The Artist Pays The Price - 8Ball

The artist pays the price so you won’t have to pay

(Around the world in a day)

If only we would listen to what they have to say

We all go through changes to get to where we’re going

We have to learn a life of sacrifice (yeah, yeah, yeah) To keep on growin'

Yeah

Life is for learnin

Remember this

And learn from life

Think about the players in the past who died in sacrifice

Some died in wars for a country that oppressed them

Some died preachin—prayin for God to bless them

I am one of the blessed, born to bring the world poetry

Hip-hop, musically—expressing what’s inside of me

Some find me entertaining.

Some find me marketable

A potential Black millionaire so that makes me targetable

Low-lifes and fork-tongued devils get easy access

Flashin me faces, making empty promises

Soggy niggas sign contracts and make deals

Rappin bout who they killed

Talking bout they keeping it real

Hardcore homicidal, kingpins of the century

Need to quit rappin and leave this shit to the real MC’s

But ain’t no chance

Opposing forces got the upper hand

Do as they command to keep them from suffering

See, I don’t know everything

But my opinion I will voice

As long as I can choose

I’ll choose the right or the wrong choice

Addicted to Hip-hop beats

And hoes that can’t stay out the streets

Tryin to make a dollar

Without a nigga havin to rob and cheat

Got me hustling

Twenty-four-seven

Three-sixty-five

Coast to coast

Mic-checkin

Keeping the party alive

Engrave my name in the minds of those

Who bob to this

Slang and rob to this

Jack and rob to this

Herbs and meditation made a pill when I put it down

But individual perception will change each phrase around

Different towns

Ain’t none of this shit like Orange Mound

Players unified, digging on my mellow sound

Exec’s

Get big ole fat checks

For makin deals

While soldiers like me in the fields

Down there getting killed

When this is all over

If I could do it again, I do it twice

Before and after me, the artist will always pay the price

The industry

Full of broke niggas tryin to make a comeback

Rappin bout that bullshit

Over them weak-ass tracks

Judging me

When around the globe, ain’t nothing the same

Think how the world would be if none of this hit had ever changed

Ain’t like it used to be when hip-hop belonged to you and me

Shit got sugar coated—modified for tv

Niggas like me, don’t give a fuck about commercial air time

Forced underground, ain’t nothing commercial bout my rhymes

Rather be broke or slinging dope than hold my tongue back

Niggas who put on acts get they ass beat up and jacked

I’m not a killer—just a poet tryin to survive, nigga

Given the choice to ride or die, I chose to ride, nigga

I’m paying the price for all the real MC’s after me

Be a artist, not a slave for the industry

I’m paying the price for all the real MC’s after me

Be a artist, not a slave for the industry

Full of them trees

On them Hennesy’s

Fuckin with them G’s