because I just won't settle for they money or they schools I care about my life more than American rules Not just to be a fool but look what it's doing to you Africa is dying and we all just tryna move From Seattle to Soweto All African ghettos L.A., Palestine, and the body, soul, mind Vieques, Chiapas, they just can't stop us To Addis, Asmara, don't you forget Rwanda Brooklyn, Planet Rockers, the belly of the monster Senegal and on to Haiti and the DR Everywhere that we are, to anywhere that we are Still living like the third world even in the first I rep for the second generation of African immigrants Resisting assimilation I've traced this lineage in my bones with chocolatey undertones To Indigenous folks from Anahuac where I rock with a passion Slight Amharic accent Ain't no rites of passage And it ain't no kind of magic on how I came to be a man I dare to just imagine And question everything they said up in this land of bastards It's hard to tell the pimps from the poets and the pastors While hell of a real men like MOVE and the Panthers get forgotten writing books while in handcuffs I look up to men behind bars, and women that struggle hard Everyday and every way, just ain't treated the same And most times, guys just look the other way It wouldn't be fair to say I understand the pain But sister, you are my hero And I'll never turn away From Seattle to Soweto All African ghettos L.A., Palestine, and the body, soul, mind Vieques, Chiapas, they just can't stop us To Addis, Asmara, don't you forget Rwanda Brooklyn, Planet Rockers, the belly of the monster Senegal and on to Haiti and the DR Everywhere that we are, to anywhere that we are Still living like the third world even in the first Some days I don't know how I'm gonna eat And everybody in Seattle wants me to rhyme on they beats Like I'm in too deep to sleep When I do, in my dreams I see faces of little me, facing they new enemies Schools and the prisons be the same damn industry The whole rap world is just not really interesting It stopped speaking to me when I started speaking to kids 16 years old and doing his second bid For his age he spits hell of a better than I did Only difference is he got caught for shit that I did At his age and got away with I'm not smarter His skin is darker and the process is harder Three strikes now and you a martyr In America's favorite game that hasn't changed Since the first Africans were brought in chains To now we move by choice But got colonized brains From Seattle to Soweto All African ghettos L.A., Palestine, and the body, soul, mind Vieques, Chiapas, they just can't stop us To Addis, Asmara, don't you forget Rwanda Brooklyn, Planet Rockers, the belly of the monster Senegal and on to Haiti and the DR Everywhere that we are, to anywhere that we are Still living like the third world