Ice-T - Message to the soldier

Yo, Ice, you been down with the struggle for a long time, man... Why don't you drop some knowledge for these brothers who want to get involved in this war... Take notes: real gangstas wear trench coats Grey suits, black ties and they seek votes And you're not to be misled They'll kill you in your fuckin' bed They don't sell dope, yo, excuse me, yes they do But they don't look that much like me or you But if you pull up the sheets and expose them They'll crawl up like snakes and show fangs of venom Now I've been soldier for years Representin' the tattooed tears Other brothas locked up with no choice Left in the bowels of devil with no voice My phones are tapped, my crib is bugged My car is tailed from club to club And this ain't no fuckin' joke They want to see a nigga broke You can't slip, if you slip you're out You gotta know what you're talkin' about Drop science every chance you get Hit direct and indirect, speak in code Cause you're never alone That's why I use this low tone Follow this and you might grow older This is a message to the soldiers... Now they killed King and they shot X Now they want me, you could be next All you gotta do is speak too loud All you gotta be is be too proud Cause once you let'em know Who you are and where you're at You better watch your back Cause you might think you're just dope While you're livin' in a sniper's scope I'm not tryin' to scare you But there's a danger if you get too deep Some nights I don't sleep All you wanna do is tell the truth All you wanna do is save the youth Ice Cube knows, Souljah knows, P.E. knows They throw death blows And if you got kids or a girl that's true They'll move on them too But when I'm gone I need you to carry on You gotta be strong and fight for our salvation But there will be retaliation, soldier... To think that rap could be attacked Is ignorin' the simple fact That they never ment us to speak They had planned to keep the black man weak But rap hit the streets Black rage amplified over dope beats Now they want to shut us down And they don't fuck around Check the history books, son Black leaders die young They tell us that your words are scary They're revolutionary Because we speak the truth About crime and drugs And expose the real thugs This info is not beneficial To the groups that go by three initals So they try to discredit They'll dog you with an edit Print the words the way you never said it But we gotta make'em regret it, soldiers... Word! I know a lot of brothas out there want to get in this war... You know what I'm sayin'? a lot of sistas got a lot of knowledge to drop on our people but right now they're movin' to shut down all hip-hop! The first amendment had absolutely nothin' to do with black people at the time constitution was written, we were considered nothin' but property...The expectation of havin' black people speak on records never came to mind, so we gotta move! But belive me all the black leaders have been silenced and most of the time it's been violent so if you choose to get in this war, realize what you're in for but we gotta move on... And we gotta stay strong... Message to the soldiers, welcome to the struggle... Message to the soldiers, be careful, soldiers...