Common: Play Your Cards Right

(feat. Bilal)

Yeah... ohhh... [x3]

[Chorus: Bilal]
Ohhh...
Everything's gone be alright
If you play your cards right
Everything's gone be alright...

[Verse 1: Common]
It's do or die, your looking through the eye of a revolver
I revolve around the world, a problem solver
Alter your ego, and the way your walkin'
Talk to people, still I stay regal
Read through the bullshit
Sometime to make peace, you need a full clip
Roll dice with niggas who got bricks at a good price
Talk shit, give good advice, rollin' through the 'hood right
It's the good life, like T.I. said
Gettin' it, how could I not be fed
Get bread, get dough, get fed, get mo'
In the old school Lincoln, thinking I sit low
Let problems burn slow away
I yearn for the day that it won't go gray
Remember we were kings, back in the day
Still can be, depending on the cards you play

[Chorus 1 x2: Bilal]
If you play (if you play), your cards right (cards right)
Everything... gone be alright (well... alright [x3])

[Verse 2: Common]
I ain't playin' with a full deck
The government won't let me get a full check
I'm taxin' marks, I got more heart than clubs
The black spade, givin' 'em darker love
Make 'em strip, like poker poker mag in his face
You tried to smoke my ace, you know the stakes
It's high like the ace is
Get your squad face down like cards, before they get a facelift
You get robbed, better yet jacked for diamonds
Leave you victimless, like Jack in "Shining"
Blocked your bluff, now your respect is stolen
Took your chips, led my guys in Texas Hold 'Em
Rolled the strips of Vegas, with money boss players
Stacey Adams of different flavors, we major
Gangstas and hustles, living moviestar life
Dealt a bad hand, but I played my cards right

[Chorus 1 x2: Bilal]
If you play (if you play), your cards right (cards right)
Everything... gone be alright (well... alright [x3])

[Chorus 2 x2: Bilal]
Ohh...
If you play (if you play), your cards right (cards right)
Everything's... gone be alright (well... alright [x3])

[Bilal: Accapella]
Yeah... Ohhh...

Everything's gone be alright, if you play your cards right
Everything's gone be alright...