In the hood I live and found family

Blacks are my brothers and Arabs are my brothers and whites are my friends

In the hood we do free style raping

Blacks know me And call me their nigga

This is real America in the hood

People know me and love me more than anyone

I write poetry and they hear it

I give books to black and whites

They come to me for books

They told me I should be a teacher

I told them I will be a professor in Harvard

They told me I’m good with words

I already knew it when I was a kid

In the hood I found family and friends

In the hood I became a man

In the hood I became a poet

In the hood I became a philosopher

In the hood I became a teacher

In the hood I became what I am

In the hood I find myself

In the hood I made real friends

In the hood I learn truths

In the hood I read

In the hood I wrote

In the hood I earn my living

In the hood I get my education

In the hood and on the streets I experience

Experience life at its best not in dorms

In the hood I became a genius

In the hood my ambitions grow

In the hood and in the hood

In the hood I find my own hood