2Pac

Featuring: Outlawz

Songwriter: 2Pac Napoleon (Outlawz) E.D.I. Mean Kastro Yaki Kadafi

Producer: Damon Thomas

[Intro: Makaveli]
Next to the first
Let's bring it to these niggas with some love
Let's show niggas we understand what they goin' through
We know that it's hell 4 a hustla out here
With 3 strikes and jail and penitentiaries and police
And task force, and snitches and bitches and niggas
And playa haters, sit the fuck down
Naw mean
We got to build on this shit
I got some real shit
To hit your ass
Let's spread love nigga
Death Row done made a few fuckin' changes
This is how we do this shit
It's hell 4 a hustla
Makaveli the Don with the Outlawz

Throw your muthafuckin' guns in the air
If you're truly livin' this criminal lifestyle
All my Outlawz, to all you bitch made niggas
Get on your knees nigga, aiite, get on your knees and pray

[Chorus: Makaveli]
Oh Lord, help me change my ways
Show a little mercy on judgement day
It ain't me, I was raised this way
I never let 'em play me for a busta
Makin' hell for a hustler
Lord, help me change my ways
Show a little mercy on judgement day
It ain't me, I was raised this way
I never let 'em play me for a busta
Makin' hell for a hustler

{background: Kadafi}
If it's on then it's on
We break beat breaks
Outlawz on a paper chase, can you relate
To the shit I don't got, be the shit I gotta take
Dealin' with fate, hopin' God don't close the gate
If it's on then it's on
We break beat breaks
Outlawz on a paper chase, can you relate
To the shit I don't got, be the shit I gotta take
Dealin' with fate, hopin' God don't close the gate

[Verse 1: Makaveli]

Huh, increase the doses, bustin' whoever closest
Thug livin',(buck buck buck) hell or prison, never losin' my focus
(Westside)
I'm makin' money moves mandatory
End of discussion my past records tell a story (check my shit)
Picture niggas we rushin' and still bustin'
'Til the cops come runnin', duck in abandoned buildings (five O)
Ditchin' my gun, oh what a muthafuckin' feelin' (I notice you notice)
I live the lifestyles of drug dealers, (thug life baby)
But now legitly
So I laugh 'til I'm cryin', when the law come get me (hahaha)
No baby momma drama, nigga miss me, (biatch)
Why plant seeds in a dirty bitch, waitin' to trick me
Not the life for me
Livin' carefree, 'til I'm buried - and if they dare me
I'm bustin' on the niggas and will they scurry?, (buck buck buck)
I'm clearly a man of military means to my artillery
(Outlaw)
Watchin' over me through every murder scene
From adolescence, to my early teens, thought we was gonna die
Sellin' dope to all the fiends, at times I wanna cry
And still, we try to change the past, in vain
Never knowin' if this game'll last, feelin' the shame
Cocaine the product of the devil, (fuck that) am I sellin' my soul?
Got tired of small time livin', niggas tellin' me no
I got mine!, fuck them other sucker!, that's the mentality
Jealous-ass bustaz, make it hell for a hustler

[Chorus: Makaveli]
Oh Lord, help me change my ways
Show a little mercy on judgement day
It ain't me, I was raised this way
Never let 'em play me for a busta
Makin' hell for a hustler
Lord, help me change my ways
Show a little mercy on judgement day
It ain't me, I was raised this way
I never let 'em play me for a busta
Makin' hell for a hustler

{background: Kadafi}
If it's on then it's on
We break beat breaks
Outlawz on a paper chase, can you relate
To the shit I don't got, be the shit I gotta take
Dealin' with fate, hopin' God don't close the gate
If it's on then it's on
We break beat breaks
Outlawz on a paper chase, can you relate
To the shit I don't got, be the shit I gotta take
Dealin' with fate, hopin' God don't close the gate

[Verse 2]

[EDI Amin]
I wonder
How do these cowards be conceived
They born into this world, allowed to breathe
While so many real G's they die secret
But Outlawz, we ride so righteously
Control the destiny, we mobbin' with a sight
To see, all together, never separately

[Kadafi]
It's it a criminal hobby
That got me here thinkin' robbery
Call Oz up the ave uptown back in Cabust
And not a lot of poverty, whether you white like dark
Or brown like Bobby, while dime bitches give me body 'til
They open

[Kastro]
Now that's the good of all evil, so tell me what's the worse
Me deep in my hearse, stuck in crime like time fly over here
First, waitin' for credit, contemplatin' my fate
And is the Lord comin', to take me on Judgement Day

[Young Noble]
They got the fiends usin' up beans with dirty blood on a needle
Stranded, blunted in his van, don't give a damn if you see 'em
Get him branded
Most likely I'm a real nigga, so while the 2 Loc
Five shots will leave y'all to live or die

[Napoleon]
Well I been hustlin' off the same block since a little shorty wap
Taped up notts so my sock, duckin' the muthafuckin' cops
Watch me shop up, and locked up, come back and blow the block up
(buck buck buck buck buck buck buck)
Preoccupied with gettin' my cheese and fuck the process

