[Kendrick Lamar]
One time
Reporting live, Compton, California
Have you ever felt like, like you never get life?
Like you never get right? Sort of like a black sheep
Back down, backing out your dreams like some bad sleep
Chasing for the win but you never win the track meet
Oh, what a cold world for a broke nigga, it's bitter
and life's a bitch, don't hit women so I bit her
I struck enough pain, let her know I wasn't playing
I was so (Sincere) like Nas' first name
And back, they'd tell me, it's very difficult to see twenty-five
and if I survive I probably wouldn't sell it
My opportunities are low because my brown complexion floats
in the ghetto, rather in some heals like Giuseppe's
They want me unemployed, until I hit the streets
for filling voids of broke D-boys selling weed
Fucking up my prestige, till I live with the blues
B.B. King or the neighbors of Snoop
[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar (Ash Riser) {uncredited female}]
That's why I'm in the club like fuck it though
They say it's only one life, life, life
And if you say I can't live comfortable
I'ma tell you that's a lie, lie, lie
So while I hold this bottle of Ciroc with a hand full of ass
Celebrate the very day that I get past
(Through the barbed wire)
{We are, we are fighters
We are, we are true
Through the, through barbed wires
We will, will break through}
So while I hold this bottle of Ciroc with a hand full of ass
Celebrate the very day that I get past
(Through the barbed wire)
[Kendrick Lamar]
Have you ever felt like, like you never get life?
Like you never did right? Sort of like a black sheep
Tryna get away from the world stereotype
Barbed wire got a barricade on your destiny
She desperately in need of some inspiration, see what the people saying
She gon' have a baby, then flee from her education
At the age of sixteen, credit card scam schemes
See a scar on her eye, boyfriend brutality
She will never get by, no how, no way
Welfare recipient, property of the state
Housing, Section 8, corner store, prostitute
The owner bout to prosecute, the niggas tell her that she cute
Hoodrat trashy, six baby daddies
and this baby daddy is new to the family
Chilling in pajamies, waiting on the first
Fast-forward, spilling drinks on her fur
[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar (Ash Riser) {uncredited female}]
That's why she in the club like fuck it though
They say it's only one life, life, life
And if you say she can't live comfortable
She gon' tell you that's a lie, lie, lie
So while she up in V.I.P. pouring Merlot in her glass
Celebrate the very day that she get past
(Through the barbed wire)
{We are, we are fighters
We are, we are true
Through the, through barbed wires
We will, will break through}
So while she up in V.I.P. pouring Merlot in her glass
Celebrate the very day that she get past
(Through the barbed wire)
[Kendrick Lamar]
Have you ever felt like you finally got life?
You finally got right? No longer a black sheep
Living off your (dreams) like Christina uh-Milian in the front seat
of a convertible, eloping to get married
What a feeling of overcoming the odds
It's like you just hit the lottery, my God
There must be a God, cause golly
you done made it through the fight while squabbling, Ali
Now your lifestyle's looking up and you escaped the crooked cops
and you ain't have to kill a nigga just to make a couple bucks
And she ain't have to go and fuck on everybody for a dollar
Making good decisions, got an independent business mind
And both of y'all are steady grinding, doing it the legal way
Just tryna make a decent pay on every second of the day
But they won't give you the credit, disses out they mouth
You must have joined the Illuminati just to ball out
[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar (Ash Riser)]
In the club like fuck it though
They say it's only one life, life, life
And if you say they can't live comfortable
They gon' tell you that's a lie, lie, lie
So even if you overcame doubt and your living ain't bad
Know it's some barbed wire that's always in your path
(Through the barbed wire)
[Kendrick Lamar]
Just laugh, then everybody say
[Ash Riser]
Cause I won't get caught again
and I'm here to start the trend
You can't catch me if you try
Disappear into the night, and I'm gone
[Outro]
"So you made it past all the barbed wires?"
Just one more left [gun shot]