They say every man's success is always measured by his peers But through them years I've shed a lot of blood, sweat, and tears And learned that I had to be courageous And brave and conquer all my fears As mama once told me "You have to be triumphant sonny and never afraid" I'm a soldier (Yea) A soldier for life Oh, living in them streets (Why oh) The streets of hard knock life Y'all know i'm a soldier, yea A soldier for life Oh, living in them streets (Why oh woa) Just trying to survive Living in them streets I've had some ups and downs And I've been praying things will turn around 'Cause i've fallen down so many times With nothing to do but depend on but my rhymes Got bridges burned and lessons learned But still I stay on my grind Never fall behind Even though the things might change One thing remains I'll always be the same No matter what it is that might come my way I'm a soldier tomorrow like I am today And we gon' soldier it all the way So all my soldiers let me here you say S-O-L-D-I-E-R We ready for (Ready for) We ready for (Ready for) We ready for war I'm a soldier (Yea) A soldier for life Oh, living in them streets (Why oh) The streets of hard knock life Y'all know i'm a soldier, yea A soldier for life Oh, living in them streets (Why oh woa) Just trying to survive With mama long gone Papa can't be found And living on my own I got to hold things down I got to keep on going when they treat I wrong Throughout my trials and my tribulations I'm a soldier man and I've got to be strong 'Cause I walked the path of getting back Ya I had to escape because it had me trapped Just a little young bro trying to make some dough Yo you know how that goes All about them flows But nowadays Ninjas be acting scandalous And think Yoza might be new to this And making money a lot One night I heard some shots Who goes S-O-L-D-I-E-R We ready for We ready for We ready for war I'm a soldier (Yea) A soldier for life Oh, living in them streets (Why oh) The streets of hard knock life Y'all know i'm a soldier, yea A soldier for life Oh, living in them streets (Why oh woa) Just trying to survive And when all them dark clouds pass away You know there got to be some brighter days So pick yourself up from off the ground And don't let the system hold you down 'Cause we got to rise above it all I'm almost there, ain't no time to crawl 'Cause the harder they come the harder they fall And this songs for y'all So let's brawl I'm a soldier (Yea) A soldier for life Oh, living in them streets (Why oh) The streets of hard knock life Y'all know i'm a soldier, yea A soldier for life Oh, living in them streets (Why oh woa) Just trying to survive A soldier for life On the battlefield Like a Navy SEAL