I put the punch in the kick instead of punchin' a clock It's no wonder that this is timeless Nights spent sleepin' on the floor, need a bed or at least a cot Since his dreams startin' to define him The grind never stopped for the workin' class, fuck a Birkin bag I learned my colors, then I had to watch what color shirt I had Like a concierge, I show the way of our concernin' past But everybody can't come along, I come to terms with that I ain't never been one to burn bridges or burn a bag Ironic, money turn a man into an island And a friend into a financial advisor Take a family and divide it in America, the land of the tyrant Still with the same niggas, and that mean the women too The only thing change what I paid for the tennis shoe Like Eminem on the stage 'fore he blew, this is livin' proof Bad things come in threes, good things come, a few Yeah, few All the fears we had to run from And he only want a few things We went back to where we start from Not the only one All the fears we had to run from And he only want a few things We went back to where we start from Not the only one Niggas reppin' blocks like the taxi wars But the thing about turf is that it never actually grows I tried to focus on the sprouts like a grocery store But in the hood, shit don't always go how it's supposed to go So we adjusted like a tailor makin' alterations Altercations in a Austin neighborhood was all for paper Group think swear that it was all contagious how we all complacent I said, "Fuck it, I'm all in" like I was off to Vegas The followed days, I grew my dreads like I was part Jamaican Know the journey waitin' is a lonely one, they'll call him crazy Because believin' in yourself not often celebrated People projectin' a mirror image that is merely hatred The fear he faces is the same as me, I'm peer adjacent All truth, you know I don't lie like Shakira shakin' Iridescent people show they colors, I assume they true Bad things come in threes, good things comin' soon Few And he only want a few things All the fears we had to run from And he only want a few things We went back to where we start from Not the only one All the fears we had to run from And he only want a few things We went back to where we start from Not the only one From what we knew about my mother She was cut from the cloth of South Carolina Gullah She knew to keep the root a right amount of color Her old soul remind you of somebody abuelas It's smooth the way she dip into her mental capoeira When she starin' into your soul and you tryin' not to let her Now and then you might get a word if not a operetta When she take it upon herself to drop a acapella 'bout Different rules, relatives you can't pick and choose How they quick to get confused and then disapprove Grown actin' like they still in school But in the grand scheme of things, it all seems pretty minuscule A cool toast to the people we adore the most Let's hold 'em close like the water headed for the coast I'm wide awoke, what I'm haunted by is more than ghosts It's when you slip and sippin' a mornin' roast Listenin' to Hall and Oates, oyster flex on a ashy wrist As I reflect on what got me this How I'm one of Cassie kids, we from S.P. and we come in twos I'm unenthused, but good things come in fews I tried that invincible shit, but the principle is When it's niggas defendin' your wig, then it's a pendulum shift I tried to spend a little less like a minimalist But then I can confess that this gets harder the bigger you get The rich'll get rich, the poor get pissed, that's just what it is We seen everything from the gutter to glitz Adults in the crib tellin' they kids to cover they ears Fight with a youngin and watch they older brothers appear Like two in the front and one in the rear The fun subsides when you gotta swallow your anger or stomach your fear All the money a myth, it's a sunken abyss But necessary for the family to have somewhere to live So you stuck with makin' decisions more than some wouldn't get The baggage that come with the bag, hope you not fumblin' it Marathon, not a sprint, like I'm honorin' Nip When commas the common denominator, all the percent Got us movin' to the Pacific in hopes that it would be different The boat we was on had physics that left some of us swimmin' Don't ask 'bout my independence, we not financially literate Dangle a million dollars when oxygen was the mission We just wanna breathe, we been drownin' down here for centuries Black and brown boy identity, families that depend on me Art get turned to assembly line every line my lineage Glass half full, the other half was the emptiness We turned a bunch of nothing to abundance Few good things When- When- When uncle Eddie got married to auntie He- He married my aunt You have to tell the story