"Gottaknow" lyrics - ROYCE DA 5'9"

(Hold up!)
Presenting to you, the President of the United States
The bullet being lodged an inch away from his heart, Reagan is launched into the operating room, and tells his doctors, 'I hope you're all Republicans.'

Cash rules everything around me
I ain't claiming I'm street
I'm just saying everything that surrounds me is concrete
In the bubble-eyed ride all because I bubble like Don P
Right beside me's a dime piece, college girl looking 'bout as good as I sleep
That's 'cause I keep it low, the opposite of high key
Y'all niggas got the wrong idea 'bout what's really going on, out here
Y'all weird, I see, they told you, 'Keep your ears to the streets'
Y'all niggas laying down and y'all ears out here in these streets
I guess you took it literal
Guess the only code you live by's forget-it-code
Uh, if I should get my own guilty verdict
May the next man learn from it, then flourish
You could put it on the news, you could put my face on the front of a shirt, then the latest video, then blur it
Y'all niggas fucking with the next nigga, bitch
Mostly attracted to her 'cause she the next nigga bitch
One of my niggas made a name for killing niggas
Now he on the slayin' spree for Dilla niggas, I call it the nigga nitch
Life is set up for you to dig a ditch
God is looking down on all, being carried by the crisp pallbearers
Like, just ball, player
You ain't even gotta pull a trigger, you can still assist
Imma keep it real as this

Got to know when to row from the madness
Got to know when to give these niggas passes
Got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em
Got to know when to beats niggas asses
Got to know when the money ain't good money
Got to know when somebody ain't good for ya'
Got to know when to open and when to close
When being silent exposes, and when it's golden
Got to know all the got to knows
Got to know all the got to knows

God made us niggas, then made us all breakable
Then gave us all decision making that'll make or break a nigga
People tryna blaze with you, just so they can lace a nigga
All because of public sensationalism
With brothers with faces that people see and can relate to
When the place where the foundation of eating's
Higher population is based on popularity
Gotta be careful where you place your wisdom
All it takes is just one conversation where you unbeknownst to the fact you're talking to an abomination
At the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong crime taking place
That'll put you away for a long grind, where it's locked
Where it's not safe unless you know them combinations
Yeah, it's just a way a man to be taken by the same thing that took his brother
We don't learn from each other, we learn to look the other
Way when one of us in trouble
That karma looking to catch you, it's patient
It'll wait till you think you would love to come get you
'Cause it know that women been the downfall of men ever since pussy was discovered
Dearly beloved, you soul searching for nothing
Just follow the instincts the lord versed you with, historically
That feeling that you get in your gut been getting ignored more than that poor person
Who's living under the gun in this cold, cold world that we live in
That's under the imminent control of the consumer and indigenous war merchants
More religion and more churches, doctors, more nurses
'Cause it's the American way to make anything that'll finish you or drop you, for purchase
Who said I couldn't buy my way into heaven?
All I need is a bottle, a couple dollars, a couple people that'll keep me company
And who love misery as much as me
You got to know your pedigree, got to be yourself at all times
Your true self at all times ain't gon hesitate to let you know when you should let it be
A lot of these brothers done died tryna follow their pride
Gotta know the alert signs, them butterflies as reliable as your first mind, genetically

Got to know when to row from the madness
Got to know when to give these niggas passes
Got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em
Got to know when to beats niggas asses
Got to know when the money ain't good
Got to know when somebody ain't good for ya'
Got to know when to open and when to close
When being silent exposes, and when it's golden
Got to know all I got to know
Got to know all I got to know