We Don’t Care (College Dropout)
We put shit on layaway, then come back
We claim other people kids on our income tax
We take that money, cop work, then push packs to get paid
And we don’t care what people say
The drug game bulimic, it’s hard to get weight
A nigga’s money is homo, it’s hard to get straight
But we gon’ keep bakin’ til the day we get cake
And “we don’t care what people say”
Sad enough we on welfare, they tryna put me on the school bus
With no space for the wheelchair
I’m tryna get the car with the chromie wheels here
They tryna cut our lights out like we don’t live here
Look what was handed us, fathers abandoned us
When we get them hammers, go on, call the ambulance
Sometimes I feel no one in this world understands us
But “we don’t care what people say,”
All Falls Down (College Dropout)
‘Cause that’s enough money to buy her a few pairs
Of new Airs, ‘cause her baby daddy don’t really care
She’s so precious with the peer pressure
Couldn’t afford a car, so she named her daughter Alexis
Man, I promise, I’m so self-conscious
That’s why you always see me with at least one of my watches
Rollie’s and Pasha’s done drove me crazy
I can’t even pronounce nothin’, pass that Ver-say-see!
It seems we livin’ the American Dream
But the people highest up got the lowest self-esteem
The prettiest people do the ugliest things
For the road to riches and diamond rings
We shine because they hate us, floss ’cause they degrade us
We tryna buy back our 40 acres
We’ll buy a lot of clothes, but we don’t really need ’em
Things we buy to cover up what’s inside
‘Cause they made us hate ourself and love they wealth
That’s why shorty’s hollerin’, “Where the ballers at?”
Drug dealer buy Jordan, crackhead buy crack
And the white man get paid off of all of that
I got a couple past-due bills, I won’t get specific
I got a problem with spendin’ before I get it
We all self-conscious, I’m just the first to admit it
Spaceship (College Dropout)
“The kid that made that deserves that Maybach!”
So many records in my basement
I’m just waiting on my spaceship
Jesus Walks (College Dropout)
You know what the Midwest is? Young and restless
Where restless (niggas) might snatch your necklace
And next these (niggas) might jack your Lexus
Somebody tell these (niggas) who Kanye West is
So here go my single, dawg, radio needs this
They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, videotape
But if I talk about God my record won’t get played, huh?
Well if this take away from my spins
Which’ll probably take away from my ends
Then I hope this take away from my sins
And bring the day that I’m dreamin’ about
Next time I’m in the club, everybody screamin’ out
Never Let Me Down (College Dropout)
I get down for my grandfather who took my mama
Made her sit in that seat where white folks ain’t want us to eat
At the tender age of 6, she was arrested for the sit-ins
And with that in my blood I was born to be different
That’s why I hear new music and I just don’t be feelin’ it
Racism’s still alive, they just be concealin’ it
Family Business (College Dropout)
As kids, we used to laugh
Who knew that life would move this fast?
Who knew I’d have to look at you through a glass?
And look, you tell me you ain’t did it then you ain’t did it
And if you did, then that’s family business
And you don’t wanna stay there cause them your worst cousins
Got roaches at their crib like them your first cousins
Act like you ain’t took a bath with your cousins
Fit 3 in the bed if it’s 6 of y’all
I’m talkin’ ’bout three by the head and three by the leg
But you ain’t have to tell my girl I used to pee in the bed
I feel like one day you’ll understand me, dog
You can still love your man and be manly, dog
Heard ‘Em Say (Late Registration)
Keep believing in Jesus, and one day that you see him
‘Til then walk in his footsteps and try to be him
The devil is alive I feel him breathin
Claiming money is the key, so keep on dreamin
And put them lottery tickets just to tease us
Touch The Sky (Late Registration)
Before anybody wanted K. West beats
Me and my girl split the buffet at KFC
Dog, I was havin’ nervous breakdowns
Like “Man, these niggas that much better than me?”
Baby, I’m goin’ on an aeroplane
And I don’t know if I’ll be back again
I’m tryin’ to right my wrongs
But it’s funny them same wrongs helped me write this song
Gold Digger (Late Registration)
He got that ambition, baby, look at his eyes
This week he moppin’ floors, next week it’s the fries
Crack Music (Late Registration)
How we stop the Black Panthers?
Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer
You hear that? What Gil Scott was hearin’
When our heroes or heroines got hooked on heroin
Crack raised the murder rate in D.C. and Maryland
We invested in that, it’s like we got Merrill lynched
And we been hangin’ from the same tree ever since
Sometimes I feel the music is the only medicine
Roses (Late Registration)
I know it’s past visiting hours
But can I please give her these flowers?
The doctor don’t wanna take procedures
He claim her heart can’t take the anaesthesia
It’ll send her body into a seizure
That lil’ thing by the hospital bed, it’ll stop beepin
Hey, chick, I’m at a loss for words
What do you say at this time? Remember when I was 9?
Bring Me Down (Late Registration)
You see, if you ever wanted to ever be anything
There’d always be somebody that shoot down any dream
There’ll always be haters, that’s the way it is
Hater niggas marry hater bitches and have hater kids
Diamonds From Sierra Leone -remix (Late Registration)
Though it’s thousands of miles away
Sierra Leone connects to what we go through today
Over here it’s a drug trade, we die from drugs
Over there they die from what we buy from drugs
I thought my Jesus piece was so harmless
‘Til I seen a picture of a shorty armless
And here’s the conflict
It’s in a black person soul to rock that gold
Spend your whole life tryin’ to get that ice
On a Polo rugby, it looks so nice
How can somethin’ so wrong make me feel so right?
Hey Mama (Late Registration)
I wanna tell the whole world about a friend of mine
This little light of mine and I’m finna let it shine
I’m finna take y’all back to them better times
I’m finna talk about my mama if y’all don’t mind
Forrest Gump mama said, “Life is like a box of chocolates”
My mama told me go to school, get your doctorate
Somethin to fall back on, you could profit with
But still supported me when I did the opposite
Can’t you see, you’re like a book of poetry
Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, turn one page and there’s my mommy
Gone (Late Registration)
Y’all don’t want no prob’ from me
What you rappers could get is a job from me
Maybe you could be my intern and in turn
I’ll show you how I cook up summer in the winter
I’m ahead of my time, sometimes years out
So the powers that be won’t let me get my ideas out
And that make me wanna get my advance out
And move to Oklahoma and just live at my aunt’s house
Yeah, I romance the thought of leaving it all behind
Kanye step away from the lime, light
They claim you never know what you got ’til it’s gone
I know I got it, I don’t know what y’all on
Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Late Registration)
If your stripper name “Porsche” and you get tips from many men
Then your fat friend, her nickname is “Minivan”
Excuse me, that’s just the Henny, man
What more could you ask for? The international asshole
Who complain about what he is owed?
And throw a tantrum like he is three years old
You gotta love it though: somebody still speaks from his soul
My father been said I need Jesus
So he took me to church and let the water wash over my caesar
The preacher said we need leaders
Right then my body got still like a paraplegic
Late (Late Registration)
Yeah, I hear the alarm, yeah, I hear you, Mom
Yeah, yeah, I don’t wan’ be broke when I’m thirty-one
They said the best classes go to the fastest, sorry, Mr. West
There’s no good classes, and that’s what yo’ ass get
Not even electives? Not even prerequisites?
You mean I missed my major by a couple of seconds?
Now I’m in the shop class or the basket weavin’
With all the rest of the motherfuckers underachievin’
I Feel Kinda Free 