Can you remember
How you use to jab your fingers into my chest
And tell me how stupid you thought I was
And how I'd grow up to be worthless-
I was only 9 and I can recall every single time-
You raised your hand to me
No matter how hard I try to forget
I can't erase it from my memory

To this day you seem to think that
You never did anything wrong
And even though I've tried to look past your
Ignorance
The hate was too strong
And you were to blind to see how much anger
Was growing inside of me
And everything revolved around you
Do what you say
Do what you want
Do as you do
As the years passed
I never knew what was to come
Cause you were never there
But the day will come
When we'll cross paths
This time I'll be there to let you know that
All I ever wanted was was for you to believe in me
And everyday I prayed for, lived the day for
Was a chance to throw it back in your face-

[Hook]
And before you die, open your eyes
And see, all the different ways that you neglected me
You may have gave me life but you never gave me hope
I don't ever want to take after my own Father

God help me raise up outta this mess
Stress and grey days and a gang full of tests
God help me, god help me

You put the fear in me and said
if I wasn't to be everything you expected then a son I'm not in your eye's
and would be instantly rejected-
Your gifts of love were just fifths of pain
While I tried to maintain and refrain
You just laughed at me, you looked down on me, you threw down on me,
You made me feel worthless now you're dead to me, how does it feel to be,
What runs through you created me, one day I'll break free-
All I ever wanted was for you to believe in me
And everyday I prayed for, lived the day for
Was a chance to throw it back in your face

[Bridge]
Why do I have to feel like I'm constantly worthless
Every day I'm reminded of you, Father

[Intro]
They say everything you go through in life makes life worth living
But if the world should end tomorrow...
I often think about that sometimes, know what I'm saying?

[VERSE 1]
I'll take the pain and the strife
I know it's not in vain
and struggle relate to everything in this life
I'm maintaining became a beam of light for the youth in the streets
intertwining with goons never complaining cuz its all written
Don't be bitter we all sinners
lusting for the good life, some hearts cold as December
Hiding behind stripes and stars Father forgive um
earth out of her mind look what she had to witness
I talk to her at times she tell me what's on her heart
I tell her what's on my mind
Momma where do I start?
Why everybody divided?
Why people afraid to die?
She told me talk to ya Father, he's in the sky.

[VERSE 2]
Father why everybody complaining bout what they got?
Ungrateful, they don't see what you gave um?
Make a lump sum of money start to thinking they made it
He said if you pay attention to the weather I'm jaded
It could be mid July and I feel like raining
Any day of the year I shed a tear Poppa amazing
one drop could flood the block there's no one greater
and that's why I live in the sky
No lie, I'm fly, defy gravity, I reply damn
it's like you only show yourself to the wise
I know why you won't let me come home
Left me here on my own cuz I aint doing my job so you just letting me roam
He responded correct go home to my mom I'm vexed
She the reason for my drama and stress, you seem to love her
Remember though, she the present but I'm forever
Won't be long till you see us together I replied until than...

[Chorus]
Now if the world should end tomorrow, Lord have mercy on me
and if the sky should fall and the walls come tumbling down, tumbling down

Now if the world should end tomorrow, Lord have mercy on me
and if the sky should fall and the walls come tumbling down, tumbling down
than that's what its gonna be
than that's what its gonna be

When I was small
You took me by the hand
Father you should know
I finally understand

You taught me wrong from right
And how to live
You gave the greatest gift
That one could give

You never let me down
You made me strong
When I made mistakes
When I was wrong

Some days we'd laugh
And some days we'd fight
Somehow you knew one day
I'd say you were right

You're with me
In every word I say
In every hour
Of every single day
In all I do
I'm just a part of you

You lived your life for us
That was your plan
Those hands that never take
They worked the land
Hands that never take
Can only give
And because of you
I know how to live

You're with me
In every word I say
In every hour
Of every single day
In all I do
I'm just a part of you

Father just one thing
You always knew
Every word you said to me was true

And what of the father.
Will he end the lies.
And what about the mother.
Will she, Discover the truth behind this life We're living.

Now everything we ever had is here for us.
Now everything we ever had is here for us.

Don't worry about the Father.
You'll take him ?
And as for the mother.
She always loved her son.
And you look like him.

No one hears me
No one sees me
No one makers me smile
No one misses me
No one kisses me
No one told me why

While you're trying to remember years go by
Still afraid of your behavior who am I?

Father
Can you hear me?
Can you feel my pain?
Can you see me?
Father
Can you hear me?
Can you feel my pain?
Can you see me?

No one needs me
No one feeds me
No one wants to lie
Since you left me
No one loves me
No one even tries

All those years are like a cancer in my mind
If I'll call you would you answer one last time

Father
Can you hear me?
Can you feel my pain?
Can you see me?
Father
Can you hear me?
Can you feel my pain?
Can you see me?

