Lauryn Hill: Retrospect for life

by Common Yo, we gotta start respectin life more y'allYou look at your brother man you gotta see yourselfGotta see the God within himBrothers gettin changed real quick over nothinWe losin too many of oursGotta recreate y'allYo, check itKnowin you the best part of life, do I have the right to take yoursCause I created you, irresponsiblySubconciously knowin the act I was a part ofThe start of somethin, I'm not ready to bring into the worldHad myself believin I was sterileI look into mother's stomach, wonder if you are a boy or a girlTurnin this woman's womb into a tombBut she and I agree, a seed we don't needYou would've been much more than a mouth to feedBut someone, I woulda fed this information I readto someone, my life for you I woulda had to leaveInstead I lead you to deathI'm sorry for takin your first breath, first step, and first cryBut I wasn't prepared mentally nor financiallyHavin a child shouldn't have to bring out the man in mePlus I wanted you to be raised within a familyI don't wanna, go through the drama of havin a baby's mommaWeekend visits and buyin J's ain't gon' make me a fatherFor a while bearing a child is somethin I never wanted to doFor me to live forever I can only do that through youNerve I got to talk about them niggaz with a gunMust have really thought I was God to take the life of my sonI could have sacrificed goin outTo think my homies who did it I used to joke about, from now onI'ma use self control instead of birth controlCause $315 ain't worth your soul$315 ain't worth your soul$315 ain't worth it[Lauryn Hill (two layers of vocals, same words)]I, never dreamed you'd leave, in summerYou said you would be here when it rained[Common] YoWhy didn't you staySeeing you as a present and a gift in itselfYou had our child in you, I probably never feel what you feltBut you dealt with it like the strong black woman you areThrough our trials and tribulations, child's eliminationAn intergration of thoughts I feel about the situationBack and forth my feelings was pacinHappy deep down but not joyed enough to have itBut even that's a lie in less than two weeks, we was back at itIs this unprotected love or safe to say it's lustBustin, more than the sweat in somebody you trustOr is it that we don't trust each other enoughAnd believe, havin this child'll make us have to stay togetherGirl I want you in my life cause you have made it betterThinkin we all in love cause we can spend a day togetherWe talkin spendin the rest of our livesIt's too many black women that can say they mothersbut can't say that they wivesI wouldn't chose any other to mother my understandingBut I want our Parenthood to come from PlanningIt's so much in my life that's undoneWe gotta see eye to eye, about family, before we can become oneIf you had decided to have it the situation I wouldn't run fromBut I'm walkin, findin myself in my GodSo I can, discipline my son with my writinNot have a judge tellin me how and when to raise my seedThough his death was at our greed, with no one else to blameI had a book of Afrikan names, case our minds changedYou say your period hasn't came, and lately I've been sleepySo quit smokin the weed and the beadies and let's have this boy[Lauryn Hill]I, never dreamed you'd leave in summerYou said you would be here when it rained You said you would be here when it rainedOhh I, never dreamed you'd leave in summerNow the situation's made things change Things changeWhy, didn't you stay Why didn't you stay...I, never dreamed you'd leave, in summer In summerYou said you would be here when, it rained When it rained, it rainedOhhhohh I, never dreamed, you'd leave in summer You said you wouldn't leaveNow the situation's made things change Things change, why didn't you stay?Stay, stay stay stay stay stay stayMmmmm, stayyyUh-uhOhh why didn't you stay..