[Chorus: Woman singing]
I see people hating other people
Tell me what's the reason
That your kid is hungry, you ain't got no money
What's the reason?

[Verse 1: Nas]
By the time of age nine I'm already decidin'
If I can protect mommy from the hood by fightin'
Or usin' a knife or a gun when I'm twenty-one
By by then them hoods woulda pushed their way in our apartment
And we die then, so I been a young nervous wreck in the projects
Watchin' them older niggaz pass pot and they high man
I'm just a young boy, snot nose, hair nappy
Cops ride by squeezin' their trigger fingers at me
So I would go to school and try to get good grades
Teacher wrote mommy and kicked me outta school for havin' braids
So she cussed them, said "My son ain't no motherfuckin' hoodlum"
They judged us, thinking that we dumb 'cause where we come from
Got a little older and now I see
Young niggaz wanted by the powers that be (powers that be)

[Chorus: Woman singing]
I see people hating other people
Tell me what's the reason
That your kid is hungry, you ain't got no money
What's the reason?
For these wars we're fighting with each other
Season after season
When you're workin' hard, but there ain't nothing comin'
What's the reason?

[Verse 2: Nas]
Uh, picture a Black nanny and a baby in a basket pushin' down 5th Ave
She never had it, it's not hers to begin with
She gives it breakfast, baths and dinners
Treats it so tender while her own kids live alone at home with no phone on
Ain't had a good meal in so long, but so long as mommy's a maid
Cookin' and cleanin', she wanna feed her kids and her kids are dreamin'
Where's my daddy, who's my daddy, have you seen him?
I could imagine them askin', what type of human be-ing
Could leave his family, go back to the Carribean?
Was he locked up, shot up, does he have freedom?
Mom said wipe your tears, keep readin'
But daddy's somewhere, spirit broken, feelin' defeated
A man feels he has to conquer all
The world is his oyster, his pearl so y'all know

[Chorus: Woman singing]
I can't find no reason why we can't all live in peace
'Cause this world keeps spinning, yet still I wonder what's the reason

I see people hating other people
Tell me what's the reason
When you're workin' hard but there ain't nothin' comin'
What's the reason?
Oooh-whoa-ooh-whoa

[Verse 3: Nas]
I know a girl, her boyfriend was a fugitive
She's intuitive, be on some stupid shit
She called the cops 'cause she hated his mother
Now he away doin' numbers, now she gay with her lover
How many niggaz gon' die this summer?
I pump life in my music, but still life is a wonder
There's a officer in a squad car, he's a prostitute serial killer
It's odd, huh? 'Cause he's the same cop in church with his wife
He's molestin' his son and she ignores it at night
Little bad ass bastard, lights a match and kills Betty Shabazz
in her pad while she slept
They said Prescott Bush funded Hitler while the world's in a twister
Nigga, what you expect? Imagine what's next

[Chorus: Woman singing]
I see people hating other people
Tell me what's the reason
That your kid is hungry, you ain't got no money
What's the reason?
For these wars we're fighting with each other
Season after season
When you're workin' hard, but there ain't nothing comin'
What's the reason?

[Woman harmonizes as Nas talks:]
"Uh, uh, man, man'll search the whole planet, looking for what
Try to conquer all. So what? To all my niggaz with they
kids that love they kids, man. All the daddies out there
To all the niggaz that died tryin'a figure out what's what
Tryin'a be the biggest of the big, you know. Yeah, yeah
Ladies forgive us. Gotta forgive us. For we know not what
we do. Breakin' hearts, leavin' the crib, buggin' out and
shit. Just man... man."