Pre-chorus:
(Is this life that the beggars on the streets live
O Jah-Jah?
We ask for bread but we're given the tails of scorpions
Maa!
Is this life that the beggars on the streets live
O Jah-Jah?
We ask for waters but we're given the bottles of poison
Baa! X²)
Walking down the streets of the city
Counting up the blessings of the nation
Where modernity has killed humanity
In "For God and My Stomach" food-chain motto
Looking at the beggar on the streets
Jobs too many on the streets for the boys
School walls falling down, down, down, down
The hospitals have too many drugs (maa)
Death is cheaper than life oh, oh!
The politicians beg the voters afore elections;
The voters beg the politicians after elections!
I'm one of the beggars on the streets
Hear me —
(Chorus 2)
(Is this life that the beggars on the streets live
O Jah-Jah?
We ask for bread but we're given the tails of scorpions
Ma!
Is this life that the beggars on the streets live
O Jah-Jah?
We ask for waters but we're given the bottles of poison
Ba! X²)
Verse 2
Walking down the streets of the city
Counting up the blessings of the nation
Too many meats on the streets (oh, oh!)
The floods of the blood like petals of rose
The vultures hover overhead gobbling (oh)
The crows return home by the dry season
Swooping down, swooping on the backs of rats —
Those that demand for freedom!
The people want equal rights and justice
Do they care about how we die like flies
Except the dollars, fame and power-to-be?
I'm one of the beggars on the streets...
(Swordsmith raps)
I've walked on top of broken skulls
On top of floods of blood
Of dying, and starving African beggars
Stretching their hands
To the eyeless world
That sees by the eye but blind in the mind (yeah)
Some see scars in my stars
But I see stars in my scars
I was born by a street beggar,
A grave-digger;
A beggar with a king's heart
Is better a king with a beggar's heart (yeah)
(Chorus till it fades all...)