MaintainExile

[Verse 1: Blu]
I'm trying to find a way up out of this; living at home
Trying to find out who my father is, sitting alone
Bumpin' Common Sense blown
Not off the chronic, but off the knowledge in his dome
Still astonished, but I gotta move on
See my mother thinks my problem is I really ain't accomplish shit
21 without a car, scarred, without a scholarship
And some days I don't eat, all I got is pocket lint
I walk around with cold feet and I'm thinner than my wallet is
But she don't realize, her son is five times dominant
Than most niggas she's honoring, but she don't see the prominence
Probably fuck around and change the world like Bob Marley did
My talent's apparent, but its fatherless of how she don't acknowledge it
I hate running away from my problems without solving it proper
I don't wanna be a doctor
I just wanna be the father that my father never bothered to be
My son ain't never have to follow the streets
His role model is me

[Hook: Jontel]
Life can get you down some time
We keep movin' on
Just keep your head up high
All things change with time
You-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou
You gon' be alright
Never give up your dream
Maintain your fight

[Verse 2: Donel Smokes]
Up early in the morning, still yawnin', Mama wakin' me up
If not church it was school, which I didn't give a fuck about neither
A non-believer you can call me whatever
Doin' dumb shit like ditchin' class, I knew nothin' better
Instead of treatin' myself, I was cheatin' myself
Trying to be different when I should have tried being myself
It would have helped if Gramps Sr. was around when I was younger
Left Mama trying to tell me that the gunshots was thunder
I was hearin' trying to sleep over Little Bo Peep
A strong woman kept seein' tears fallin' from her cheeks
On my sheets - Was he strong was he weak? I don't know...
But it takes something great to leave a family of four
Sometimes it makes no sense at all
Even though we made it over where you fumbled, Mama picked up the ball and scored
Lord help the man wherever he is
And give me the strength so I won't do the same to my kids
That's real

[Hook]
Life can get you down some time
We keep movin' on
Just keep your head up high
All things change with time
You-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou
You gon' be alright
Never give up your dream
Maintain your fight

[Verse 3: Co$$]
I gotta get up outta here, I'm a prisoner of pain
I'm a captain to a mind like it's driven insane
It's like I'm livin' for the minute let this livin's explained
I gotta know, if after living will our spirit remain?
Why we hugged up on the block and raise our kids in a gang?
And why once, we live once, we never livin' again?
Why my pops shot up ..... and what it did to his veins?
Was them needles from a victim that was inflicted with A.I.D.S?
Is this the reason that he got it? You know why I suppose
I don't know, didn't I know? It's like a knife in my soul
It's real talk, I ain't sure about the life that's beyond
And I don't understand why people we fightin' them wars ourselves
God help us, we ain't right in the head
And I be dreamin' 'bout my problems every night in the bed
I be thinkin' 'bout my past and shit a nigga feelin' passionate
The same time raised by the past, I can't get past this shit
And lookin' back on it, there ain't nothin' to say
I'm too wrapped up in the pain, I feel this numbin' embrace
I get a flash of them streets and what they done to my face
And when he beat me to my knees, he had a gun at his waist
But the beatin' that I took, it wasn't nothin' to take
Trust me, he had have killed me if he done it today
I ain't never been no coward, so fuck that runnin' away
You only catch a nigga runnin' if there's something to chase
It's young Co$$

[Hook]
Life can get you down some time
We keep movin' on
Just keep your head up high
All things change with time
You-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou
You gon' be alright
Never give up your dream
Maintain your fight
Life can get you down some time
We keep movin' on
Just keep your head up high
All things change with time
You-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou
You gon' be alright
Never give up your dream
Maintain your fight