helicopters over the house again we got the projects two or three blocks from here they pull the kids over for driving while african and the ones that with the warrants always run in fear so i sit here waiting for the coast to clear wishing once again i had a gun around here turn on the news and what do i hear some kid shot the bank up on gallatin road ran away from the cops while he was trying to reload he beat them up to eastland street on feet now he s probably reloaded and running down my street i better turn the alarm on and lock myself in helicopters over the house again sometimes you rise above it sometimes you gonna sneak below somewhere in between believing in heaven and facing the devil you know poor kid probably never had a chance to give a fuck he wouldn t know good luck from a debutante he s got to find a way to be steve mcnair or young buck or he s tough luck looking for a prison to haunt and you can fuck getting any kind of job you want unless you really want to work in a fast food restaurant and who wants to do that do you want to do that i wouldn t trade that for my crooked hat or my gang or my gun or my waist full of pagers for a job deep frying shit for rich teenagers if that s where it s at and no one s gonna help how you gonna blame a man for helping himself there is a war going on that the poor can t win helicopters over the house again sometimes you rise above it sometimes you sneak below somewhere in between believing in heaven and facing the devil you know  black and white cops shining lights in the bushes i can t see how this kid is gonna get very far unless he finds a way to make it back over to barry street and he can t do that unless he steals a car the way things are they don t seem right it s all these white people talking bout the hope and light there ain t no hope in sam levy just guns and drugs we ain t building bridges we re just training thugs and then i hear this terrifying kick at my back door in walks this kid i say i ve seen this kid before i see him all the time at that bar on woodland street and now he s bleeding in the kitchen tracking mud off his feet and he s looking at me like i ll either help him or die until he sees in my eyes that i m on his side i hand him my keys i say you better move fast there s a j in the ashtray and plenty of gas he throws me his cash he says i ll be back for this i say yeah well don t be surprised if there s a little bit of it missing his gold teeth glistened with a big old grin he said we ll talk about that when i see you again he shook my hand i shook his back i felt like i was bout to have a heart attack until he finally drove away i thought goddamn helicopters over my house again sometimes you rise above it sometimes you sneak below somewhere in between believing in heaven and facing the devil you know facing the devil you know