Way Back When - Intellectual

[Verse 1: Whale]

Skip, pause, rewind to way back when

Back when I didn't know pain, only wanted to play again

Life was so simple, it simply moved on

Like the girl I loved that seemed to do wrong

Used to think I'd know everything when I got older

Easier said than done an understatement said over

Time caught up with me and I barely know what I'm doing

The future's ready to get me, so I remain humble in my mooing

Humility in the cow words, raps are turning into lions

Humility is a now word, even though we were divine

Now it's too quick, life is speeding like a soaring blur

Starts to make me sick, it is always speeding up like more and more

Slow down, eagle, you're simply taking it too fast

Put me back as an eagle in DeBary, city of my past

And make that moment last

So it never seems to pass

Lemme watch my mistakes, so I can sit back, learn, watch and laugh

[Hook: John Legend]

I cannot forget, what brought me here

I can't regret, all the laughter, love, pain and fear

I remember growing up with my dad

I remember all that we had

Way back when, way back when

I remember like it's way back when

[Verse 2: Whale]

Way back when, use the knowledge that I know today

Way back when, fix the crap that held me in disarray

Way back when, applied current lessons to events passed

Way back when, could've know what led me to be dead last

That's why they call it, grow from your mistakes, learn from it

Cause if you don't learn, you're only option is to burn from it

That's why true pain is difficult for me to feel

Every little hurt, is a lesson that can help me heal

Help me take it back, learn from the fact, remember where you at

Back into the time, we were at our prime, and did it differently

Callin it mentally, got to make it drag

Rapping on medley, only spit it half

When I say it 50-50, I mean I'm only half as good

As the verse from the Louve, Paris jealous of his hood

Chi-town meets the subs, way back when we were young n' black

Watch us reminisce, as we recall it all and keep our lungs intact

[Hook: John Legend]

[Verse 3: Lupe Fiasco]

Hey, Chicago!

That would be my city man, grew up there, I was a little man

I know what I'm saying, it's hard when you deliver choices

UPS and downs, Chi-town, FedEx will take ya to employment

My daddy was good man, I loved him from all my heart

How to be a BLACK MAN, he taught me that right from the start

Time is moving on, look up suddenly you old

Up there is your son, he's a father, let the truth be told

You don't appreciate it until they gone, then you know you need em

It's there whenever you walk home

That's help when I was cut & bleeding

I will never forget you, you're a Legend in my land

I evolved from you, ordinary peeps like John will understand

I rose like bread in the hood of prostitutes and drugs

Will's here from the hood of 'whiches in the subs

A backstabber's black magic and guns they all hurt like hell

Remember where we came from, see that's what kept us well

Them kids got it overgood today, don't they guys?

Pride before a crash, haughty before the overdemise

Way back when, sometimes you really just gotta go back

Travel to the past, speed of light, we beamin' while its all black

Terminator style, I'll be back before you know it

Whale watch the form, my function is exactly where I drove it