I Must Stand (the Dumb Mix) Lyrics

[Intro: Ice-T]
Ice-T; nineteen ninety six on that remix tip, you know what I'm saying?
Players on the heal, Rhyme Poetic Mafia on the boards
Doing it like this, for all y'all out there to know the real
Check the technique, I Must Stand!

[Verse One: Ice-T]
Just a kid, moms died when I was seven
Pops died eleven, what's up with heaven?
It's hell; when you're an orphan at an early age
It's an impressionable stage, no love breeds rage
In the heart of a child, who never knew his roots
Looked up to pimps and the hustlers in the Eel-skin boots
Parking Caddies on the sidewalk, gangster talk
Trucking diamonds and gold, Rubber bands around the bankrolls
Fly girls to make your head spin
Seemed they partied all day long, I was like 'Put me on!'
But they said: "Little fellow, run and go play
Take your butt to school or else you'll have to be like us one day"
I didn't understand, but I tried to get a job
While all the players got the girls cause they'd hustle and rob
I was like making about 1-50 a week
And after taxes, you know what that is; lunch meat

[Chorus: Angela Rollins]
Life on the streets ain't easy for a blackman
But you know I got your back, cause I understand
[Ice-T] Hey girl, you know I need you
Life on the streets ain't easy for a blackman
But you know I got some back, cause I understand

[Verse Two: Ice-T]
Streets of anger, trouble and crime
I had it hard, had to sleep in my car sometime
But I never let another player see me down
I kept my front up, my gear clean
Even when checking minor green
Brothers knew my game was true
So I hooked up with the real crew
Who knew exactly what to do
Bank jobs and jewels, quick to flex with tools
Pimping whores on the block, checking cash non-stop
Crack spots, armor with interior bars
No lie, I used to own about fifteen cars
Every piece Fila made, drape my women in suede
Pavet Piaget, Cesar's Palace holidays
It was on, crazy out of control
We made up the word 'balling', that was how we roll
But the FBI had a-whole-another idea
It's called multiple indictments for hundreds of years

[Chorus: Angela Rollins]

[Verse Three: Ice-T]
The game is vicious, no retirements, you die young
Listen to a fake, he might tell you to grab a gun
I get phone calls from condemned row
Brothers I ran with, brothers I really know
They tell me: "Ice you got much love in the pen'
You're the one that got away, don't wanna see you in"
They tell me: "Tell the little homies the deal
Don't have them come up in this hellish habitat of shanks and steels"
I marched two million strong in D.C.
Looking eye to eye with brothers that I used to think below me
Damn, my mind was twisted in my hustling days
But God spared me, I got a baby son to raise
And being black ain't easy, prejudice as real
But health and liberty is all we need for us to build
We gotta come together, unseparated
Check yourself like I did, blackman because we're all related

[Chorus: Angela Rollins]

[Ice-T] I must stand, I must stand!

[Chorus: Angela Rollins]
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