Back in the Day

Just turned 19 this week and got my first apartment
Share a bunk bed with my home girl
We're artists
Can't live with my mama cus she outta state
Was sleeping at my daddy's house, then he told me I couldn't stay
So now I'm taking the bus out to the valley
I'm a bud tender
I love living in Cali
Getting paid cash and tips
And roll blunts and spliffs
On a mission to pay this tuition
Totaled my car about a month ago drinking and driving
I thank God that I'm still alive and
My man's been acting funny, been a few months
He be acting like he don't know what he wants
Headphones blasting on the 81 bus
Get home around 6 and I'm rolling up a blunt
They say I'm "just a teenager" like that makes me inferior
Big weirdo business and that's on period
I'm an adult now and it's kinda fun
Until the Rent's due on the first of month
High top Chuck Taylor's on my toes
2 racks in my savings account-
That's called growth
Dropped out at 17 with a cast on my leg
Breaking my ankle, dunking at practice, before the first game
That was my last chance, to prove to the school, that I could play
So I packed my bags, was on my way
Couldn't play pro ball, so it's rap or bust
Used to pack amphitheaters, when we battled at lunch
Hip Hop wasn't new to us
I used to rock shell toes every day, same way I do chucks
Doing run outs at Ross, just to have gear to floss, for the show
Finally got a 9-5, so I got a little doe
Moved in w a girl I met while ripping shows
Cheated on her every night but she doesn't know
Kissing hoes like a mistletoe on my ball cap
Eating emcees, after work, after church, at the movies, at the mall
At the club, all the time
Almost signed to Death Row and Interscope, before I finally got mine
21 doing shows over seas
Smashing broads back stage, smoking smuggled OG
Album leaked a year before it dropped
But when it did, it still hit, like a number one song on the charts
I remember
Pop Warner we was balling out
After games changed cloth nintendo at the homie house
As the clock made its rounds some fizzing out
High school young and wild
I can see us now
Crowd rounded, freestyles with the girls on go
Homecoming was the first big show
The warm up but I don't play sports no more
The sophomore scoring more than TD's I need G's
Started hustling 16 with a pager
Kicked out a school for a scrap dealing with anger
Still I was doing the math
Returned back to school and jag to prove I'm still in class
The passion these raps got me through all the good and the bad
Now its passports, paid trips carry-on bags
France at the Ritz
Not what you receive it's what you give is the gift
I reminisce