"These streets remind me of quicksand. When you're on it, you'll keep going down. And there's no one to hold on to and there's no one to pull you out. You keep on falling, no one can hear you calling so you end up self destructing. On the corner with the tool on the waist line. Just got up out the pen doing state time. Teeth marks on my back from the canine. Dark memories of when there was no sunshine 'cause they said that I wouldn't make it. I remember like yesterday. Holding on to what God gave me because that's the life that you're living in the ghetto, eating in the ghetto, sleeping in the ghetto.
No need to cherish luxuries, everything comes and goes. Even the life that you have is borrowed because you're not promised tomorrow. Live your life as if every day is going to be your last. Once you move forward, you can't go back, just pretend to remove your past. You gotta be willing to pray, yes, there's gotta be-- there's gotta be a better way. Whoever said that the struggle would stop today? A lot of niggas dead or locked away. Teenage woman growing up with AIDs.. "
-- Akon, ``Ghetto``