[00:00:00] This Can't Be Life - Jay-Z [00:00:00] Written by:Dwight Grant/Leon Huff/Malik Cox/Kenneth Gamble/Kanye West/Shawn Carter/Brad Jordan [00:00:02] Geah whassup [00:00:05] Where's all my street niggaz project niggaz [00:00:10] Real niggaz worldwide [00:00:14] Let's reflect e'rybody got a story [00:00:18] We all ghetto B here's mine [00:00:22] Geah [00:00:23] See I was born in sewage born to make bomb music [00:00:27] Flow tight like I was born Jewish [00:00:29] Used the streets as a conduit I kept arms [00:00:33] 38 longs inside my mom's Buick [00:00:35] At any given moment Shawn could lose it be on the news [00:00:38] Iron cuffs arms through it or stuffed with embalmin' fluid [00:00:41] Shit I'm going through it mom dukes too [00:00:43] Tears streaming down her pretty face she got her palms to it [00:00:47] My life is getting too wild [00:00:48] I need to bring some sort kinda calm to it [00:00:50] 'Bout to lose it voices screaming [00:00:51] Don't do it [00:00:53] It's like '93 '94 'bout the year [00:00:55] That Big and Mag dropped and Illmatic rocked [00:00:57] Outta every rag drop and the West had it locked [00:01:00] Everybody doing 'em I'm still scratchin' on the block [00:01:03] Like damn I'ma be a failure [00:01:05] Surrounded by thugs drugs and drug paraphenalia [00:01:09] Cops courts and their thoughts is to derail us [00:01:12] Three time felons in shorts with jealous thoughts [00:01:15] Trying figure where your mail is guesstimate the weight you selling [00:01:18] So they can send shots straight to your melon wait [00:01:21] It gets worse baby momma water burst [00:01:23] Baby came out stillborn still I gotta move on [00:01:26] Though my heart still torn life gone from her womb [00:01:29] Don't worry if it was meant to be it'll be soon [00:01:33] This can't be life this can't be love [00:01:38] This can't be right there's gotta be more this can't be us [00:01:44] This can't be life this can't be love [00:01:49] This can't be right there's gotta be more this can't be us [00:01:54] Chill dog [00:01:54] Second oldest born from Michelle Brown my mother [00:01:57] Hell bound grew with two sisters and one brother [00:02:00] Pop wasn't around so many stories that's another [00:02:03] I'm thinking damn how my older sister gon' make me tougher [00:02:06] When steel sharpens steel I'ma keep it real [00:02:09] I'm tired of trying to hide my pain behind the syrups and pills [00:02:12] Dead to the world stretched out like a corpse for real [00:02:15] Y'all niggaz thinking what y'all reading in The Source is real [00:02:18] What my life like you looking at the source it's real [00:02:20] What your life like Mine dog of course it's real [00:02:23] Passing judgment you niggaz second guessing Beans [00:02:26] Cause you don't eat swine don't make you Amin [00:02:28] Dog you know a couple suras out the Qur'an [00:02:31] I guess you all on your din and I ain't on mine [00:02:34] Stop that Akki 'fore I send shots though your body [00:02:37] Make 'em feel hell on earth before Allah drop thee [00:02:39] I feel the line's drawn here nutting more can stop me [00:02:42] Till them feds pick me up or them boys pop me [00:02:45] There's only three things that make Mac not act like Beans [00:02:48] Amatullah Tisha Po Aldin Samir Amin [00:02:51] My seeds dog gotta teach 'em that before I leave dog [00:02:54] Shit I know that I'ma see 'em when I leave dog [00:02:57] I come back in the afterlife [00:02:59] Like f**k it I done touched hell twice what's the meaning [00:03:03] This can't be life this can't be love [00:03:08] This can't be right there's gotta be more this can't be us [00:03:14] This can't be life this can't be love [00:03:20] This can't be right there's gotta be more this can't be us [00:03:25] Now as I walk into the studio to do this with Jig' [00:03:28] I got a phone call from one of my nigs [00:03:30] Said my homeboy Reek he just lost one of his kids [00:03:33] And when I heard that I just broke into tears [00:03:36] And see in the second hand you don't really know how this is [00:03:39] But when it hits that close to home you feel the pain at the crib