Just living every day in search of the black diamond and it's a beautiful struggle cause sometimes you gotta move through that dirt if you wanna find something precious and beautiful, nut let me just take you back to the life before

Let me take you back a couple steps
sitting on them project steps
never had a mutual fund but I seen them drugs invested
In my neighborhood where moms encourage fighting
And they on the side biting like a root canal
Cheering for they son saying I dare you to try him
this the neighborhood where fathers always leave
And poof the mother like magicians with no tricks under they sleeves
Silly rabbit
You left her them kids and some food stamps with no
Mail
To raise her children with no higher learning for sale
They just get high and learn it for sale
Street corners
side condemns
Broken pipes
Stolen bikes
Gave birth to hopeless
Child broken fiend
Stolen drive

This is where ugly and beautiful coincide
Hoping that heaven and earth finally collide
Corner stores where principles tell you don't step inside cause the store owners robbing all the kids blind
This the ground where no one dares to mine diamonds
Cause it to dangerous to dig all the precious minds in
The ghetto
To much fear to let go
But kid you gotta build your nation up like some Lego's
One block at a time
In hope that you will find

A black diamond
A black diamond
You a black diamond
I'm hoping that you shine
I'm hoping that you rise
Out the dirt and you shine
Like a Black Diamond
You a Black Diamond
My people are black diamonds
We all are black diamonds

I never knew this was a horrible neighborhood but my block was on the news I saw dead people

The way we living is wild
This is the village that raised your child
This is the place they tell us to smile
Tomorrow may not have room for the two of us
This is where kids don't make it home from the school bus
Cause they caught a stray bullet when the tool bust
And police can't guarantee Home Depot warranty
And the government they tell us that they love us
But they gave birth to the word
Life thug was
I'm dyslexic
Thug life was birthed from poverty in projects that where played like monopoly
I hope you find the diamond that where managed improperly in the ground
Where no piece was sound
Hope was found
Cherish the pieces that you bound
lock your future in confinement
Please I hope your shining
In the ground like a black diamond

A black diamond
My people are Black Diamonds
You a Black Diamond
I'm hoping that you shine
I'm hoping that you rise out the dirt and you shine
Like a black diamond
A black diamond
You a Black Diamond
My people are black diamonds
We all are black diamonds

So if you in the struggle right now I want you to know that in the mist of that dirt there's something that glitters
It's solid it's beautiful
It's bold
And we are the black diamonds of the world
And we were made to shine but sometimes you gotta dust a little bug of that dirt of to see what we are really made of and to see the potential that we have

Keep shining
Keep searching
Keep knowing
Keep loving
Cause you a black diamond