[Phanatik]
Welcome to the city
Welcome to the gritty concrete
Where cons and creeps sweep sweet, pretty young girls off their feet
Off the Ave., off the beaten path
Cops walk the beat and clash with the bad bloods
The average thug is not a savage but
Likes to behave like Hades spat him up
This is "home of" the white tee's
Over the "wife beaters" down to the white sneaks
This must be a man's world cause
All these girls dress like they're dancers in the club
I drove up 106 and parked 'til it got dark
And watched as the L's got sparked
The shells shot sharp and whizzed by
And all I could think to myself is that Hell's not far A car stopped
The window came down
She lied about her age, hopped in and went down the wrong road
A song showed her how to get it
Radio played it, no edit
Video aided and abetted
A mom calls on Christ's name
As her youngest son takes his slain brother's place at the dice game
Nice aim, they taught you to aim for nothing and look
You hit it dead on the button
And we say it's all good just 'cause it's all hood
If only we all could live like we should
[Chorus]
First we grab the text
Next we read His mind
Then we hit the set
The set gets redesigned
Redefine city
Redefine hood
Redefine all
Redefine good
Redefine him
Redefine her
We need to try and swim
Up against the current
Redefine live
Redefine church
Read the fine print
From the divine Word
[Phanatik]
My XXL tells XXX tales
Sells XXX video cassettes through the mail
Since sex sells I guess the next logical step
Was for them to turn around and sell sex
I wrote 'em, they never wrote me back
Maybe it's time to go our separate ways like Kobe and Shaq
Hold up, rewind that - redefine that
Imagine the media feeding us divine facts
What if our magazines felt like they just had to screen what they gave us
And cared about how our kids were raised up?
Picture the radio letting a brotha' save a soul
And not playin' a jam unless it's showin' us the way to go
That's what the city could use and needs to see
New you's and me's troopin' these city streets
And just in case you can' t recollect
How this could be done let me run it down step by step
[Chorus]
[Phanatik]
Your dealin' with a pity feelin' X villain
Was feelin' pity for my city Philly that I'm still in
Lord willin' soon we'll start building up and filling
In the gaps between spiritual generations from our past and our children
We need real women on duty
Yeah, she's a cutie but her outer frame is eclipsed by inner beauty
Imagine that - a beauty pageant that's not based on a pretty face or thong
And where my fellas at?
All my zealous cats who shed a tear over the fact that Hell is packed
Cats that's jealous at the way the Lord is treated
Who see the Lord getting cheated on and they get heated
That's Elijah for you
That's the Bible for you
We gon' take the streets, that's revival for you
Tell 'em reverse that - run that verse back
Picture the city of brotherly love with no thugs
What if the big apple wasn't a rotten one
And cats were following the only begotten Son?
What if the 5th Ward
Had the light of Christ shinning in side of it and wasn't dark as a Sith Lord?
And New Jerus. was switched up
And started looking more like the New Jerus of Scripture?
So 'til that new Heaven and Earth comes down
Let's show 'em how we represent Heaven on Earth now
[Chorus]
