I won't be afraid
I won't go astray
I won't be afraid
You won't catch me running
You're ruling the way that I move
This is my prayer

The pool of blood is cherry red
The chariot's on fire, the Mercedes is filled with lead
But I'm still alive, oh my God, God bless the dead
Heavy is the crown, so where this one lay his head?
I'm headed for redemption 'cause
I've been embedded with henchmen
Entrenched in evеrything that was opposite of Princeton
Nothin' but resеntment, bridges burnin' like incense
It made sense then, but then you come to your senses
You see pain, you smell fear
you taste death, you hear screams
You sleep what you sow, you wide awake, but you feel dreams
And that's the beat that Ye gave me to give the culture
Came in with a pure heart and it was ate up by the vultures
La Costra Nostra, hangin' over my grandmother's sofa
Got replaced by my Lil' Kim poster
'Cause I idolized Hova when him and Nas went shoulders
And the day that Ether dropped, I told myself that

I won't be afraid of the trigger or the blade
I won't go astray like a bullet bein' sprayed
So I wouldn't be afraid when it's time to run a fade
You won't catch me runnin' unless it's to the stage
The rules to the way that I move never change
I come from where the people pray
for everything (This is my prayer)
Yeah, whoever put a wish in the air
Then turn around and put a fist in the air
I pray you listen, yeah

I was still breathin' with bullets lodged in my chest
Talkin' to death, regurgitated blood is hard to ingest, uh
The karma for me miscalculatin' my steps
For breakin' my mother's heart
just obeyin' what she suggest, uh
No welcome mat on the porch, but I welcomed threats
When opposition was parked in position to intercept
With no internet, so caught in the web, can't disconnect
Survival stirred inside of a pot of gumbo with intellect, uh
Judged by twelve, carried by the gurney, you pick
Out the Ice Cube on Higher Learning
As the world keeps turnin', only God can determine
How many turns we get before it's ashes in that furnace
So pardon me if I'm earnest
and the fact I'm not concerned with
Other people's remains that I
will be trapped in that urn with
And if I die of natural causes, then I have earned it
A life of discernment and I promise you

I won't be afraid of the trigger or the blade
I won't go astray like a bullet bein' sprayed
So I wouldn't be afraid when it's time to run a fade
You won't catch me runnin' unless it's to the stage
The rules to the way that I move never change
I come from where the people pray
for everything (This is my prayer)
Yeah, whoever put a wish in the air
Then turn around and put a fist in the air
I pray you listen, yeah

If I somehow knew the moment I would perish
Like Malcolm at the Audubon or Martin on the terrace
If Heaven'll have my spirit, hope it ain't no interference
Angels upon appearance like Miss Jacqueline and Clarence
Tappin' into courage, that's if knew when I'd surrender
To a burnin' ember for the world to partially remember
I just pray I've earned my membership
when I return to sender
Don't let 'em do me like Sam Cooke at the Hacienda
That shit got me tender, I guess whenever I get somethin'
The way that I be runnin'
probably chillin' with my woman and my youngins
Tellin' them how I'd already seen it comin'
'Cause ain't no way Allah gon'
give us everything for nothin'
When God press the button
and I go from flesh into the essence
I'll quest for every message meant for
me during my presence on this rock
Separate my life from my profession like in Severance
No lyrics, no numerics, just the ones I hold the nearest

I won't be afraid of the trigger or the blade
I won't go astray like a bullet bein' sprayed
So I wouldn't be afraid when it's time to run a fade
You won't catch me runnin' unless it's to the stage
The rules to the way that I move never change
I come from where the people pray
for everything (This is my prayer)
Yeah, whoever put a wish in the air
Then turn around and put a fist in the air
I pray you listen, yeah