Message To The Soldier

Message To The Soldier - ICE-T

Yo Ice

You've been down with the struggle for a long time man

What you drop some knowledge for these brothers

Who want to get involved in this war

Take notes real gangstas wear trench coats

Grey suits black ties and they seek votes

And you're not to be misled

They'll kill you in your f**kin' bed

They don't sell d**e yo excuse me yes they do

But they don't look that much like me or you

But if you pull up the sheets and expose them

They'll crawl up like snakes and show fangs of venom

Now I've been a soldier for years

Representin' the tattooed tears

Other brothas locked with no choice

Left in the bowels of devil with no voice

Phones are tapped my crib is bugged

My car is tailed from club to club

And this ain't no f**kin' joke

They want to see a n**ga broke

You can't slip if you slip you're out

You gotta know what you're talkin' about

Drop science every chance you get

Hit direct and indirect

Speak in code 'cause you're never alone

That's why I use this low tone

Follow this and you might grow older

This is a message to the soldiers

Message to the soldiers

Message to the soldiers

Message to the soldier

Now they killed king and they shot x

Now they want me you could be next

All you gotta do is speak too loud

All you gotta do is be too proud

'Cause once you let 'em know

Who you are and where you're at

You better watch your back

'Cause you might think you're just d**e

While you're livin' in a sniper's scope

I'm not tryin' to scare you

But there's danger if you get too deep

Some nights I don't sleep

All you wanna do is tell the truth

All you wanna do is save the youth

Ice cube knows Souljah knows PE knows

They throw death blows

And if you got kids or a girl that's true

They'll move on them too

But when I'm gone I'm gonna need you to carry on

You gotta be strong

And fight for our salvation

But there will be retaliation soldier

This is a message to the soldiers

Soldier

This is a message to the soldiers

To think that rap could be attacked

Is ignorin' the simple fact

That they never meant for us to speak

They had planned to keep the black man weak

But rap hit the streets

Black rage amplified over d**e beats

Now they want to shut us down

And they don't f**k around

Check the history books son

Black leaders die young

They tell us that your words are scary

They're revolutionary

Because we speak the truth about crime and ***

And expose the real thugs

This info is not beneficial

To the groups that go by three initals

So they try to discredit

They'll dog you with an edit

Print the words the way you never said it

But we gotta make 'em regret it soldier

Message to the soldiers

Message to the soldiers

Word

I know a lot of brothas out there

Want to get in to this war

You know what I'm sayin'

A lot of sistas got a lot of knowledge

They wanna drop on our people

But right now they're movin' to shut down all hip hop

The first amendment had absolutely nothin' to do with black people

At the time the constitution was written

We were considered nothin' but property

The expectation of havin' black people speak on records

Never came to mind

So we gotta move

But believe me all the other black leaders have been silenced

And most of the time it's been violent

So if you choose to get in this war

Realize what you're in for

Yeah

But we gotta move on

And we gotta stay strong

Message to the soldiers

Welcome to the struggle

Message to the soldiers

Be careful

Soldier