Macklemore - Soldiers lyrics

This is for my soldiers Not my soldiers that chose to be soldiers But the soldiers that were forced to be soldiers Now whats the trouble, you scared of being a human? If the truth is a tool I double dare you to use it Hit the booth and Im well aware of what Im doin If I confuse you with the humor Im preparing them for the movement Ive been alive before and every persons got a purpose Most dont observe it or know what theyre striving towards Only you can light the torch Cause you wont survive the war if you dont know what the f** it is youre fighting for Most of us wont open up and trust the inner source Combined with being tempted to just accept it But dont twist the message, if you must think of my support Sometimes you gotta pull off the tees and get on some left right left sh** I worked with 80 soldiers hooded behind locked doors Forced into a war, an entrance with no exit Before they could grow up, just some crazy soldiers Armin them with crack and guns, in essence, defenseless Yup my man rappin k**smatic enhance them In his own words 21st century panther 13 years old gets into a fight Decided to steal the kids bike Cops come and he ends up in hand cuffs Two months in and now hes caught in the trap Got out, got caught with a gat and crack Now whatta these people think Juvenile life like that he grew up in a room with a mac And hell be policed until the day he can legally drink Now tell me whats the matter with this picture I wish it was a dream but it seems too vivid Theres blood on these streets I cant see whos is it I should probably mind my business I said tell me whats the matter with this picture I wish it was a dream but it seems to vivid Theres blood on these streets I can see whose is it America wants me to mind my business Now if you contain anything in a cage Its natural tendency is going to try to be escape right? When these kids get out of the gates and face life If you raised them as a criminal what do you estimate theyll behave like? The ratio is 80 something percent of kids who get locked up again or go straight to the pen And thats strange right Its a snowball effect, and they wanna see you again So they can make sure that America remains white Yup, going back on that race sh** Most of the neighborhoods are like cages they try and escape and If the American dream is to make it Its obviously blatant that if youre left with nothing, what do you do? Attempted Murder was the case My man got beat up, stomped in his face Ask George bush what you do when youre attacked His boy went and let it spray, hit one of them in the leg Now George you can relate, Remember Iraq, or was it Afghanistan? Just ain't funny Proving sometimes you gotta take something to make money My mans homie snitched and said that he planned to hit And hell be out when hes 46 Now aint the game something The soldiers follow the same orders The generals are Crips folk and south of the boarder Now is it a kid with a gun or the system he lives in that has his disorder If theres a fiend on the block, somebodys servin em If theres a teen with a Glock, theres a cop lookin to turn em in If you have something I want, theres somebody murderin Since 1492, where the f** do you think we learned it from Now tell me whats the matter with this picture I wish it was a dream but it seems too vivid Theres blood on these streets I cant see whose is it I should probably mind my business I said tell me whats the matter with this picture I wish it was a dream but it seems to vivid Theres blood on these streets I can see whose is it America wants me to mind my business