Released on November 2000

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[Verse 1]

I’m growing everyday, mark what I say

I’m tracing a path from the past to the future

Gotta be my own woman, stand on my own two

Eat food, get paid despite what others do

To thine own self be loyal, true it is

I got pets, two cats, and they act just like kids

When they hungry they cop fits and them collectors want money

So how I'ma let a strange up and take that from me?

Burn my time and energy, jerks ain’t no friends to me

Could solitude be the remedy, Nah

I need love in my life, friends by my side

Live stimulation, banter, conversation

Good vibe relations, don’t think I’m asking for much

But these things just don't fall out the sky

Some skunk be so krunk

It make me wanna spend my whole life hi float on a puff of smoke

And coast by lye multiply my ESP and sharpen my focus

Things look clear now, they used to look hopeless


[Hook]

Don’t stop striving, it’s all to the good, baby

If you need guidance, take a minute and marinate

Who ya gonna help if you can’t help yo'self?

Where you gonna go when there ain’t no place left?


[Verse 2]

Some days I get a ray of understanding and the answers are clear

Next day it fades away like it was never here

Sometimes I’m inclined to believe that time ain’t stable or my mind not stable

I check and see if the rhymes still stable

Deal the cards and read my life off the table

Taste what I hate out the bottle

Goes down sweet when I swallow

Though it smells like contradiction

Ask, “Is this enriching my life?”

Inch by inch I get by

If I flinch and blink do I sink flesh and bone

My illest rhyme quoted on my tombstone even

When I'm called home, the words I scribe through time will make me live long


[Hook]

Don’t stop striving, it’s all to the good, baby

If you need guidance, take a minute and marinate

Who ya gonna help if you can’t help yo'self?

Where you gonna go when there ain’t no place left?

Who ya gonna help if you can’t help yo'self?

Where you gonna go when there ain’t no place left?


[Verse 3]

Bunk naysayers who pop junk and waste time

They don’t embrace life and it shows

Kids I used to know even when I squint

Can barely place the face

Details time erase, years spent in space

Yo it’s nothing personal

These days I don’t even have the strength to get emotional

Hold goals in perspective, make earnest effort

Post cards retrace my steps through global sections

Be connecting with folks over choice liquor toasts

Nothing to keep me back, but me

When I glance closely, analyze what my daddy told me

He took time to explain it, learned from how he illustrated

Fire in my belly burn like a furnace

Desire in my eyes both stronger than pride

Concernless with the rest of them

Take lumps in stride

Aim to rank amongst the best of them

Scroll be the testament

Pray what I say: be relevant

To every single head in every tenement

Who wanna larger stake inside the jackpot to leverage

Ask for what you want and keep talking till you getting it, word


[Hook]

Don’t stop striving, it’s all to the good, baby

If you need guidance, take a minute and marinate

Who ya gonna help if you can’t help yo'self?

Where you gonna go when there ain’t no place left?

Who ya gonna help if you can’t help yo'self?

Where you gonna go when there ain’t no place left?