Mama's Pride & Joy

It's been on every day since they cut the umbilical chord

Been on a mission since my circumcision

Destined to be hard-core

74 the year the Steelers whipped on Minnesota

July 30 was the day that mama had a soldier

My big sister older than me by four years

Fed me when I was hungry and dried up all my tears

But I was a mama's boy spoiled to the core

Fifteen years later I became X-Raided

Hard headed and don't regret it

My mama told me to chill but I ignored her when she said it

Cuz by the time I was fifteen, I felt like I was twenty

Always wanted more even though I had plenty

I was honor be? no matter what mama say

Kickin it with Joshua, my Terry O, and Johnny Ray

Acting crazy cuz crazy was my nature

Gangsta rituals hereditary

Sometimes it's scary cuz I think I hate ya

What could I have done to get myself a better life

Go to college and have some kids after I met a wife

I'm a non believer but leave it to beaver

Cuz in the neighborhood I grew up being what?

It wasn't nothing but a gang of niggas like me

One put in the grave, the other in the penitentiary

It wasn't nothing else to destroy except for myself

The creation of my mama's pride and joy

1974, The president was Nixon

The cut the umbilical chord and did the circumcision

I was eight pounds, eight ounces

A bouncing baby boy

America's nightmare, my mama's pride and joy

Now mama I never meant to cause so much pain

Gettin suspended from school, stealing cars, and running with gangs

I only wanted to be a man but never knew how

Only if I knew then what I know now

It would be a different story you would be glorified

Treated like a queen and put up on a pedestal way high

I can't deny it, I did wrong

But mama I tried to be strong, but I didn't fit in

Didn't belong

And papa didn't stick around to keep us safe and sound

Dysfunctional family and nobody to handle me down to do whatever

Thought I was clever but I ended up

Stuck in the penitentiary with forever

And a minute don't go by that I don't reminisce about the days

Mama held me in her arms keeping me out of harms way

Can you tell me, how did mamas baby become a killer

Who turned this African into an American nigga

With rage in my soul

Tearin me apart got me mad at the world with so much pain in my heart

From the start

Columbus and his boys was on a mission to destroy

Mama's pride and joy

I wish my life didn't turn out the way it had

If I could only do it all again but at last

It's too late for all that coulda shoulda woulda mess

And I'm way too strong to be walkin around sad and depressed

But I get mad when I think about the way it is

And the way it was when me and my big sister was kids

Who's to blame

It's a shame

I'm so confused and deep in my soul I feel the pain

Mama it's true, I don't know where I came from

Where am I headed

When will it all be? instead of hectic

My childhood was non existent

My sister had to be a woman at sixteen with no assistance

Where was your god when my life was going down the drain

Late at night didn't you hear me calling out his name

Or was it meant for me to be a black sheep when all I wanted to be was

Happy

Now how hard could that be

For mama's pride and joy

[Chorus: x2]