When you grow up in my hood
Help don't show up in my hood
Gang signs go up in my hood, just 'cause you in my hood
Feel like I'm trapped in my hood
Young kids get clapped in my hood
That's why I'm strapped in my hood, just 'cause you in my hood
In my hood, in my hood, in my hood

I'm always close to
Feeling like a corner stander, stoop sitter, or hallway post-er
No matter where I go it's always 'posed to, feel just like it's (in my hood)
Cops drive in it every 5 minutes, look at your faces, pat your waists'
Try to find the stash where the gats and base is, I can't say that they racist
But I know it ain't the same in they town
And as fucked up as it may sound (in my hood)
It's 2 ways to make it happen off the streets
Balling on the courts or rapping off the beats
You hear the shells tappin' off the 'crete, when they clappin' off the heat
Then the yellow tape's trappin' off the street
But that's the way we was raised
Preying to God, hoping that he keep us out the way of them strays

When you grow up in my hood
Help don't show up in my hood
Gang signs go up in my hood, just 'cause you in my hood
Feel like I'm trapped in my hood
Young kids get clapped in my hood
That's why I'm strapped in my hood, just 'cause you in my hood
In my hood, in my hood, in my hood

They drink 'til the cups dry, eat 'til the plate's clean
Niggaz be in state greens 'fore they turn 18
'Round here you never let the beef slide twice
Everybody raised on 4 wings and beef fried rice
Them mothers are getting younger today
Got one by the hand, one in the stroller and one on the way
We don't have role models
But we got them handguns that hold hollows (in my hood)
Ain't no diplomas or degrees
But you can get high from the aroma of the trees (in my hood)
I know it like navigation, and fuck having patience
I'ma get mine, you better get yours, 'cause everyday is a struggle
And One-Time ride through everyday just to bug you
That's how it is, 'cause your rights be wrong
And everybody got a white T on, when you're in my hood

When you grow up in my hood
Help don't show up in my hood
Gang signs go up in my hood, just 'cause you in my hood
Feel like I'm trapped in my hood
Young kids get clapped in my hood
That's why I'm strapped in my hood, just 'cause you in my hood
In my hood, in my hood, in my hood

We try to make the most of what we got
You either been hit, or been close to gettin' shot (in my hood)
Any nigga that boast be getting got
And dopeheads fiend to get a dose of what we got
And young niggaz be like they slow
But you give them a blunt bet they roll the weed like a pro
If you trick it's not a problem it gets you laid
But if you stick without a condom, it gets you AIDS
No Sesame Street, kids watch BET
Look up to niggaz that don't got a GED
I know a dude with the deadbeat tag
Kids don't got diapers but he ridin' in the red G-Wag'
In the hood, you and your beef is sure to bump heads
And everybody grew up sleepin' on bunk beds
They telling me to vote and I would
If it made a change in my hood mu'fucka

When you grow up in my hood
Help don't show up in my hood
Gang signs go up in my hood, just 'cause you in my hood
Feel like I'm trapped in my hood
Young kids get clapped in my hood
That's why I'm strapped in my hood, just 'cause you in my hood
In my hood, in my hood, in my hood

Copyright: Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Writer(s): John David Jackson, Teraike Crawford