[Verse 1]
My pops had 2000 pieces of vinyl
We ain't have furniture
But kats was alright though
I had ideas, head shaped like a light bulb
Be careful lil' Ross, you know your a** ain't got blue cross
Cut on the corner of Longview & Newport off Chalmers
A block down from Chelsea where fiends go like the carter
Ain't no hoops in the hood so kats started crate ballin
With them little cedar point joints immulating Jordan
I was all about them dope man nikes, hightop fades
Designs in the back, k**a guns & grenades
Somewhere along the line innocence dies and bullets stray
Plenty - up until then you was pretend dead bang bang
Count to 60, feels like the city's out to get me
Like my man Melle Mel, The Message don't push me
Kats are hard up, they mugged me for cornbread & cookies
At the penny candy store, took 3 of you hoes to whoop me
It's why
[Hook]
Play another slow song
Living in a ghetto fantasy, yeah
Trying to make a happy ending
Living the wild life
[Verse 2]
It's deep, how deep? Deeper than Atlantis
Deeper than the sea floor, we're bumpin' X Clan sh**
Riding in my dog dave's amc wagon
Drinking maddog smoking billys to the a** and
Cognac, a ghost town right off the thumb
See where I'm coming from
You see the hood-rats, you see the hoodlums
Ripped mugs, slinging d**, you see that house there?
That's where they cook 'em, next to the junior high
Backpacks carry more than school supplies
You could get a dime add a 5, get ya 2 for 15
An escape or a dream, even mama's little angel got no halo
She's influenced by the radio & tv screen
See these n***as don't read so these n***as don't learn
They make their environment violent, no wonder n***as k**ed herb
No wonder blacks can't break them chains
No wonder rap ain't changed, it's wild
[Hook x2]
[Verse 3]
So many standards, so much disapproval
But that's majority rule, as always life as usual
A constant dress code, like neat, creased and tucked dress clothes
Damn your taste, just follow suit
In this movie of life, good guys wear white, bad guys are black
I'm stereotype-casted as a thug on the corner with crack
Or maybe eyein' your car contemplating a jack
Regardless, my intentions took for worse
Women sidestep me on the street clenching they purse
I mean no harm, but I'm guilty by persuasion
Why else would they want my ethnic background on applications
I tried tracing my roots and found Nathan
I guess I'm just a n***a right?
But that depends on who's saying it right?
These days I catch it from blacks more often than whites, it's wild
[Hook x2]