Thug Joint

[Chorus]
 I used to be a thug but now I'm a believer
 I used to be a thug I know how it feels
 I used to be a thug but now a believer
 No more thug and no more deals
 [Verse 1]
 Ok doc my occupation was thuggin'
 The whole nine, I mean the robbin' the dealin' the muggin'
 The Clubin' the premarital lovin'
 The type to put one in the oven but I wasn't tryin' to be the husband
 Sin was Lord and I always obeyed the Master
 It told me "sell drugs" just to get the paper faster
 Let me go to church but would let me imitate the pastor
 It only let me imitate my favorite rapper
 So the deal was I grew up doin' the ill stuff
 Would fight the cops 'til they threw on the steal cuffs
 Go in do my bid like the mack
 When it was done say, "cool out kids---I'll be back."
 But lately there's been some friction
 I've been feeling sort of sick from this heart condition
 It's an unusual affliction, when I do wrong that's when it kicks in
 (From your description, you know it sounds like conviction)
 I knew something was going wrong when I bumped in
 To a kid so soft I thought his name should be Pumpkin
 Recognizing he was a weaker type of creature
 I decided to take his beeper and his sneakers
 You could tell for this kid a fight was a rare sport
 Cause with ease I held him up like flights at an airport
 He pleaded, "Don't take my beeper, I need it
 And, "...not my sneaks, let me keep my brand new Adidas
 That's when signs of the sickness manifested
 My mind said, "Be nice and do what the man suggested."
 I broke down like a fraction
 Gave him back what I took away like subtraction
 I'm puzzled and I'm struggling through this distraction
 The reciprocal of my typical reaction---dag blast him!
 I made tracks and then a flash back happened
 That's when the rugged me kicked back in
 [Repeat Chorus]
 Now last week I was in my dad's black jeep
 Rollin' mad deep with mad peeps smashed in the back seat
 We took a back street, a Pontiac tried to pass me
 I sped up and made him crash by the trash heap
 The accident was nasty if you ask me
 I would have laughed but then it happened again---the sickness harassed me
 Oh no, not again. I had hurt a lot of men
 But never felt bad before even when I shot a friend
 For ease I thought I should step to the weed spot
 Cause I was loosing my cool like melted freeze pops
 My knees knocked as my conscience eaves dropped, found a weak spot
 And said, "You sin too much, please stop!"
 Peep the situation as it gets deeper
 I started getting second thoughts about getting' the reefer
 But what scared me was the internal reasoning
 It was, "God sees you man, and your not pleasing Him"
 This was hard to swallow like food with out seasonin'
 Me believe in Him, I rather not breath again
 Before receivin' Him
 You would see a turtle beat a rabbit and a cheetah in a 100m's sprint
 That's all that was the last straw I was ready to blast off
 To a place I didn't have enough cash for
 But with the swiftness, the sickness turned up the pitch
 And with the quickness I felt it clutch me like a stick shift
 [Repeat Chorus]
 Yea you have no idea just how absurd it is
 But check the word of this witness, now get this---I heard of this
 Crew that could rip rhymes murderously, but I heard it would be
 Christian, I thought absurd as can be
 And churches to me can make the hard rocks feel nervous
 But I went because I heard this would be an outdoor service
 I got there and saw mad youth noddin' to mad truth
 Rockin' mad hats and suits and not plaid suits
 As truth crashed through my heart ached like a bad tooth
 This hard rock got softer than brown spots on bad fruit
 I came with a heart stone like a statue then the rap group
 Got under my skin like a tattoo
 They rapped about a man diein' and I was cryin'
 They said He died so I could be saved like Private Ryan
 We all could see zoomorphically He's a lion
 Coming to rule from Zion with a scepter of iron
 Trying to hold back tears that wanted to flow jack
 Couldn't control that, it felt like my soul cracked
 In half and Jesus started lookin' much bigger
 than drugs or liquor or thugs pullin' a trigger
 And it was a first that I ever felt so cursed next to One so perfect
 My soul thirsted to worship
 Scufflin', tustlin', my feathers, He ruffled them
 I tried to duck Him and tried to get back to my hustlin'
 I must have been affected more than I could have imagined
 Cause that's been all I can think about since it happened
 [Repeat Chorus to fade]