When they ask for it, never tell ‘em no. Let it go

Put a pen to the pad—it’s an effervescent flow

Definitely know—I’m a product of the era I was brought up in—

Competition slaughtering for fun

Might’ve mentioned guns as a shorty for attention

Not to say they wasn’t in my area, but listen

My competition, they never wanted me dead

They wanted decapitation, they saw that I was ahead

Heard that I told tales, knew that I did it well

Sisyphusean descriptions—I live in my own Hell

It’s populated by heat that I hand make—flip a coin—

No matter how it lands, where you’re going—

Is through they alleyways, back blocks, tenements

Where if he don’t call a girl a bitch, he’s a gentleman

Misogyny expected—Sodom and Gomorrah

Scary movie mind state—the problem ain’t the horror

In the movies, we die in the first scene

So we’re all really Drew Barrymore in the first Scream

Only it’s set in Harlem, maybe it’s in Detroit

The audience prays you don’t turn around—it ain’t The Voice

You fall as you’re running to get away—

Felonious metaphor, you do a year and a day

Or die trying

Lie silent

Crack infested—surrounded by thirst, it’s Rock Island

From 217 to 309, niggas open they rhyme books up and bleed on lines

Hope for some recognition—to cheat on dimes

Ladies like Changing Faces, and we don’t mind

Bars over the head like snatch lifts

Dope boy antithesis—rhyme with a back flip

Flip back one chapter, finish the exposition—

Juice, on the roof, I’m standing right next to Bishop;

Raheem’s dead and Steel got shot—

We all know how the story ends—still I watch

Excited to see the violence—destined to See It Through

Kinda funny, back in school, I pledged: I’m a Q

Grew up in the era of ass whooppins

Switches, belts, knuckles for mad lookin’

Bus transfers, bummy and bad lookin’

Lunchtime ciphers, dice get cash tooken

C-Style—A-dot, kind of the same guy—

Aries and Virgo—we should have been Gemini

Cause since shorties it was just him and I

Talking more shit than a little bit

Ignorant

Wasn’t all good, but I choose how to remember it

Mention it cause he sent me the track for me to spit to it

97 Canibus, jaw dropped listening;

Nobody spit like he did, and it’s been a minute since

I had inspiration—so I listened closely

Wondered what I’d say in conversation with the old me

“Stop drinking, pig is a filthy animal

If an elephant’s in the room, then you should be Hannibal

Scribble down in your notebook all you can manage to

Wait ten years, then publish it as the manual.”