A question was raised to me the other day
"Why it seem you always have joy?"
Well, I'd like to take time to set the record straight..


All the joy I've ever known
Has disappeared

- in the mother$#&@in thin air
Like it's never even been there
My joy left me y'all


[Chorus]
God's rain water flow through the same gutter

That we, walk today gotta stay brave brother
Keep your lips stiff, keep your fist clenched
At times you gotta kick your way through this (*##$


[Verse 1]
And I can't stop feelin empty smiling

A wise man once told me that every cloud has a silver lining
I wanted to believe him but it's a trick to find 'em
When the people around me continue dying

Granddad was in the twilight of his life
When he closed his eyes tight and opened his wrists wide
What make a tenth round finer with the winning score

Decide to eat or throw it's hollow for the whistle blow
Maybe I'll never know
But I inherited this poetic soul so the symbolism's yet to show

Was life so obscene that death's more serene?
Or was an old author tryin to write his own closing scene?
Nothing stings like knowing that the woman that gave me this life

Is being eaten from the inside
I thought we never make %#@! right
I wish I had of viewed it once clear before you were done here

That's two in one year that I let leave here
Loving me without sheding one single tear
Either I'm one of the strongest people left

Or y'all just tow me for even tryin to steal breath

[Chorus x2]

And God's rain water flow through the same gutter
That we, walk today gotta stay brave brother
Keep your lips stiff, keep your fist clenched

At times you gotta kick your way through this (*##$

[Verse 2]

They say %#@!'s strapped but you are by yourself, ain't ya?
Damn straight, I got a jail cell mantra
Been boxed up but I never been settled in

Him got tough started developin leather skin
I learned to make that face that tells predators
It's better to re-assess just who you bout to wrestle with

I'm on a run like the first kick drum of the beat
Clear my lungs, spit blood on the street
They tellin me we got nuttin to fear but fear itself

But I fear I have no human fear left
Some day a runner wanna peel back this catharsis
And really feel life again and ask what my challenge is

I been kickin and bitin for so long and
When they throw me a rescue rope I'll be too weary to hold on
And see the light, so I sing through the tears

And the key of life, the way a wounded ego might

[Chorus x2]

And God's rain water flow through the same gutter
That we, walk today gotta stay brave brother
Keep your lips stiff, keep your fist clenched

At times you gotta kick your way through this (*##$

My joy left me y'all

She don't show her face around his past
Every time she come she get chased off
So she stay distant


[Verse 3]
If it run from the square he wouldn't know the sun was out

I hate every word that come outta his $#&@in mouth
Ladies treat him special, don't know nuttin bout him
If saw what his wife see they wouldn't fluster bout him
He can't do %#@! right but rap and make babies
And babies need daddy at home consistent

But rap keep daddy on the road religious
So even in my two loves my soul's so conflicted
My son came into this world innocent
He deserves everything that he needs to live in it
And this home I made for him is broken

I'm hopin his love for me will never grow thin
It hurts daddy to no end to know when
You're cryin at the hospital I'm out tryin to rock a show
I made a vow that we'd never be broke again
And I'd never be a burden on another friend

So when I'm sweatin on my farewell stage
And wrote my last hook in my last rhyme book
When I get my last line of approval from my family
This is the man that I have to be


[Chorus x4]
And God's rain water flow through the same gutter
That we, walk today gotta stay brave brother
Keep your lips stiff, keep your fist clenched
At times you gotta kick your way through this (*##$


Sometimes
I feel
Like I'm Al-most gone