Ladies and gentlemen

We are gathered here today

In remembrance of innocence lost

What are you in this day and age

In this society

Without your cash

Without your scrilla

I want you to take a second right now

And ponder that

While I sing you my song

So what is it that keeps shorty on the avenue scheming

Barefoot, broke back, with nothing to believe in

It's the way the diamonds be gleaming

She sees the product of 200 years of oppressed dreaming

At 15, her innocence was stolen with the quickness

But this a mack that makes too many young women victims

And now her mentality is just to stack those chips

For the right price she'll let you violate her lips

Remembrance of rape is found in a 4 year old

Loving that she never got, she showing him tenfold

Her devotion to him, it could never be sold

So tonight she'll be out in the cold

See she's chasing them ghosts

Yo yo, the future's looking daunting

We've all been affected by the ghetto haunting

Yo yo, the future's looking daunting

We all live with the presidential haunting

Where cash rules, forgo benevolence

These days it's all about them dead presidents

So even though you got much more than most

You still spend your lifetime chasing them ghosts

Because cash rules, forgo benevolence

These days it's all about them dead presidents

So even though you got much more than most

You still spend your lifetime chasing them ghosts

At 13 he sold his first rock, been hustling ever since

Getting rid of them baggies and destroying the evidence

His conscience, that was a hard one to convince

So Sunday mornings were spent searching for his life's relevance

But Sunday night, it was back to that routine

Back to the street corner, back to them dope fiends

Back to the means of getting the cream, pursuing his dreams

But there's more to the story than it would seem

(See for this young man) it was more than the wealth

He had a want to be something much bigger than himself

And that want to succeed would soon turn into greed

That need was fueled by his hunger

That's why he's chasing ghosts

Yo yo, the future's looking daunting

We've all been affected by the ghetto haunting

Yo yo, the future's looking daunting

We all live with the presidential haunting

Where cash rules, forgo benevolence

These days it's all about them dead presidents

So even though you got much more than most

You still spend your lifetime chasing them ghosts

Because cash rules, forgo benevolence

These days it's all about them dead presidents

So even though you got much more than most

You still spend your lifetime chasing them ghosts

Where cash rules, forgo benevolence

These days it's all about them dead presidents

So even though you got much more than most

You still spend your lifetime chasing them ghosts

Because cash rules, forgo benevolence

These days it's all about them dead presidents

So even though you got much more than most

You still spend your lifetime chasing them ghosts