I was told when I was young how to get dough

Grab a gun, grab a mask, put em' on the floor

Gotta take what you want, if you want grow

Close mouths don't get fed in ghetto

Bringing smoke, selling dope, uh

Trying to understand why we broke, uh

A young loc, with no hope and no dreams

Contemplating death, and only 13

Dope fiends, up and down the neighborhood,

Chasing money, thinking all paper good

Contributing, while they shooting, this is genocide

I had my poetry, but I had to put my pen aside

Cuz I identified, something like a drug dealer

1-time wasn't giving love, N-

In tube socks, nothing some drugs, N-

Fuck around and catch case, caught me with a dub N-

Damn I was dumb N-,

If I knew, what I know now

I swear I would have slowed down

stuck playing checkers not chess, I could never win

Post traumatic addicted to adrenalin

Went to Boystown but I couldn't settle in

Little did they know, they had let the devil in

Trying to numb mind, feeding me ritalin

Gang ties, N-, yeah the homies jumped me in

All blue, I was true, check my pedigree

A m-f snitch the m-f dead to me

Who you riding with, N-, you siding with,

Cuz who fighting, with, that who you dying with

All on my dolo, solo on my grind

Keep on the low low, money on my mind

Never hard to find me, I be grimy with my come up

These N- wanna try me, then MF- run up

vigilant, you not innocent, to me

Cuz ain't none yall as militant as me

Damn, I was dumb N-

Hurt pride, contemplating homicide,

I swear I never cried, held it all inside

Watched my friends die, one by one

Lived by sword, dying by the gun

Eyes wide open staring at the sun

Blinded by the shiny things, trying cope shiny things

Wishing I could buy me things, pockets on E

Walk around, with a rocket on me

Cock it, and I got it, Homey run it, run it

You name it, I done it,

Starving N- need food they stomach,

Life lessons, gotta learn something from it

Never stop climbing, grind till you die

If you never take the leap, you'll never learn to fly

Don't sleep, you can sleep when you die

Aim for the stars, they ain't that high