When I was seventeen, I ran away from home
And from everything, I had ever known
I was sick and tired living in a town
Filled with narrow minds and hate

They used to laugh at me and children called me names
I would run and hide feeling so ashamed
Just for being born, I was just a boy
Punished for a crime that was not mine

Life ain't so easy
When you're a ghetto child
Oh babe, life ain't so easy
When you're a ghetto child

No one tried to understand
Papa did the best a man could do

A child's reality is paid for by his folks
Fancy fairy tales are bought and sold by those
Who can well afford time to make believe
Childhood dreams, can still come true

So I've been wondering, traveling all around
Guess it ain't my style to live in just one town
Still I'll never know why a child is blamed
Ridiculed and shamed, we're all the same

Life ain't so easy
When you're a ghetto child
I'm witness that life ain't so easy
When you're a ghetto child, yeah

Life ain't so easy
When you're a ghetto child
Oh baby, life ain't so easy
When you're a ghetto child

Life ain't so easy
When you're a ghetto child
(Life can be rough) life ain't so easy
(With going gets tough) when you're a ghetto child

(Yeah, but remember) life ain't so easy
When you're a (this gotta change) ghetto child (they gotta change gotta change, yeah, yeah!)
Life ain't so easy
When you're a ghetto child (I'm a ghetto oh)

Life ain't so easy