Common - Real People

[Intro]

Yeah, yeah, you know how me and 'Ye do

[Verse 1]

Real People walk in the streets, the streets is talkin'
Often it's beef this city never does
People walk and talk in they sleep
Cold sweats and wet dreams
On how to get green our faith is all in a jeep
Black souls raw and they deep
Hypes tryna talk with no teeth
Shorties sayin' ball or retreat
A lesson we all speak at one point or another
Whatchu expect from one who smoke a joint with his mother
Anointed hustlers in a fatherless region
Through the pain wish they know that God was just teachin'
We want decent homes
So dreams we say out loud like speakerphones just to keep em on
It's like a colored song that keep keepin' on
I guess knowin' I'm weak is when I'm really bein' strong
Somehow through the dust I could see the dawn
Like the Bishop Magic Juan, that's why I write freedom songs
For the real people

[Verse 2]

I wonder is the spirits of Bob Marley and Haile Selassie
Watch me as the cops be tryna and pop and lock me
They cocky, plus they mentality is Nazi
The way they treat blacks I wanna snap like paparazzi
We're the children of a better God searchin' for better jobs
We could cop ghetto cars tryin' not to catch a charge
They say the dope game is sour
Now they doin' homework that's when they follow you for hours
Come to your crib and devour all that you work for
Must be more than paper these niggaz hurt for
Through the purple haze I circle days I rhyme that work for pays
Tryna reverse the slave's mind and insert the brave mentality
Heard that it's drama at home
Can a dude break free and still get honored at home
I was told by a chief it's the games nature
When you're glowin' some will love and some will hate ya
It's real people

[Verse 3]

Black men walking wit white girls on they arms
I be mad at em as if I know they moms
Told to go beyond the surface, a person's a person
When we lessen our women our condition seems to worsen
The weary cursin' the sky
Talkin' to themselves givin' the version of why help and hurt in they eye
I live across from it, some of it I do be in
I be showin' niggaz lives
Like UPN
It's real people

Yeah.
For you and yours
Good music
Forever
Yeah
Rock on
We keep on
Uh.. Yeah
Yeah, yeah
The real...