[Intro]

Oh, yeah

I got the perfect song for the kids to sing

And all my people that's—

[Chorus]

Drug dealin' just to get by

Stack your money 'til it get sky high

We wasn't s'posed to make it past twenty-five

Joke's on you, we still alive

Throw your hands up in the sky and say

"We don't care what people say" (Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh)

[Verse 1]

If this is your first time hearin' this

You are about to experience somethin' so cold, man

We never had nothin' handed, took nothin' for granted

Took nothin' from no man, man, I'm my own man

But as a shorty, I looked up to the dope man

Only adult man I knew that wasn't broke, man

Flicking Starter coats, man—man, you don't know, man

We don't care what people say

This is for my niggas outside all winter

'Cause this summer, they ain't finna say, "Next summer, I'm finna..."

Sittin' in the hood like community colleges

This dope money here is Lil' Trey's scholarship

'Cause ain't no tuition for having no ambition

And ain't no loans for sittin' your ass at home

So we forced to sell crack, rap, and get a job

You gotta do somethin', man, your ass is grown

[Chorus: Kanye West with Choir]

Drug dealin' just to get by

Stack your money 'til it get sky high

Kids, sing! Kids, sing!

We wasn't s'posed to make it past twenty-five

Joke's on you, we still alive

Throw your hands up in the sky and say

"We don't care what people say"

[Verse 2]

This second verse is for my dogs working nine to five that still hustle

'Cause a nigga can't shine off $6.55

And everybody sellin' makeup, Jacob's

And bootleg tapes just to get they cake up

We put shit on layaway, then come back

We claim other people kids on our income tax

We take that money, cop work, then push packs to get paid

And we don't care what people say

Mama say she wanna move South

Scratching lottery tickets, eyes on a new house

'Round the same time, Doe ran up in dude house

Couldn't get a job, so since he couldn't get work, he figured he'd take work

The drug game bulimic, it's hard to get weight

So niggas' money is homo, it's hard to get straight

But we gon' keep bakin' 'til the day we get cake

And we don't care what people say

My niggas—

[Chorus: Kanye West & Choir, Kanye West]

Drug dealin' just to get by (Yeah)

Stack your money 'til it get sky high

Kids, sing! Kids, sing!

We wasn't s'posed to make it past twenty-five

Joke's on you, we still alive (Alive)

Throw your hands up in the sky and say (Uh-huh, yeah)

"We don't care what people say" (Yeah, yeah, ugh)

[Verse 3]

You know the kids gon' act a fool

When you stop the programs for after school

And they DCFS, some of 'em dyslexic

They favorite 50 Cent song "12 Questions"

We scream: "Rocks, blows, weed, park," see, now we smart

We ain't retards the way teachers thought

Hold up, hold fast, we make more cash

Now, tell my mama I belong in that slow class

It's bad enough we on welfare

You tryna put me on the school bus with the space for the wheelchair

I'm tryna get the car with the chromey wheels here

You tryna cut our lights out like we don't live here

Look what was handed us, fathers abandoned us

When we get them hammers, go on, call the ambulance

Sometimes, I feel no one in this world understands us

But we don't care what people say

My niggas—

[Chorus: Kanye West & Choir, Kanye West]

Drug dealin' just to get by

Stack your money 'til it get sky high

Kids, sing! Kids, sing!

We wasn't s'posed to make it past twenty-five

Joke's on you, we still alive

Throw your hands up in the sky and say

"We don't care what people say"

[Produced by Kanye West]