people always wanna know the reason for what they consider senseless violence in the hood i ma break it down for you this is why we ride and this is why we ride and this is why we ride i gotta say this clear i gotta say this loud i should ve been dead don t know how i m here now i should ve been dead damn it forty years ago how the fuck did i survive something that i ll never know i played the crack game gang bang guns motherfuckers told me i d never see twenty one i come from la deep in the heart of the hood every night the bullets fly this shit ain t hollywood could be your best friend mother or brother dead cops can t do shit these streets are blood red so we leave the block and we load the guns and we want revenge until revenge comes and this is why we ride and this is why we ride i made it out the hood i got a great life but them bullets fly every motherfucking night another kid dies every motherfucking night another mother cries every motherfucking night ghettoes of deep crack made to never escape a place to store the poor made to never escape they re all over the world people go to die murders go unsolved i understand why they remove hope and then we sell dope pain in poverty has us at each other s throat families are broken and so we gangbang a bit form of unity but most love some of us ever seen and this is how we die and this is why we ride  oh man coming up and surviving in the ghetto the smallest argument goes from little drama to big drama next thing you know somebody s dead i don t think you can understand if you ve never been in your streets and held your best friend in your arms your child in your arms and watch them breathe their last breath because somebody shot them dead in the streets you ain t thinking of calling the police you want revenge and you want it now i gotta be honest with you if somebody were to kill me shoot me right now my last words wouldn t be peace it would be get those motherfuckers this song is dedicated to all of you who has lost somebody to street violence and this is why we ride and this is how we die