[Chorus: Makaveli]
Oh Lord, help me change my ways
Show a little mercy on judgement day
It ain't me, I was raised this way
I never let 'em play me for a busta
Makin' hell for a hustler
Lord, help me change my ways
Show a little mercy on judgement day
It ain't me, I was raised this way
I never let 'em play me for a busta
Makin' hell for a hustler

{background: Kadafi}
If it's on then it's on
We break beat breaks
Outlawz on a paper chase, can you relate
To the shit I don't got, be the shit I gotta take
Dealin' with fate, hopin' God don't close the gate
If it's on then it's on
We break beat breaks
Outlawz on a paper chase, can you relate
To the shit I don't got, be the shit I gotta take
Dealin' with fate, hopin' God don't close the gate

[Verse 3: Makaveli]

No insanity plea for me, I ride the beef 'til I burn (hahahahahahahahahahahaha)
Censor me and bar your kids from the lessons I learned
And in turn I'm hostile guess you can recall me anti-social
Niggas shakin' like they caught the holy ghost when I approach em'
Try to politic, before I smoke em, like Sun Tzu
Niggas do unto these snitches, before it's done to you
And if the cops come arrest me in the evenin'
Best believe they runnin' for my dogs in the mornin'
And if I die by a slug, the death of a true thug
Tell me will my niggas mourn me? (how long will they mourn me?) Gettin' blowed out
High, watch me murder the bird, before he testify
Strikes, walkin' close to my third, I live a troubled life
And if you dream be a part of my team
From Long Beach to Queens, drug dealers to ex-fiends
Keep yo' eyes on the prize, nigga watch for bustaz'
Either heaven or jail, it's still hell 4 a hustler

[Chorus: Makaveli]
Lord, help me change my ways
Show a little mercy on judgement day
It ain't me, I was raised this way
I never let 'em play me for a busta
Makin' hell for a hustler
Lord, help me change my ways
Show a little mercy on judgement day
It ain't me, I was raised this way
I never let 'em play me for a busta
Makin' hell for a hustler

{background: Kadafi}
If it's on then it's on
We break beat breaks
Outlawz on a paper chase, can you relate
To the shit I don't got, be the shit I gotta take
Dealin' with fate, hopin' God don't close the gate
If it's on then it's on
We break beat breaks
Outlawz on a paper chase, can you relate
To the shit I don't got, be the shit I gotta take
Dealin' with fate, hopin' God don't close the gate

[Outro Makaveli + westside repeats]
This is how we ride
Not knowin' if we'll live or die
Catch me rollin' with my motherfuckin' guns on the side
In case of drama, I'm the first to break wild
Do we all die
This is how we ride
Not knowin' if we'll live or die
Catch me rollin' with my motherfuckin' guns on the side
In case of drama, I'm the first to break wild
Until they all die, Outlaw, baby

[Outro Makaveli + it don't stop, and it don't quit repeats]
Yes, yes yes
The Black Jesuz guide us through this
Weary weary weary weary, aiite
Only God can save us
Nuttin but boss players
Outlawz and thugs
No time for the drugs
Now the rap game, similar to the crack game
Hahaha
My enemies plantin' seeds
My few friendz til the end
Outlaw, rough rugged and raw
Jay Z Gay Z die slow
Mobb Deep you sleep, die slow
Yes
Biggie, piggie, Puffy nuttin, die slow
Hahaha
We ain't quitin'
Nigga ain't stoppin'
War, it's war nigga
Yea, yea
Like the niggas in Iran and Iraq, it don't stop
Sure my name is 2Pac
Makaveli with Thuglife across my belly
All my niggas with they name on they neck
Give us respect or die get chin check
WESTSIDDDDDDDDDDDDE, Death Row
Outlaw
Word up

Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an actor and a highly influential rapper who is considered by many to be the greatest of all-time due to the revolutionary spirit and thug passion he mixed into his music. During his music career, he made appearances in movies such as his acclaimed debut in Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), and Above the Rim (1994).

Born in Harlem, New York City to Black Panther Party members Billy Garland and Afeni Shakur, Tupac would later move to Baltimore before settling in the Bay Area cities of Oakland and Marin City in the late 1980s. There, he joined his first rap group Strictly Dope with Ray Luv before connecting with Shock G and Digital Underground. He was a roadie and backup dancer for the group before his breakthrough performance on their 1991 song “Same Song.”

2Pac released his debut album 2Pacalypse Now in 1991, which featured intense storytelling on singles such as “Trapped” and “Brenda’s Got a Baby.” His sophomore album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z featured one of his signature songs, the Digital Underground-assisted “I Get Around.” After working on the Thug Life group album in 1994, 2Pac released Me Against the World the following year, which is considered by many to be his best album, peaking at #1 on the Billboard 200 and receiving a Grammy nomination—all while he sat in prison.

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