Little somethin for my godson Elijah and a little girl named Corinne
Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice / I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots / I give a holler to my sisters on welfare / Tupac cares, and don’t nobody else care / And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot / When you come around the block brothas clown a lot / But please don’t cry, dry your eyes, never let up / Forgive but don’t forget, girl keep your head up / And when he tells you you ain’t nuttin don’t believe him / And if he can’t learn to love you you should leave him / Cause sista you don’t need him / And I ain’t tryin to gas ya up, I just call em how I see em / You know it makes me unhappy (what’s that) / When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy / And since we all came from a woman / Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman / I wonder why we take from our women / Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? / I think it’s time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women / And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies / That will hate the ladies, that make the babies / And since a man can’t make one / He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one / So will the real men get up / I know you’re fed up ladies, but keep your head up
Keep ya head up, oooo child things are gonna get easier / ooooo child things are gonna get brighter
Keep ya head up, oooo child things are gonna get easier / ooooo child things are gonna get brighter
Aiyyo, I remember Marvin Gaye, used to sing ta me / He had me feelin like black was tha thing to be / And suddenly tha ghetto didn’t seem so tough / And though we had it rough, we always had enough / I huffed and puffed about my curfew and broke the rules / Ran with the local crew, and had a smoke or two / And I realize momma really paid the price / She nearly gave her life, to raise me right / And all I had ta give her was my pipe dream / Of how I’d rock the mic, and make it to tha bright screen / I’m tryin to make a dollar out of fifteen cents / It’s hard to be legit and still pay tha rent / And in the end it seems I’m headin for tha pen / I try and find my friends, but they’re blowin in the wind / Last night my buddy lost his whole family / It’s gonna take the man in me to conquer this insanity / It seems tha rain’ll never let up / I try to keep my head up, and still keep from gettin wet up / You know it’s funny when it rains it pours / They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor / Say there ain’t no hope for the youth and the truth is / it ain’t no hope for tha future / And then they wonder why we crazy / I blame my mother, for turning my brother into a crack baby / We ain’t meant to survive, cause it’s a setup / And even though you’re fed up / Huh, ya got to keep your head up
Keep ya head up, oooo child things are gonna get easier / ooooo child things are gonna get brighter
Keep ya head up, oooo child things are gonna get easier / ooooo child things are gonna get brighter
And uhh / To all the ladies havin babies on they own / I know it’s kinda rough and you’re feelin all alone / Daddy’s long gone and he left you by ya lonesome / Thank the Lord for my kids, even if nobody else want em / Cause I think we can make it, in fact, I’m sure / And if you fall, stand tall and comeback for more / Cause ain’t nuttin worse than when your son / wants to kno why his daddy don’t love him no mo’ / You can’t complain you was dealt this / hell of a hand without a man, feelin helpless / Because there’s too many things for you to deal with / Dying inside, but outside you’re looking fearless / While tears, is rollin down your cheeks / Ya steady hopin things don’t all down this week / Cause if it did, you couldn’t take it, and don’t blame me / I was given this world I didn’t make it / And now my son’s getten older and older and cold
From havin the world on his shoulders / While the rich kids is drivin Benz / I’m still tryin to hold on to my survivin friends / And it’s crazy, it seems it’ll never let up, but / Please… you got to keep your head up
[By Tupac Amaru Shakur – Roger Troutman – Daryl Anderson – Stan Vincent Grochowski © Umg Recordings, Inc. / Interscope Records – Jive, 1993]