War lyrics - Common

[Verse 1]
Lil Mark get shot, Lil Reese and them
Little niggas, it's hard to find peace in them
Chiraq, they say it's Middle Easterin'
Put your flames in the air for the deceased to them
Young soldiers who never got to become older
Dogtagged in the body bag
Police kept the knot he had
Plus he had weed in his system
Never knew at 13 they could enlist them
Momma kissed him, body was colder
She was shaking, I tried to hold her
Tears on my shoulder, he was supposed to
Be going to his junior year, this is his funeral year
Paul-bearers, all looking like kids
Some faces show anger, some show tears
No moustaches, no beards
Probably had the same aspirations as his
On a mission, staring in the distance
It never stop like the muslims and christians
We under-21 gun salute them
Just to go back and salute them
I'm talkin' bout war

[Hook x2]
To all the killas and the hundred dolla billas
Real hittas who ain't got no feelins

[Verse 2]
There's a war goin on inside, no one is safe from, goin on
Going on, there's a war goin on inside, no one is safe from
Or can escape from, take one wars from the same place that hate from
Gang wars used to be about the nations
Now it's cliques with clips and hittas is missing
They hit the innocent now they families miss him
Death do kissed him, in his last breath he wishing
But no option so he assume position
It don't stop, hittas killin women and children
Angels cried, that's supposed to be God's decision
Collisions of cliques named after rap groups
Except wearing Jordans instead of black boots
Black troupes trade war stories reminiscent of glory
Walk the walk of those before me since I was a shorty
Seen slugs and drugs and unemployment
Terror town y'all was my first deployment
The life of a soldier ain't nothing to toy with
I'm livin' in this shit while the world exploit it

[Hook x2]

[Verse 3]
My basic training was aiming
Hustling, banging changing niggas up
Cause of what they did to us
Nigga, I don't give a fuck
It's do or die in the Chi
And I ain't lived enough
Hoping for some visitors
Of war, I'm a prisoner
Politicians they did enough
Want to get rid of us
Hopped in the back as soon as the shots hit the truck
Looked at my son I could see his soul
Shot and killed at three years old

[Interlude]
War, war, war, war!
We are at war!

[Outro]
The direction was we, we came up with this concept,
Nobody Smiling was really a thought that came about because of all the violence that was going on in Chicago, or that is going on.
I like to say "was" cause we gon' bring it in for wishing that it's gonna stop.
You know and uh, all the violence that was going on - it happens in Chicago but it's happening around the world in many ways.
You know, it may not be to the numbers that's happening in Chicago but it's happening in the inner cities all over America so we's talking about the conditions of what's happening when I said "Nobody Smiling" but it's really a call to action