The Hard Times Make A True Friend

Let Me Say For The Record, I Am Not A Gangster And Never Have Been. I'm Not The Thief Who Grabs Your Purse. I'm Not The Guy Who Jacks Your Car. I'm Not Down With People Who Steal And Hurt Others. I'm Just A Brother Who Fights Back. I'm Not Some Violent Closet Psycho. I've Got A Job. I'm An Artist.

They Wanna Censor Me, They Ratha See Me In A Cell, Livin' In Hell, With Only A Few Of Us To Live To Tell.

If You Walked By A Street And You Was Walking A Concrete And You Saw A Rose Growing From Concrete, Even If It Had Messed Up Petals And It Was A Little To The Side You Would Marvel At Just Seeing A Rose Grow Through Concrete. So Way Is It That When You See Some Ghetto Kid Grow Out Of The Dirtiest Circumstance And He Can Talk And He Can Sit Across The Room And Make You Cry, Make You Laugh, All You Can Talk About Is My Dirty Rose, My Dirty Stems And How Am Leaning Crooked To The Side, U Can't Even See That I've Come Up From Out Of That.

To Me, A Perfect Album Talks About The Hard Stuff And The Fun And Caring Stuff.

I Don't Know How To Change The World But I Know If I Keep Talking About How Dirty It Is Out Here, Somebody Gon Clean It Up.