Released: February 21, 2012

Featuring: Kendrick Lamar

[Intro]
Kids is what make me feel so good
See you looking at the glory that's coming up into the future of life
See the younger youth is what's gonna make everything to keep going
After I done passed down the hill
Young and black!

[Hook: BJ the Chicago Kid] x2
Don't you know
That it's true
That for me
And for you
The world is a ghetto

[Interlude]
Then there's a lot of funky things in this country
And there's a lot of good things too
But there's more funky than good
We've changed some for the best
Awful lot of cases for the worst
And some, they have not changed at all

[Verse 1: BJ the Chicago Kid]
Walking down the street
Foggy eyes
Looking at the sky
Starry eyes
Searching for a place
Weary eyes
Crying in the night
Teary eyes

[Hook] x2

[Interlude]
Dude, we got to get our minds together!
Anytime a brother was shot another brother in his own neighborhood
Then go to his funeral and turn over his own casket
They need to have the police down there
Cause see the niggas is N.A.A.C.P
Niggas ain't actin' like colored people
If I can't work and make it, I steal and take it
They come up to me with a nigga who can put air in a bottle and sell it
He can do it man
A nigga can sell anything

[Verse 2: Kendrick Lamar]
As I watch the sky change colors
The rain flooded the neighborhoods of the black brothers
The black mothers are stressing, the coroners have covered
Another statistic, episodes of a cold summer
The street runners got the same legs of Michael Johnson
The fast life surpassed life beyond the conscience
Profanity in the air, the children use the content
The vanity's in the air, that Louis bag: haunted
The black girl with the hair, that's kind of coarse
Her baby daddy's in court, she smoking on a Newport
Seventeen with dreams of becoming a stripper
Or becoming an AIDS victim while touching them zippers
The life that we living in, things we would do just to live again
How can an angel forever live in sin?

[Hook] x4

[Outro]
You know, anybody that uses somebody else to gain is pimpin'
Well, I tell you what soul brother, lookie here
Can't nobody pimp you but your pimp ass self
You understand?
Then there's a lot of funky things in this country
And there's a lot of good things too
But there's more funky than good
Shit ain't gettin' better
We've changed some for the best
Awful lot of cases for the worst
And some, they have not changed at all

BJ the Chicago Kid

BJ the Chicago Kid is an American singer songwriter from the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. Born November 23rd, 1984 as Bryan James Sledge, BJ is best known for his his critically acclaimed album In My Mind, as well as his collaborations with artists such as Chance the Rapper, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar.

BJ first appeared on a Dave Hollister record in 2001. Leading up to his debut mixtape, A Taste of Chicago, he would perform on Stevie Wonder’s 2005 album, A Time to Love. Additionally, he was featured on Kanye’s 2006 “Impossible”, which also features Twista and Keyshia Cole.

He released A Taste of Chicago in 2009, followed closely by The New Beginning in the same year. He would also appear on “Faith” by Kendrick Lamar (2009). In 2011, BJ released his third mixtape, The Life of Love’s Cupid. Then, in 2012, he independently released his debut studio album, Pineapple Now-Later. After getting signed by Motown, he would released a 2013 Christmas-themed EP called A Soulful Christmas. In the same year, he appeared on Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap on “Good Ass Intro”. In 2014, he released a mixtape titled The M.A.F.E Project.