[Verse 1: Jay Rock]
Growin up I was a knucklehead
 Boy you never listen to me!
 Thats what my momma said
 Im from the projects
 I ain't never had [bad word]  Me and my older brother
 We had to share a mattress
 No heat, no lights
 Had to keep them candles lit
 My daddy left me at 8
 In an out my life and [bad word] Gang bangas dope dealers replaced my father
Neighborhood hustlas taught me to get them dollars
 Thats when I became a problem
Product of my environment
It's hard to grow up be a doctor or a fireman
 When you constantly seein that g ride tires screeching
 And them shots firin all the time it happens frequently
 The hood inspired him, to be a I bled for the game did it all for the letter  The big homie gave me the name jay rock
 This ain't no rap gimmick
 It's a real life story on watts livin [bad word] 
 [Hook: Kendrick Lamar]
You can take, me out the hood, but you can't take the hood out me
 And thats the way it will forever be, but I can't help it im gutta
 Why should I change now, cuz all my life I been gang banged out
 That project [bad [bad word] deep in my veins now, and I can't help it
 Ooh my lord knows that I can't help it

 [Verse 2: Jay Rock]
 Let me take you on a detour
 East side watts
 Niggas will go in projects
 Follow me home to my black and white apartments
 Police roll [bad word] with caution, scared to death
 The homies got tats across them
 Capitol BH over they necks
 Since birth banging the set
 Even the hoes banging the set
 Some ain't, but most is hood rats
 That looking for that buck
 Them trash cans lay in the street
 Ghetto technique for drive bys
 For the low them 5 dollas will get u high
 Dice games, YGs, fist fights
 Six fo's, el co's, g rides, and mini bikes
 Might see a couple of zombies late night
 Off what? off pipe membrane dead right
 No lie something in the bushes
 Either the AK or the .45, no lie
 Raised in the ghetto
 With rats and roaches
 Smokers on porches
 Getting high off yola
 It's colder north
 But my city's the coldest
 Where we ain't promised to see the morning, [bad word] 
 [Hook: Kendrick Lamar]
 You can take, me out the hood, but you can't take the hood out me
 And thats the way it will forever be, but I can't help it im gutta
 Why should I change now, cuz all my life I been gang banged out
 That project [bad [bad word] deep in my veins now, and I can't help it
 Ooh my lord knows that I can't help it

 [Verse 3: Jay Rock]
 You could take me out the hood
 But the hood will never leave me
 I'm still bangin
 I'm still hangin
 The only difference is
 I'm not slangin
 Nickels and dimes
 More like slanging these rap lines
 Verses of [bad word]  When I step in the booth
 Niggas know I pour my soul out for the [bad word] youth
 For that fatherless son who needed love so he ran with a crew
 Grew up before his older brother did
 Gin and juice
 Replaced the pain I knew
 Carrying them thangs to school
 Them niggas was tripping I wasn't bangin the blue
 But they had to respect me
 I never ran from who?
 Nobody, put my faith in god
 It's amazin how I overcame them odds
 On my momma this past year my life has slightly been revised
 But notice I said slightly
 Cuz me being absent from where I came from
 That's unlikely

 [Hook: Kendrick Lamar]
 You can take, me out the hood, but you can't take the hood out me
 And thats the way it will forever be, but I can't help it im gutta
 Why should I change now, cuz all my life I been gang banged out
 That project [bad [bad word] deep in my veins now, and I can't help it
 Ooh my lord knows that I can't help it