Songbook

We Don't Care

By Kanye West

Key of E

[Chorus]
E            F#m
Drug dealin' just to get by
A                        B
Stack your money 'til it get sky high
C#m              B

   E                               F#m
We wasn't supposed to make it past twenty-five
A                 B
Joke's on you, we still alive
E                   F#m
Throw your hands up in the sky and say
A                   B
"We don't care what people say"

[Verse]
C#m             B
If this is your first time hearing this
A                           B
You are about to experience something so cold, man
         C#m                 B
We never had nothin' handed, took nothin' for granted
A                         B
Took nothin' from no man, man, I'm my own man
C#m                       B
But as a shorty, I looked up to the dope man
A                B
Only adult man I knew that wasn't broke, man
C#m                         B
Flicking Starter coats, man—man, you don't know, man
A                  B
We don't care what people say

[Verse]
This is for my niggas outside all winter
'Cause this summer they ain't finna say, "Next summer, I'm finna..."
Sitting 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 sitting your ass at home
So we forced to sell crack, rap, and get a job
You gotta do something, man, your ass is grown

[Chorus]
Drug dealin' just to get by
Stack your money 'til it get sky high
(Kids, sing! Kids, sing!)
We wasn't supposed 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]
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 selling makeup, Jacob's
And bootlegged tapes just to get they cake up
We put shit on lay-away, 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]
Drug dealin' just to get by (Yeah)
Stack your money 'til it get sky high
Kids, sing! Kids, sing!
We wasn't supposed to make it past twenty-five
Joke's on you, we still alive (Alive, uh-huh)
Throw your hands up in the sky and say
"We don't care what people say" (Yeah, yeah, ugh)

[Verse]
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, blow, 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
They tryna put me on the school bus with the space for the wheelchair
I'm tryna get the car with the chrome-y wheels here
They 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]
Drug dealin' just to get by
Stack your money 'til it get sky high
Kids, sing! Kids, sing!
We wasn't supposed 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"