Your life is like a castle built upon the sand
All the work is done but it will not stand
Your life is like a picture without any paint
It's left you feeling blank and a little incomplete
From the answers that you seek
All the questions that you have all lie in Him
He is the way the truth and the life
He's my road to take me home
He is the way the truth and the life
He's my father and my friend
Life is overwhelming when you start to doubt
Have faith He is with you here and now
Many questions you have asked along your way
Like who I am where I came from where will I go
When I leave here from this world
I have faith that heaven is within my reach

I swear to tell the truth and nothin but the truth...
so help me GOD
I just felt like tellin the story of my life
Felt like, maybe somebody could be inspired, you know?
We all feel pain, we all go through things
But it's time to overcome all that

[Verse One: LL Cool J]

If your plane crashed in the water and everybody died
would you drown on purpose or try to survive?
I was born handicapped my arm wouldn't move
They called me a cripple pops caught an attitude
Beat my moms smoked lye drove trucks
My moms had a miscarriage, he didn't give a fuck
He sniffed some coke, come home
Beat up on my moms cause she's talkin on the phone
Come on

[Chorus: LL Cool J and singers]

(all I ever wanted)
All I ever wanted
(all I ever needed)
All I ever needed
(was a father)
was a father
(that's all)
That's all!
(all I ever wanted)
All I ever wanted
(all I ever needed)
All I ever needed... was a father
(was a father)

[Verse Two: LL Cool J]

Moms got tired of the beatings said, "Yo, we got to go"
Packed up her bags we bounced out the do'
She said, "I ain't takin these whippin's no mo'
I wanna live to see my little Todd grow"
I remember tear drops on my pops face
Lookin down at me standin on the staircase
Handsome brother with a smooth goatee
Makes me wonder why he act so ugly, you feelin me?
(I'm feelin you)

[Chorus]

[Verse Three: LL Cool J]

My pops got drunk when me and my moms bounced
Swigged some Jack Dan', sniffed up a ounce
Grabbed the shotty left Long Isle for Queens
Possesed by a demon... a devil it seemed
I was too young to understand the risk
when your moms come home off the midnight shift
She turned around heard the shotgun click
My pops said, "You think that you could leave me?"
He blasted my moms in the back
She fell down screamin I can't forget that
My grandfather tried to close the do'
He got shot ten times in the stomach yo, for real

[Chorus]

[Verse Four: LL Cool J]

My head was spinnin, I had never seen blood
Four years old, this don't feel like love
Anyway, pops dissapeared
Grandpops and moms healed up over the years
This therapist got up in her head
Led her to believe without him she'd be dead
You know, they fell in love with one another
Everything seemed right that's word to mother
until I started gettin beatings everday
Sometimes for going outside to play
Late at night on my knees I'd pray
a young child, wishin the pain would go away
Dad where was you when he made me strip
Beat with belts like a slave with a whip
Kicked me down steps outside in the snow
Punched me in the chest stomped me out on the flo'
That's just the tip of the iceberg look
It's too long for a song but perfect for a book
Word is bond, that's real baby

[Chorus]

Beat me down, one more time
Words of love, hard to find
Gotta find my mother, she won't lie
Where the hell's my father
Farther, farther
You like to lie
Swimming in the water
One last time
Imagination cross my mind
I beat the bush, I beat the bush
Shove me down
Where the hell's my father
Farther, farther
You like to lie
Father, old man, can you find me
Father, old man, do you care
Father, old man, can you find me
Do you care
Father
You like to lie

We all so scared cause its, its war everywhere, you know
War everywhere

[Chorus]
How many friends will we see die? (Why we so scared cause it's war everywhere)
How many friends will we see cry? (It's war everywhere)
How many friends will we see try? (Why we so scared cause it's war everywhere)
How many friends will we see die? (It's war everywhere)

All we need is a little love, and someone standing for the little cubs
And I see brutality all over niggas killin' niggas
The ghetto got them being born to be killas
Flooded with drugs and tryin to get us, so get up
But don't give up, ya'll gotta sit up
If you last before they kill us
And the guerillas, try come kill us
Pillage the village and we'll be winna
I love it when niggas the way we took it to another level
So many rebels doing the best shit forever remembered
And in the killing fields, everybody's locked up
And good niggas getting shot up da dadan dada
Mind if I say something for mine
Cause it's about time, to get serious
A mysterious time, blind melons
It ain't no telling, if the willing
Will stop chillin', then help the children
Turning them out, then burning them out
Like morphine, waters getting shallow
It's over and over the gallow
A president in the drop, it's on now though
The end of life, for now so
I think it's the ozone, bad to the bone bone
Mother Nature be long gone
And don't nobody wanna do nothing but speculate
And all they worried about their own
Wrote a song for the future
Millenium, I'm in, I'm hopeing it don't last untill we all past
Living in the stars, looking through grass
Aboard the enterprise, recognize this, in the course of a da-da-da-da-da-da-day
And thats the way we sing, thats the way we play
that's the way they . . now and

[Chorus 2X]

