Common Songs - The Neighborhood Lyrics

Common - The Neighborhood

Common - The Neighborhood Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Nobody's Smiling
Released: 2014

The Neighborhood Lyrics

Thousand lives ago
We were young and we didn't know
We were trading our crowns for our souls
Made the sacrifice
Headed back to the light
But be careful don't drown in the gold
I know it glows but it's cold

I'm from the other side of town
Out of bounds
To anybody who don't live around
I never learned to share or how to care
I never had no teachings about being fair

Have you ever heard of Black Stone around Black Stones?
And Four C H'd, Vice Lords, Stony Island on Aces
The concrete matrix, street organizations
They gave violations, hood public relations
It was the basics to get big faces
Stay away from cases, bad broads, good graces
The hustles was the taste makers and trend setters
They the ones that fed us hopin' that the feds don't get us
The era of Reagan, the terror of Bush
Crack babies, momma's a push, we were the products of Bush
I'm wishin' for a Samurai Suzuki and a little Gucci
A bad ho to BBB do me, you heard of flukey?
Stokes it was folks and coke and dope
Fiends choked off of smoke, herringbones and rope
Rare jewels of a generation
Diamonds, blind enough so real shit we facin'
Forties wasted on seats, Dion makin' the beats
When they air it out on at the parties we escapin' the heat
I could break it down like whatever you need
He squinted his face and rolled the weed

You know they don't see sometimes
That in The Neighborhood
It's the exact same thing
It's the same thing over and over again
Feel me?

Have you ever heard of no limit, three hundred, six hundred?
Folly boy, O block, east side
Where it ain't no conversation they just let them heats ride
Can't nobody stop the violence, why my city keep lyin'?
Niggas throw up peace signs but everybody keep dying
Used to post up on that strip, I look like a street sign
I've been out there three days and I got shot at three times
Felt like every bullet hit me when they flew out each nine
I be happy when I wake up and I have a free mind
I know haters wanna clap me up, watch the morgue grab me up
But they can catch me later, I been cool, chasin' paper
Where I come from ain't no hope if you was claimin' that was major
Small crib, big fam, mom was workin', granny raised us
No food in the refrigerator, I was bangin', pullin' capers, that's real shit
Same niggas from day one boy, yeah I'm still with
Better watch out for that jump shot cause they will hit
Hungry take your shorty lunchbox, and won't feel shit
I came from a place where it's basic but you won't make it
Feds buildin' cases, judges who racist and full of hatred I mean
You ain't never seen the shit that I seen

Coming inbound
Forty six minutes from 3:55
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North Avenue to Chicago, jammed north through Grant Park
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Writer/s: MAYFIELD, CURTIS / LYNN, LONNIE / FAUNTLEROY, JAMES / WILSON, ERNEST / WRIGHT, HERBERT
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group, UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUB GROUP, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, REACH MUSIC PUBLISHING
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Neighborhood

This song paints a picture of the struggles for a young black kid in Common's native Chicago. It features Common's fellow Ch-town natives Lil Herb and James Fauntleroy of Cocaine 80s.

Speaking on a video posted on XXLMag.com, Common said Lil Herb added a unique perspective to the song. "'The Neighborhood' is - When I say that word it just makes me think of where I live and where I come from," he said. "And where a person comes from. And this song was really about - This is where I come from. This is the way I was raised. This is a place I've come from.

"And then I always thought about when we made the music," Common continued. "When we made that song it was like man, I wanted to hear somebody else's perspective. We knew that was gon' be the intro to the album. 'The Neighborhood' was. I wanted to hear somebody else's perspective on what the neighborhood was to them and where they come from."

"It happened to be Lil Herb point blank after No I.D. played me Lil Herb," the Chi-town rapper added. "I heard him and I kept listening to some of his other stuff. I was like 'This dude is raw.' And he was the perfect emcee, perfect artist to put on there. Cause he told his perspective in a cold way."

The song samples a few lines from Curtis Mayfield's 1970 dark tune "The Other Side of Town," in which the Chicagoan singer reflects on those who have it better the other side of the city. Its inclusion on this cut is an acknowledgement of how inner-city struggles carry on ad infinitum.