Lyrics of 'I've Got Life' by Lauryn Hill

[Nina Simone]
I ain't got no home, ain't got no shoes
Ain't got no money, ain't got no class
Ain't got no friends, ain't got no schooling
Ain't got no hurt, ain't got no job
Ain't got no money, no place to stay
Ain't got no

[Lauryn Hill]
Programmed inequity, it's in the nervous system
Listen, watch the words, how they twist 'em
Two thirds of the world turned victim
Subtle energy, they capture and block chi
The unseen violence behind the democracy
Some call it hypocrisy, turn freeman into property
And logically justify not treatin' 'em properly
Invisible ink in the constitution
Meant to preserve the institution, unequal distribution
Of wealth, goods and services
Revolvin' door, no floor, just anxiety and nervousness
Trapped in circuses
Herds of us, not understandin' our purposes
When appetites and psychological types
Get caught in the hype, it's tight from morning 'til night
I'm demanding my rights
Women's suffrage then black suffrage
Or Jim Crow, the KKK
American terrorism
Murders and beatings on television
It's in the cells now, you thought that was yesterday?
But the compression stays, trauma still got most afraid
Stuck in the memory, fear gives birth to lethargy
Generations of children in jeopardy
History written in jealousy, scribes full of heresy
Full of barbarians, ch-ch-check out my melody
Musical therapy, reprogram
Africa full of coltan
Coltrane was a cold man
Black genius in a cold land tryna be the whole man
Heal the homeland
Past time for our own land
Where a grown man can be a grown man
The system has benefit for robbery is robbery
You can't run from it, God is a natural monopoly
Divine creator stuck in monotony
Bureaucracy, psyche on poverty
Self-esteem broken like pottery
No more, not me, codename anomaly
Cause there's just no match for the prodigy
Sovereignty, the god in me
Walking university, living cosmology
Without apology

[Nina Simone]
I've got life
I've got laughs
I've got headaches and toothaches
And bad times too like you, you, you

[Lauryn Hill]
OK
The more you suppress life the stronger it gets
With death life the longer it gets
I know it’s hard to admit
That you follow some bullshit
Swallow the wrong pill looking for mr bill
Repression, oppression: same thing (same thing)
Fear the shadow that’s the main thing (main thing)
They keep running from
Every action yields an equal and opposite one
Yes that means the consequence comes
Fields of cumbersome back breaking labor
Can’t be healed with just a cummerbund
I was homecoming queen call me number one
Yep that’s another one, now give the drummer some
Tell every mother’s son expression can be far more powerful than a hundred guns
See my Kalashnikov lyrics with the safety off
Now dance around these niggas like Baryshnikov
Street sweeper my words are my keeper
It’s in the ether, now what you trynna tell these preachers, It’s done
It’s done let loose your tongue
Gifted, black and young
Watch these devils run
They knew a change was gonna come
Sinner man looking for a place to run
Tell the truth in tongues’ enemy reduced by one's
Thousands 2 can put 10,000 in flight
Speak truth to power every 24 hours

[Nina Simone]
I've got life
I've got laughs
I've got headaches and toothaches
And bad times too like you, you, you

[Lauryn Hill]
(Ay let me tell you)
Imperialism is a form of Jihad
They killed and enslaved millions for gold bullion, in the name of God
The children of mammon called it spiritual famine
Can we examine, how they stole bauxite, rubber, labor, diamonds and platinum?
The building blocks of society and economy, broke humanity to build the colonies
Using reverse psychology to keep us from knowing our quality
No more human tragedy, no more mis-recognition, no more addiction
Let’s accurately diagnose our condition!
Listen
400 years of the abuse and misuse of religion
Don’t give me another person’s prescription!
I need what I need, my deeds are my deeds
As a man thinketh so is he, Mezanmi!
Take the land back, every child, woman and man back
Reevaluate history, expeditiously
Can’t live my life in apostasy
Emulate the apostrophe hang with S, you can rock with me
I come in love and truth (truth)
Look at what I went through
Now it’s time to acknowledge just what I give you: Life

[Nina Simone]
I've got life
I've got laughs
I've got headaches and toothaches
And bad times too like you, you, you

[Lauryn Hill]
There’s a whole lotta wrong to be righted, I get excited
I'ma kick this shit off like I’m on Manchester United & my attention is undivided, so you can’t divide and conquer me!
I’m sitting comfortably in a SUV, up in my SUV taking artistic liberties
Making musical history, a lil' acupuncture, structural integration, my meditation, liberating a generation & beyond that, I’m taking the bomb back. I’m splitting atoms for freedom, America needs more FREED men, able to talk right, not prone to GREED men (It’s just not what you need man)
Let your words and deeds line up, master the mind, young king man??, put your signs up, intelligent designs up!, plant your seeds, keep your dimes up, cuz no man knows when the time’s up
It’s elemental like Solomon in the temple, Ark of the Covenant, accountable to a higher government
I’m looking for love (in all the wrong places)
Somebody tell me, where them brothas went, reclaim your wealth, no more giving the enemy help, no more sympathy for the devil, let'em hang himself
Get all the billion Black people out of these bottles, suffer while grown people get coddled, you know the novel

[Nina Simone]
I've got life
I've got laughs
I've got headaches and toothaches
And bad times too like you, you, you