Third World Wide Lyrics

D.C., Somalia, North Philly, Philippines, Houston, New Orleans

All ghettos, all barrios, worldwide

What you know about this poor man's journey

He's got holes in his shoes and his jeans are hella dirty

Smile on his face with a wealth not worldly

With a style and a grace that got all these heads turning

High hopes and debts and pockets stay broken

No dope, high stress, in the streets discerning

Through all the false hopes and the lies they feed to you

Tryna build a future out of something feasible

But average income to some is just unreachable

Me, living like a cross of Che and Piñero

Resembling 'em both in that same scenario

Survivor of the third world since he was a day old

You learn to bundle up when you heat your house with a stove

Same house is a home for like 20 of your folks

Yo I've grown from a war-torn family

That came to America and still don't understand me, why

Because I just won't settle for they money or they schools

I care about my life more than American rules

Not just to be a fool but look what it's doing to you

Africa is dying and we all just tryna move

From Seattle to Soweto

All African ghettos

L.A., Palestine, and the body, soul, mind

Vieques, Chiapas, they just can't stop us

To Addis, Asmara, don't you forget Rwanda

Brooklyn, Planet Rockers, the belly of the monster

Senegal and on to Haiti and the DR

Everywhere that we are, to anywhere that we are

Still living like the third world even in the first

I rep for the second generation of African immigrants

Resisting assimilation

I've traced this lineage in my bones with chocolatey undertones

To Indigenous folks from Anahuac where I rock with a passion

Slight Amharic accent

Ain't no rites of passage

And it ain't no kind of magic on how I came to be a man

I dare to just imagine

And question everything they said up in this land of bastards

It's hard to tell the pimps from the poets and the pastors

While hella real men like MOVE and the Panthers get forgotten writing books while in handcuffs

I look up to men behind bars, and women that struggle hard

Everyday and every way, just ain't treated the same

And most times, guys just look the other way

It wouldn't be fair to say I understand the pain

But sister, you are my hero

And I'll never turn away

From Seattle to Soweto

All African ghettos

L.A., Palestine, and the body, soul, mind

Vieques, Chiapas, they just can't stop us

To Addis, Asmara, don't you forget Rwanda

Brooklyn, Planet Rockers, the belly of the monster

Senegal and on to Haiti and the DR

Everywhere that we are, to anywhere that we are

Still living like the third world even in the first

Some days I don't know how I'm gonna eat

And everybody in Seattle wants me to rhyme on they beats

Like I'm in too deep to sleep

When I do, in my dreams I see faces of little me, facing they new enemies

Schools and the prisons be the same damn industry

The whole rap world is just not really interesting

It stopped speaking to me when I started speaking to kids

16 years old and doing his second bid

For his age he spits hella better than I did

Only difference is he got caught for shit that I did

At his age and got away with

I'm not smarter

His skin is darker and the process is harder

Three strikes now and you a martyr

In America's favorite game that hasn't changed

Since the first Africans were brought in chains

To now we move by choice

But got colonized brains

From Seattle to Soweto

All African ghettos

L.A., Palestine, and the body, soul, mind

Vieques, Chiapas, they just can't stop us

To Addis, Asmara, don't you forget Rwanda

Brooklyn, Planet Rockers, the belly of the monster

Senegal and on to Haiti and the DR

Everywhere that we are, to anywhere that we are

Still living like the third world