J. Cole — Cant Cry

[Intro] Yeah Need y’all niggas to feel me, yo Feel my pain Said soft niggas can’t last hard times, yo Believe that shit Yeah (yeah), aye (aye) Real niggas don’t cry Look, yo [Verse 1] Was just a youngin’ with that fresh fade Bird chest, legs skinny That hoop dreaming had me tryna be the next Penny Fresh Pennys on my feet Momma paid for everything I’m wearing At the fair staring at girls, not a care in the world Aw nigga, but shit done changed since Mane was my nickname A little nigga chasing things, tryna kick game Now I’m a man worried about my fam Let me explain It’s like my pockets stay broke, and if not them shit’s sprained And so I rap for my niggas trapped in the struggle You feeling like the world’s on your back so you stumble In the field like a quarterback get sacked, then you fumble Jobs don’t call a nigga back, so it’s back to the hustle Niggas praying for they moms, the same time they moms pray for them Ask the Lord to stay with them, guide them on they way But damn a nigga been a lost faith It hurts on the usual The only time you catch me up at church is a funeral (damn) [Hook] Sometimes sunshine turn to rain my nigga The same ones you love will bring you pain, my nigga I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow But I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry And in this life, times getting hard my nigga But fuck that, I’m aiming for the stars, my nigga I won’t stop, try ‘til the day I die And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry, no (ay, ay, ay, yea) (listen, yo) [Verse 2] I sit back and watch the news every now and then Either get depressed or mad from watching the world just crash Even the weather’s bad It be the same shit, got my brain twisted Like, “Damn it’s ’06 and niggas still up on that gang shit?” (that shit old, dawg) Yesterday this kid got his whole frame split Only seventeen, he was finna graduate in like three weeks Some stupid niggas got him for his chain But he fought back, they blasted him and left him on the pavement, uh (rest in peace) And now they telling me this little girl just got raped Some dude snatched her, she was standing at the bus stop Wait man, she was eleven! What the fuck is up with this world? Got these grown niggas fucking with girls? Plus the cops harassing us Every week be blasting us, on accident, or so they claim Reporters sympathizing like they truly know the pain (right) They killed her only son Now she wanna blow her brains out Change the channel man, I can’t watch this shit [Hook] Sometimes sunshine turn to rain my nigga The same ones you love will bring you pain, my nigga I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry And in this life, times getting hard my nigga But fuck that, I’m aiming for the stars, my nigga I won’t stop, try ‘til the day I die And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry, no [Verse 3] Take a ride through the city man, tell me what you witness Poverty, richness, crooked cops, and misfits Violence, hatred, real devastation Neighborhoods looking like there’s still segregation Welfare, single mothers, no jobs Tryna get a piece for yourself, but they hogging up the whole pie Fiends in the street so high off of that crack shit This nigga thirteen with a gat under his mattress (bang!) White folks got the road to success mapped and that’s all good But why don’t blacks got that same atlas? I asked the same question a million ways And it seems like I done prayed for a million days But still the ills remain, just bills and pain Shootouts in project buildings, children slain Skies filled with rain and I just sit and wonder why It's enough to make a nigga wanna cry, but I can’t though [Hook] Sometimes sunshine turn to rain my nigga The same ones you love will bring you pain, my nigga I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry And in this life, times getting hard my nigga But fuck that, I’m aiming for the stars, my nigga I won’t stop, try ‘til the day I die And I won’t cry, no, I can’t cry, no [Outro] Yeah, shit dedicated to my cousin Ricky man Hoop dreams cut short man Learned he had a baby on the way Nigga wasn’t even a senior in high school Hold your head man