Still got bombs from the cold war, radioactive
And the critics, they wont take action
They want us to repo this to your satisfaction
But while they build more, computers keep crashing
What about felling, pestilence dammit
How do we manage to keep standing
Living in a legacy of bitterness
With the epitimy of vigorous trips on the ships we were crammed in, slammed in
Other man and them, why don't we demanding our damn money
If we can't get forty acres and a mule, let a nigga get a range rover
Shit you got time you, I'm still waiting on a canoe, but it will never come
I don't even know where I come from or where I'm gonna go to
I'm headed to the mother land, but will I be accepted by the brotha man?
Awww me so confused, with nothing to gain and everything to lose, choose
The righteous and the high, look in the eyes and realize the lies
Family ties, but not even for the have-nots
Who the enemy? It ain't me. It ain't even the police
Unless they trippin', and use that authority and start flippin', flippin'
Leaving dead bodies, and with them bitchin' hotties
That poppin' the collar, my god I'm horny, ride shotty
And tellin' the kids that ain't the way to live properly
Get yo monopoly and get your own property
And that's the way we sing, and that's the way we play
and that's the way they . . . now and

[Chorus 2X]

Ooooh and the daddies and momma forgivin' so we can live with us
And all the runaways get off the bus
Kids, put the guns down, come down
If the rest build a bridge with us, it gotta get better than this
It's head of the risk, shoulda been poor, and I been rich
Lost so many friends to the war shit, caution
When I get to walkin', and it's mobbin', nigga in a crypt
Life is a fight to the street life, tonight
I might go meet the reaper, and I will give him a hug
And tell him "Thug luv won and I'm so glad to meet ya"
And that's the way we sing, and that's the way we play
and that's the way they . . . now and

[Chorus to fade]

Brother and sister,
tell me how you feelin'.

And I say mother,
tell me how you feelin'.

Father,
tell me how you feelin'.

If you can't tell me how you feel,
I may say: There will be no freedom.

One million miles away from home.
One million miles away from love.
One million times away from hope.
One million times away from god.

Brother and sister,
tell me how you feelin'.

And I say mother,
tell me how you feelin'.

Father,
tell me how you feelin'.

If you can't tell me how you feel,
I may say: There will be no freedom.

One million miles away from home.
One million miles away from love.
One million times away from hope.
One million times away from god.

Brother and sister,
tell me how you feelin'.

And I say mother,
tell me how you feelin'.

Father,
tell me how you feelin'.

If you can't tell me how you feel,
I may say: There will be no freedom.

Father I need you now
But you're nowhere to be found
And I don't know which way to turn
If you're so far away
Too far to say
Today be strong
Tomorrow will be long
To the ones who'll stand for the

Father I need advice
Must my heart be cold as ice
Will the people follow me
When youre so far away
To far to say
Today be strong
Tomorrow will be long
To ones who'll stand for you

It's true that since your gone
Since your royal tomb's been sealed
Another spirits' been revelaed
One who challenges our every God
And there's a greater gift
That's raining fire from the skies
Even my baby boy has died
Tell me you hear me

Father I need you now
You say that every knee must bow
But you never taught me how
And you're so far away
To far to say
Today be strong
Tomorrow will be long
To the ones who'll

Stand up for their God
Standing up againsts all odds
Could the voice of destiny
Speak to Moses set my people free
Or will we rule and reign forever
Now the slightest chance
That's taken root inside my head
And I must do as He commands
And send His people away
Take them all away
Father and Son are gone away
Everyone's gone away

You’ve given far beyond my need so I give
My deepest thanks to you for all I’ve watched you do
And for the things that I am yet to see
Still I’m confident to wait patiently

I cry out and you answer
I cry out and you answer

Father I know you listen when I pray
Father would you hear these simple words I say

I’m amazed at where we’ve been and what we’ve seen
I can’t imagine where I’d be without you here with me
With a faith beyond the things I could see
So many times I’ve watched your hand as it guides me

I cry out and you answer
I cry out and you answer

Father I know you listen when I pray
Father would you hear these simple words I say
Father I know you listen when I pray
Father would you hear these simple words I say

Tears are falling over me like rain
You have been so faithful time and again
And forever I’m reminded of your grace
Beautiful grace

And Father I know you listen when I pray
And Father would you hear these simple words I say

I cry out and you answer
I cry out and you answer

Father I know you listen when I pray
Father would you hear these simple words I say
Father I know you listen when I pray
Father would you hear these simple words I say

Father oh Father
hear me if you can
is it true what they say
that life is a dream
i don't understand
the things that make rain in my eyes
are they real or are they lies

you know i hear so much about you now
i'd give anything
to go on a little boat with you
talk about the scheme of things
on a little boat with you

Father oh Father
guide me if you can
or give me the chance to follow you home
i am your son but i wish i knew you
when you were young
were you lonely as a boy

you know i'd give so much to see you now
i'd go anywhere
pick a little stick and walk with you
talk about the scheme of things
on a short walk with you

Father oh Father
you give me just a little hope
i feel something out there reaching for me
well here i am
won't you take me with you
out of this maze
and away from this place

because it gets so cold and lonely here
i'll do anything
to sit on a little rock with you
talk about the scheme of things
on a small rock with you

show me show me show me the way
before they grind me down
and bleach me grey
send me power not to be afraid
and when i close my eyes
let me see you once in the light

Father oh Father
heal me if you can
is it true what they say
that life is a dream