Released: May 4, 2007
Songwriter: J. Cole
Producer: J. Cole
[Intro]
Yeah
Need y’all niggas to feel me, yo
Feel my pain
Said soft niggas can’t last hard times, yo
Believe that shit
Yeah, (Yeah) aye (Aye)
Real niggas don’t cry
Look, yo
[Verse 1]
Was just a youngin’ with that fresh fade
Bird chest, legs skinny
That hoop dreaming had me tryna be the next Penny
Fresh pennies on my feet
Momma paid for everything I’m wearing
At the fair staring at girls, not a care in the world
Aw nigga, but shit done changed since Maine was my nickname
A little nigga chasing things, tryna kick game
Now I’m a man worried about my fam
Let me explain
It’s like my pockets stay broke, and if not them shit’s sprained
And so I rap for my niggas trapped in the struggle
You feeling like the world’s on your back so you stumble
In the field like a quarterback get sacked, then you fumble
Jobs don’t call a nigga back, so it’s back to the hustle
Niggas praying for they moms, the same time they moms pray for them
Ask the Lord to stay with them, guide them on they way
But damn a nigga been a lost faith
It hurts on the usual
The only time you catch me up at church is a funeral (damn)
[Hook]
Sometimes sunshine turn to rain my nigga
The same ones you love will bring you pain, my nigga
I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow
But I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry
And in this life times getting hard my nigga
But fuck that, I’m aiming for the stars, my nigga
I won’t stop, try ‘til the day I die
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry, no
(ay, ay, ay, yea)
(listen, yo)
[Verse 2]
I sit back and watch the news every now and then
Either get depressed or mad from watching the world just crash
Even the weather’s bad
It be the same shit, got my brain twisted
Like, “Damn it’s ’06 and niggas still up on that gang shit?” (that shit old, dawg)
Yesterday this kid got his whole frame split
Only seventeen, he was finna to graduate in like three weeks, some stupid niggas got him for his chain
But he fought back, they blasted him and left him on the pavement, uh (rest in peace)
And now they telling me this little girl just got raped
Some dude snatched her, she was standing at the bus stop
Wait, man she was eleven!
What the fuck is up with this world?
Got these grown niggas fucking with girls?
Plus the cops harassing us
Every week be blasting us, on accident, or so they claim
Reporters sympathizing like they truly know the pain, (right)
They killed her only son
Now she wanna blow her brains out
Change the channel man, I can’t watch this shit
[Hook]
Sometimes sunshine turn to rain my nigga
The same ones you love will bring you pain, my nigga
I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry
And in this life times getting hard my nigga
But fuck that, I’m aiming for the stars, my nigga
I won’t stop, try ‘til the day I die
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry, no
[Verse 3]
Take a ride through the city man, tell me what you witness
Poverty, richness, crooked cops and misfits
Violence, hatred, real devastation
Neighborhoods looking like there’s still segregation
Welfare, single mothers, no jobs
Tryna get a piece for yourself, but they hogging up the whole pie
Fiends in the street so high off of that crack shit
This nigga thirteen with a gat under his mattress (bang!)
White folks got the road to success mapped and that’s all good
But why don’t blacks got that same atlas?
I asked the same question a million ways
And it seems like I done prayed for a million days
But still the ills remain, just bills and pain
Shootouts in project buildings, children slain
Skies filled with rain and I just sit and wonder why
It's enough to make a nigga wanna cry, but I can’t though
[Hook]
Sometimes sunshine turn to rain my nigga
The same ones you love will bring you pain, my nigga
I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry
And in this life times getting hard my nigga
But fuck that, I’m aiming for the stars, my nigga
I won’t stop, try ‘til the day I die
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry, no
[Outro]
Yeah, shit dedicated to my cousin Ricky man
Hoop dreams cut short man
Learned he had a baby on the way
Nigga wasn’t even a senior in high school, though
Hold your head man
Yeah
Need y’all niggas to feel me, yo
Feel my pain
Said soft niggas can’t last hard times, yo
Believe that shit
Yeah, (Yeah) aye (Aye)
Real niggas don’t cry
Look, yo
[Verse 1]
Was just a youngin’ with that fresh fade
Bird chest, legs skinny
That hoop dreaming had me tryna be the next Penny
Fresh pennies on my feet
Momma paid for everything I’m wearing
At the fair staring at girls, not a care in the world
Aw nigga, but shit done changed since Maine was my nickname
A little nigga chasing things, tryna kick game
Now I’m a man worried about my fam
Let me explain
It’s like my pockets stay broke, and if not them shit’s sprained
And so I rap for my niggas trapped in the struggle
You feeling like the world’s on your back so you stumble
In the field like a quarterback get sacked, then you fumble
Jobs don’t call a nigga back, so it’s back to the hustle
Niggas praying for they moms, the same time they moms pray for them
Ask the Lord to stay with them, guide them on they way
But damn a nigga been a lost faith
It hurts on the usual
The only time you catch me up at church is a funeral (damn)
[Hook]
Sometimes sunshine turn to rain my nigga
The same ones you love will bring you pain, my nigga
I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow
But I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry
And in this life times getting hard my nigga
But fuck that, I’m aiming for the stars, my nigga
I won’t stop, try ‘til the day I die
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry, no
(ay, ay, ay, yea)
(listen, yo)
[Verse 2]
I sit back and watch the news every now and then
Either get depressed or mad from watching the world just crash
Even the weather’s bad
It be the same shit, got my brain twisted
Like, “Damn it’s ’06 and niggas still up on that gang shit?” (that shit old, dawg)
Yesterday this kid got his whole frame split
Only seventeen, he was finna to graduate in like three weeks, some stupid niggas got him for his chain
But he fought back, they blasted him and left him on the pavement, uh (rest in peace)
And now they telling me this little girl just got raped
Some dude snatched her, she was standing at the bus stop
Wait, man she was eleven!
What the fuck is up with this world?
Got these grown niggas fucking with girls?
Plus the cops harassing us
Every week be blasting us, on accident, or so they claim
Reporters sympathizing like they truly know the pain, (right)
They killed her only son
Now she wanna blow her brains out
Change the channel man, I can’t watch this shit
[Hook]
Sometimes sunshine turn to rain my nigga
The same ones you love will bring you pain, my nigga
I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry
And in this life times getting hard my nigga
But fuck that, I’m aiming for the stars, my nigga
I won’t stop, try ‘til the day I die
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry, no
[Verse 3]
Take a ride through the city man, tell me what you witness
Poverty, richness, crooked cops and misfits
Violence, hatred, real devastation
Neighborhoods looking like there’s still segregation
Welfare, single mothers, no jobs
Tryna get a piece for yourself, but they hogging up the whole pie
Fiends in the street so high off of that crack shit
This nigga thirteen with a gat under his mattress (bang!)
White folks got the road to success mapped and that’s all good
But why don’t blacks got that same atlas?
I asked the same question a million ways
And it seems like I done prayed for a million days
But still the ills remain, just bills and pain
Shootouts in project buildings, children slain
Skies filled with rain and I just sit and wonder why
It's enough to make a nigga wanna cry, but I can’t though
[Hook]
Sometimes sunshine turn to rain my nigga
The same ones you love will bring you pain, my nigga
I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry
And in this life times getting hard my nigga
But fuck that, I’m aiming for the stars, my nigga
I won’t stop, try ‘til the day I die
And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry, no
[Outro]
Yeah, shit dedicated to my cousin Ricky man
Hoop dreams cut short man
Learned he had a baby on the way
Nigga wasn’t even a senior in high school, though
Hold your head man