[Verse 1: 2Pac]


I See no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself:

"Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?"

I'm tired of being poor and, even worse, I'm black


My stomach hurts so I'm looking for a purse to snatch

Cops give a damn about a negro

Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero

"Give the crack to the kids: who the hell cares?


One less hungry mouth on the welfare!"


First ship em dope and let em deal to brothers

Give 'em guns, step back, watch em kill each other

"It's time to fight back", that's what Huey said


2 shots in the dark, now Huey's dead


I got love for my brother


But we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other


We gotta start making changes

Learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers


And that's how it's supposed to be

How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?

I'd love to go back to when we played as kids


But things change... and that's the way it is

[Hook: Talent]


That's just the way it is


Things'll never be the same


That's just the way it is


Aww yeah


[Verse 2: 2Pac]

I see no changes, all I see is racist faces


Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races


We under, I wonder what it takes to make this

One better place, let's erase the wasted


Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right

Cause both Black and White are smoking crack tonight

And the only time we chill is when we kill each other


It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other


And although it seems heaven-sent

We ain't ready to see a Black President


It ain't a secret, don't conceal the fact:


The penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks


But some things will never change


Try to show another way but you staying in the dope game


Now tell me, what's a mother to do?


Being real don't appeal to the brother in you


You gotta operate the easy way


"I made a G today" but you made it in a sleazy way


Selling crack to the kids, "I gotta get paid!"


Well hey, but that's the way it is


[Hook]


[Talking]


We gotta make a change


It's time for us as a people to start making some changes


Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live


And let's change the way we treat each other


You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do


What we gotta do to survive


[Verse 3: 2Pac]


And still I see no changes, can't a brother get a little peace

It's war on the streets and a war in the Middle East

Instead of war on poverty


They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me


And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do


But now I'm back with the facts giving it back to you


Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up


Crack you up and pimp-smack you up


You gotta learn to hold your own

They get jealous when they see you with your mobile phone

But tell the cops they "can't touch this"


I don't trust this, when they try to rush I bust this


That's the sound of my tool


You say it ain't cool, my mama didn't raise no fool


And as long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped


And I never get to lay back

Cause I always got to worry 'bout the payback

Some buck that I roughed up way back

Coming back after all these years

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!" That's the way it is