Talib Kweli

Intro:

Lemme hear it…

Yeah, this is a ghetto prayer
Praying for all of those who ain’t got it
We gotta get it there, we gotta get it, yeah
Yeah, the people starvin’ for something new, we starvin’ for it!

Verse 1:
My little man go to bed so hungry
Get up, go to school with his nose runny, come home with his nose bloody
His sister laughin’, he like “what’s so funny?”
Till she drowned out by the sounds of hunger pangs in his tummy
Nothin’ in the freezer, nothin’ in the fridge
Couple of forty ounces, but nothin’ for the kids
Little man know to eat to live, but he don’t wanna leave the crib
The kid who punched him in his face house right down the street from his
He went anyway, more scared to face his moms
She’ll be home soon and she’ll flip out seeing his face scarred
Walking past the dope fiends, what they smoking take the place of God
Hopes and dreams pouring out the holes in they face and arms
Little man in the face of harm if he don’t eat
He need energy so when he go to school he can compete
And keep up, all he got is bodegas
But hey, he only got enough for a quarter water and a Now & Later
Anyway, grandma say Jesus’ll be here any day
Good, because with nothin’ to eat, it’s getting hard to pray

Pray, pray, pray

Chorus:
In order to receive, then we need to give
We gotta feed the kids, they gotta eat to live
In order to receive, then we need to give
We gotta feed the kids, they gotta eat to live
In order to receive, then we need to give
We gotta feed the kids, they gotta eat to live
In order to receive, then we need to give
We gotta feed the kids, they gotta eat to live, listen

Verse 2:
My rhymes got nutritional value
I get it how I live, it’s critical when the conditions allow you

Do you and trust the critics who doubt you
Try to write shit about you, but they can’t make a living without you
Go hungry, you gotta watch what the media feed ya
And don’t be a poison animal eater neither
It’s harder than it sound, cause nowadays they put that swine in everything
From white sugar so addictive it’s pure cane
They got pork in the toothpaste, soda and the Sunny D
Jello brand gelatin is laced with the lecithin
In Africa they starvin’, over here the food’ll hurt you
Cows goin’ mad and the chickens caught the bird flu
It’s too ill how the food kills, it’s like blue steel
Lies never set you free, but the truth will
The truth still matter, the proof is in the batter or the pudding
You can tell we eatin’ good, we gettin’ fatter

Chorus:
In order to receive, then we need to give
We gotta feed the kids, they gotta eat to live
In order to receive, then we need to give
We gotta feed the kids, they gotta eat to live
In order to receive, then we need to give
We gotta feed the kids, they gotta eat to live
In order to receive, then we need to give
We gotta feed the kids, they gotta eat to live