no one has the right just to take another s life it can t just be me that sees things so obviously brother s dying baby s crying when s it gonna end can you tell me chorus lay it down you know that you don t go that route yeah yeah lay it down everybody should know that by now i remember a time when fighting didn t mean a crime it was just between men who settled problems with their hands now we ve got something its worse it s bad it s out of control you know it s got to go chorus estelle listen 8 years old he s got the barrel in his hand turning it round wonder what this thing is wow its kinda heavy weighing in about the same as his arm found it behind the bed of his big brother carl now carl was 19 and nah he weren t a dirty drug fiend or a pusher used to be a right left hooker used to use his hand stead of metal when he took em used to until his bredrin got tooken now carl can t take two steps without lookin and he s lookin at 10 15 and he s shooken to the core mother said she s seen it all before she seen football dreams gone uncle same as before woulda been 18 pushin a big whip now but its two years since they laid the wreath on the ground now dreams are deferred and he s laying in the ground yo forget about the pow pow lay it down chorus out