Released: December 11, 2001

Featuring: The Boys Choir of Harlem Shaggy

Producer: Joe

[Intro: Shaggy (Joe)]
All the ghettos around the world, dig this
Ghetto, Fabulous, Joe
Shaggy!
(All the children sing)

[The Boys Choir of Harlem]
I'm a ghetto child
I'm a ghetto child

[Verse 1: Joe]
Check it out
There's a world out there that I wanna see
There's a man that I'm destined to be
I won't be stopped by the ghetto streets
I believe inside that I can't be beat
This life could be a ball and chain
If you let yourself get caught in the game
I had some friends sold drugs for dough
But I don't intend to go down that road

[Chorus: The Boys Choir of Harlem]
Just because I'm a ghetto child
I won't live down to your expectations
Just believe that a ghetto child
Can rise in the highest celebration
Know that I am a ghetto child
But I can see the best in me, can you?
I'm a ghetto child

[Verse 2: Joe (Shaggy)]
(All the ghettos around the world, dig this)
One day I'm gonna change the world
Make a better place for every boy and girl
Everyone in need, homeless families
Have a place to sleep and food to eat
I'll take every gun off the streets
So another tear won't be shed in grief
And every thug in every hood
I will make 'em change from bad to good

[Pre-Chorus: Joe (The Boys Choir of Harlem)]
I believe that it can be done
Gotta start somewhere and I'm that one
All the children sing (yeah, yeah)
All the children sing (yeah, yeah)

[Chorus]

[Verse 3: Joe (Shaggy)]
(Hey, yo
Look at me in a different light
Spare me all about those stereotypes)

Ain't no madness that'll bring me down
Gonna take this life and turn it around

(The sky's the limit, I won't be denied
Ain't no stoppin' me, I'm a ghetto child)

And at the end, when it's said and done
We will all be singin' this ghetto song

[Pre-Chorus + Chorus x3]

[Outro]
It's not where you're from
It's where you're gonna be
It's not where you're from
It's where you're gonna be

Joe

Joseph Lewis Thomas, known simply as Joe, is a Grammy-nominated R&B singer, songwriter, and producer who was born in Columbus, Georgia to two evangelist preachers. His family relocated to Opelika, Alabama where he grew up performing gospel music in the church. At 16 years old he wrote his first song, “Good Girl.”

After graduating from Opelika High School in 1990, Joe traveled to New Jersey hoping to make connections in the record industry. He continued his music education through a local church and, while working at a gospel record store, eventually met producer Vincent Herbert to record a three-song demo tape.

Joe signed to PolyGram/Mercury Records in 1992 and released his debut album, Everything, the following year.