[Intro:] If you don't give a little somethin' back To your family, you ain't sh** in my book Come On Boy... I was her baby, she guided me through life She whipped my a** for doin' wrong Rewarded me for doin' right I caused so many tears to roll down her face I was just young n dumb n needed my space But you was there for me, I could depend on you When I lost my first tooth, when I had pneumonia You put your own house up ta keep me outta jail I didn't raise no snitches boy, you betta not tell I'm gonna go do this time up off the street Just send me five or ten dollars a week Every Sunday bring me somethin' to eat Some chicken or macaroni, some brownies, somethin' sweet N to make it complete, I wanna whole pitcher of my Nanny's ice tea What she won't do for the rest y'all she gonna do for me Like she held me down I'm gonna hold her down Baby's a superstar, y'all can't control me now... Uhn..Uhn... [Chorus:] Without you There's no me Without roots There's no tree There would be no history Without You Who taught me how to scratch a dog, shoot at home Which ones to mess with, which ones to leave alone Who told me lifes hard on yo' own Listen to me n you can live to be grown Perhaps you won't have to pay the dues I done paid Or make the same mistakes that your uncle made He was so real, Cadillacs, new Sevilles Pocket full of big bills, nerve pills I'm the new generation automatics and chrome wheels Raised by the old code, boy you don't squeal Uhn uhn, you don't rat, don't snitch You never f** with a man dogs, money, or his b**h N in this life there very few free lunches Take your boxes with yo' bruises, roll with the punches When they tell you you was wrong tell 'em f** y'all I could've never fed my family with a football It's a'ight to have some weaknesses, it ain't a'ight to let 'em show You'd didn't have no break in stints, so why the hell you let 'em know Somethin' I had to pay a price for I'm givin' you free Just hopin' you can grow up n be even bigger than me, Yo... [Chorus] So much more than a portrait on my upper arm He was the bomb, my dad an' my mom Huh I sit back an' smoke, thinkin' bout way back when Tears trickle off my cheek onta an 8x10 Don't even seem as though you really gone I'm still stunned, you treated me like a son An' no one made you, a lil' bad a** boy But still you raised me, and in the process I damn near drove nanny crazy By the way she's doing good She took it better than we ever thought she would You had to suffer so we understood Probably the last time we gonna come togetha as one They, my family n we ain't seen each other in months Experiencin' harder times with every day I find myself sayin' what would papa say If you were here, you'd guide me through this No doubt, but your gone, n' I'm grown, n' I know... [Chorus]