its fun to be a ganster when you're a kid
just think about what Al Capone did
all that fast life, guns and money
shootin' people down 'cause they look at you funny
like a big shot way high up on a stump
you can snap your fingers and watch everybody jump
it's a power dream sometimes comes true
'till you meet somebody's got more power than you do

it feels good to be bad when its right to be wrong
and a life sentence don't seem so long

its a hard world, concrete and steel
and it' hard to know just how you feel
when every other hero on the movie screen
is an action man with a killing machine
you see the mighty muscles flex and flaunt
seems like they get almost anything they want
politicians in plain criminal view
and if they can do it why not you

it's a childhood world of walled-off yards
metal detectors and armed guards
cops patrolling the hamburger stand
seems like almost everybody's got a gun in their hand
you come rollin' up in your rap machine
adrenalin pumpin' the excitable scene
you can feel the action, you're catchin' the buzz
you gotta make your move before somebody else does

you get caught struttin' down that criminal line
they gonna put you away for a long time
now why'd you want to go and let them lock you down
you know it's the biggest business around
they don't care about how you rehabilitate
you're just a cash-flow, like real estate
three strikes you're out, that's what they say
somebody's gonna get rich while you whither away

when I was a kid I was real dumb
I had no idea how a puppet got strung
I thought I had my own point to prove
I didn't know there was somebody makin' me move
now after all those years apart
now it's time for the puppet to start to get smart
put down that pipe and pick up your brain
we're gonna have to re-invent the rules to this tired old game