[Intro: Haystak]
Yeah:
This' for all my people that grew up being told
That they would be dead in the penitentiary;
It's about time they were grown
And then you wonder why?
They got depression, self-esteem, anxiety issue'... you know?
After so long you start to believe it: (check, check)
[Verse 1: Haystak]
I recall everything I was told:
Boy you'll never live to be 18 years old
Dead or incarcerated just like those;
People who wander down similar roads
Leavin' out the house, she said please don't go!
Granny why you stay tryin' to, save my soul?
If death is my destiny, like you had said to me
Let me get busy before he gets the best of me!
Don't you know bullets don't have no brain?
And a lot of youngers don't have no aim?
Am I livin' or dyin' somebody please explain?
Goin' or stayin', because I'm going insane?
I'm strapped up cause he is, sheisty cause she is
Meanwhile a dude who teach chemistry is
In his office with a kid doing shit I get expelled for
Which makes me wonder: why people go to jail for it?
[Hook: Haystak]
Even if I did die young, so what?
Nobody expected me to ever grow up
Grandmama lectured me you better grow up
But there wasn't no telling me I was a grown up!
Even if I did die young, so what?
Nobody expected me to ever grow up
Grandmama lectured me you better grow up
But there wasn't no telling me I was a grown up!
[Verse 2: Haystak]
I'm a kid peeping in justice y'all let slide
But you're so quick to, point out mine
That's what made me draw that line
Blinded by my own desire; I'm doing fine
No, I'm not I'm doing bad, but I'm so afraid to talk
Y'all got shit going on, I don't wanna bother y'all
Pops cut from a different cloth: never be the man he was
Thought I was slow, I turned out to be a genius!
And I ain't returned like, eat my peanuts
Let our bank statements be the difference between us;
If I seem distant, bitch I'm 30 something
I was suppose to been done: been a murder victim!
My grandpa prayed 'till his knees gave way
If you can`t save me, God, please save Jason
The way I went in, that's the only explanation
I know some bad dudes; enough to know I ain't one!
[Hook: Haystak]
Even if I did die young, so what?
Nobody expected me to ever grow up
Grandmama lectured me you better grow up
But there wasn't no telling me I was a grown up!
Even if I did die young, so what?
Nobody expected me to ever grow up
Grandmama lectured me you better grow up
But there wasn't no telling me I was a grown up!
[Verse 3: Haystak]
I was confused, and you can hear it in my rhetoric;
In retrospect, I never should have made it back
I wrote my Senator and never got a letter back
My friend Chris got killed for a Cadillac
My man Mike died for a powder pack
So understand why I could think that I was next:
Under attack, guns and crack
Or the motherfuckin' police shoot us in the back!
And ah, they think it only happens to blacks;
And refuse to believe it almost happened to 'Stak:
Stabbed in the back
Blood beating threw a heart filled with crack
Soldier up! Fought through that!
Injuries; a lot of players don't walk off
I walked off cause I ain't the type to walk on
If you're family: you're suppose to love me when I'm wrong
Be a man, and represent me when I'm gone!
Stones in the foundation get looked over
But without them, the whole damn house falls over!
This is for the rocks that exist beneath me:
The block which gave me, a past to be me
BB's are baby bullets, baby's are in training
My people were bangin', before they called it bangin'
Just chillin', hangin', words exchange:
One thing lead to another, all I heard was [gun shot]...
[Hook: Haystak]
Even if I did die young, so what?
Nobody expected me to ever grow up
Grandmama lectured me you better grow up
But there wasn't no telling me I was a grown up!
Even if I did die young, so what?
Nobody expected me to ever grow up
Grandmama lectured me you better grow up
But there wasn't no telling me I was a grown up!