when i was seventeen i ran away from home and from everything i had ever known i was sick and tired living in a town filled with narrow minds and hate they used to laugh at me the children called me names i would ran and hide feelin so ashamed just for being born i was just a boy punished for a crime that was not mine life ain t so easy when you re a ghetto child oh baby life ain t so easy when you re a ghetto child no one tried to understand papa did the best a man could do a child reality is paid for by his folks fancy fairy tales are born and sold by those who can well afford time to make believe childhood dreams can still come true uh huh huh huh so i ve been wandering traveling all around guess it ain t my style to live in just one town still i ll never know why a child is blamed ridiculed and shamed we re all the same life ain t so easy when you re a ghetto child i m a witness that life ain t so easy when you re a ghetto child yeah ooh ooh yeah life ain t so easy when you re a ghetto child child oh baby life ain t so easy yeah hey hey when you re a ghetto child life can be rough life ain t so easy the going gets tough when you re a ghetto child yeah but remember oh baby life ain t so easy things gotta change when you re a ghetto child things gotta change gotta change yeah yeah life ain t so easy when you re a ghetto child whoa oh oh whoa i m a ghetto boy