Released: December 18, 1990
Featuring: Chuck D
Songwriter: Chuck D Ice Cube
Producer: Sir Jinx
[Produced by Sir Jinx]
[Male News Reporter]
"Good evening. This is Los Angeles, a city with many claims on America, including this one: It is now the gang capital of the nation. Last year alone there were 452 gang-related murders in the greater Los Angeles area. And we'll see if there is anything that can be done about all of this."
[Verse 1: Ice Cube]
Peace!? - don't make me laugh!
All I hear is motherfuckers rappin' succotash
Livin' large, tellin' me to get out the gang
I'm a nigga, gotta live by the trigga
How the fuck do you figgure?
That I can say peace and the gunshots will cease?!
Every cop killer goes ignored
They just send another nigga to the morgue!
A point scored- they could give a fuck about us
They rather catch us with guns and white powder!
If I was old, they'd probably be a friend of me
Since I'm young, they consider me the enemy!
They kill ten of me to get the job correct
To serve, protect, and break a niggas neck
'Cause I'm the one with the trunk of funk
And "Fuck tha Police" in the tape deck
You should listen to me 'cause there's more to see
Call my neighborhood a ghetto 'cause it houses minorities
The other color don't know you can run but not hide
These are tales from the darkside...
[Chuck D]
All of us are endangered, DAMN!
(A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown)
(A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown)
[Verse 2: Ice Cube]
You wanna free Africa, I stare at yuh
'Cause we ain't got it too good in America
I can't fuck with them overseas
My homeboy died over a key of cocaine
It was plain and simple
The 9mm went (gunshot sound) to the temple
(gunshot sound) (gunshot sound) was the sound I put the bitch down
And ran to the schoolyard bathroom
Looked in the trash can, yo it had room
So I ducked my ass in it for a minute!
Covered with trash I had to lay back
Mad as fuck!
Thinkin' about the payback
Tonight the crew gonna have a little fun
I went home and cut the barrel of my shotgun
It's gettin critical - I stole a 5.0
I let it go - drive real slow
I yelled out 'Ice Cube sucka'
The shot-gun kicked - and it murdered motherfuckers
I told you last album
When I got a sawed-off, bodies are hauled off
It's a shame, that niggas die young
But to the light side it don't matter none
It'll be a drive by homicide
But to me it's just another tale from the darkside...
[Sampled guitar riff]
[Verse 3: Chuck D]
Standing in the middle of war
In the middle we flex
When we die, we won't make Jet
Ebony can't see to the lightside
The term they apply to us is a nigga
Call it what you want, cause I'm comin’ from the corner
Same applies with a Ph.D
Who's black - don't wanna roll - sells his soul
Watch his head go rollin’
Who the fuck are they foolin’?
Nobody knows, but I suppose the color of my clothes
Matches the color of the one on my face
As they wonder whats under my waist
(Standin' on the verge) of them gettin’ brown
That's a fact
Got a fear of the bozack
Run, run, run, their ass off, they can not hide
Yet Cube, they can't fuck with the
Darkside!
[Male News Reporter]
"Good evening. This is Los Angeles, a city with many claims on America, including this one: It is now the gang capital of the nation. Last year alone there were 452 gang-related murders in the greater Los Angeles area. And we'll see if there is anything that can be done about all of this."
[Verse 1: Ice Cube]
Peace!? - don't make me laugh!
All I hear is motherfuckers rappin' succotash
Livin' large, tellin' me to get out the gang
I'm a nigga, gotta live by the trigga
How the fuck do you figgure?
That I can say peace and the gunshots will cease?!
Every cop killer goes ignored
They just send another nigga to the morgue!
A point scored- they could give a fuck about us
They rather catch us with guns and white powder!
If I was old, they'd probably be a friend of me
Since I'm young, they consider me the enemy!
They kill ten of me to get the job correct
To serve, protect, and break a niggas neck
'Cause I'm the one with the trunk of funk
And "Fuck tha Police" in the tape deck
You should listen to me 'cause there's more to see
Call my neighborhood a ghetto 'cause it houses minorities
The other color don't know you can run but not hide
These are tales from the darkside...
[Chuck D]
All of us are endangered, DAMN!
(A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown)
(A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown)
[Verse 2: Ice Cube]
You wanna free Africa, I stare at yuh
'Cause we ain't got it too good in America
I can't fuck with them overseas
My homeboy died over a key of cocaine
It was plain and simple
The 9mm went (gunshot sound) to the temple
(gunshot sound) (gunshot sound) was the sound I put the bitch down
And ran to the schoolyard bathroom
Looked in the trash can, yo it had room
So I ducked my ass in it for a minute!
Covered with trash I had to lay back
Mad as fuck!
Thinkin' about the payback
Tonight the crew gonna have a little fun
I went home and cut the barrel of my shotgun
It's gettin critical - I stole a 5.0
I let it go - drive real slow
I yelled out 'Ice Cube sucka'
The shot-gun kicked - and it murdered motherfuckers
I told you last album
When I got a sawed-off, bodies are hauled off
It's a shame, that niggas die young
But to the light side it don't matter none
It'll be a drive by homicide
But to me it's just another tale from the darkside...
[Sampled guitar riff]
[Verse 3: Chuck D]
Standing in the middle of war
In the middle we flex
When we die, we won't make Jet
Ebony can't see to the lightside
The term they apply to us is a nigga
Call it what you want, cause I'm comin’ from the corner
Same applies with a Ph.D
Who's black - don't wanna roll - sells his soul
Watch his head go rollin’
Who the fuck are they foolin’?
Nobody knows, but I suppose the color of my clothes
Matches the color of the one on my face
As they wonder whats under my waist
(Standin' on the verge) of them gettin’ brown
That's a fact
Got a fear of the bozack
Run, run, run, their ass off, they can not hide
Yet Cube, they can't fuck with the
Darkside!
more tracks from the album
AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted
- The Nigga Ya Love to Hate
- Turn Off the Radio
- You Can’t Fade Me / JD’s Gafflin’
- What They Hittin’ Foe?
- Get Off My Dick and Tell Yo Bitch to Come Here (Remix)
- JD’s Gaffilin’, Part 2
- Jackin’ For Beats
- Better Off Dead
- I Gotta Say What Up!!!
- The Drive-By
- Rollin’ Wit the Lench Mob
- The Bomb
- Get Off My Dick and Tell Yo Bitch to Come Here
- I’m Only Out for One Thang
- Dead Homiez
- The Product
- Who’s the Mack?
- Endangered Species (Tales from the Darkside)
- AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted
- It’s a Man’s World
- A Gangsta’s Fairytale
- Once Upon a Time in the Projects
- Endangered Species (Tales From The Darkside) (Remix)
From the albums
- AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990)
- Kill at Will EP (1990)
Ice Cube popular songs
- No Vaseline
- It Was a Good Day
- Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It
- Check Yo Self
- You Know How We Do It
- Hello
- Check Yo Self (Remix)
- The Nigga Ya Love to Hate
- Why We Thugs
- Good Cop Bad Cop
- Arrest The President
- You Can Do It
- Nobody Wants to Die
- Go to Church
- Hood Mentality
- Smoke Some Weed
- Ghetto Vet
- AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted
- Friday
- Steady Mobbin’
- Black Korea
- Everythang’s Corrupt
- A Bird in the Hand
- Ghetto Bird