I was born in new jersey, I said it before  But I guess nobody heard me  My mother died young  No sistas or brothas, I was the only son  When I was twelve my pops died too  What a brotha was supposed to do?  They sent me out West  To live with my aunt  I guess they though it was the best  But there was no love there  Growin' with no moms   I guess I was prepared to live in a vacuum  The bedroom the kitchen, the hall and the bathroom  I didn't leave home much, didn't like L.A.  Didn't have no friends to trust  Got busted to a school  Blacks and whites, I guess the shit was cool  But in highschool I changed  Didn't wanna bust, didn't wanna play the game  I walked to Crenshaw high, shit was fly  I hooked up with new cru  Some brothas that knew what the fuck to do  You might call it gang but we called it a set  And it was our own thang  The whole school was down  And one way or another everybody fucked around  When the hardcore or not  you wore the right color or your ass got shot  That's how i'm livin'...    I did three years in and made close friends  Havin' no love my homies came my only  I was glad: a family I never had  But I grew up fast got a girl on 10th grade pregnant  Needin' cash, I had to change my style  Switched from bangin' to hustlin'  No more goin' buckwild  Had to get a cashflow  But my hustle was weak, it was a no go  I join the army, four years in that shit  Be all fucked you can be  Came back to the hood  My homies had done good  Had elevated their game  About 100 gees a lick, no mothafuckin' shame  Passed for the jewels  Baby sledgehammers with the tools  I speak on this with a hesitation  Even though it passed the statue of limitation...    I checked the bank  Bought a porsche and gear, earn high streetrank  But as I grew my whole crew fell thru  Cops had us on the books as innerstate crooks  Murder robbery rape escape, the whole damn nine  You robbed a nigga blind  I had too much juice, I cut my boosters loose  I was intread with the pimpgame  Took on the ice-name  But the pimpgame moved too slow  Especially for a nigga who was hooked on quick dough  In one nite late I was in a carwreck  And I was lucky to escape  Hospital for teen weeks, in bed almost dead  And when I got well, I got gaught in a cross  And got locked in a jailcell  That's how I'm livin'...    They cutted me loose  And I had to change troops  This time they didn't catch me  Next time they'll strecth me  Cause my time was gettin' short  All my homies was in court  Or locked in a hole, this shit was gettin' old  So I changed my life  Putted down the gun and picked up the mic  It took ten years to get from there to here  But I still keep a gun, cops got me on the run  And they hate me more now  Than they ever did before  My homies came back from pen  And we all worked together   True friends but every once and while  Some punk mistakes me as a junk  And he gets in my face  Wrong mothafuckin' place  And I aint lyin', that's how you dyin'...