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If you don't give a little somethin' back |
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To your family, you ain't shit in my book. |
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Come On Boy... |
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I was her baby, she guided me through life, |
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She whipped my ass for doin' wrong, |
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Rewarded me for doin' right, |
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I caused so many tears to roll down her face, |
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I was just young n dumb n needed my space, |
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But you was there for me, I could depend on you, |
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When I lost my first tooth, when I had pneumonia, |
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You put your own house up ta keep me outta jail, |
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I didn't raise no snitches boy, you betta not tell, |
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I'm gonna go do this time up off the street, |
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Just send me five or ten dollars a week, |
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Every Sunday bring me somethin' to eat, |
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Some chicken or macaroni, some brownies, somethin' sweet, |
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N to make it complete, I wanna whole pitcher of my Nanny's ice tea, |
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What she won't do for the rest y'all she gonna do for me, |
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Like she held me down I'm gonna hold her down, |
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Baby's a superstar, y'all can't control me now... |
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Uhn..Uhn... |
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[Chorus:] |
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Without you, |
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There's no me, |
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Without roots, |
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There's no tree, |
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There would be no history, |
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Without You, |
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Who taught me how to scratch a dog, shoot at home, |
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Which ones to mess with, which ones to leave alone, |
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Who told me lifes hard on yo' own, |
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Listen to me n you can live to be grown, |
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Perhaps you won't have to pay the dues I done paid, |
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Or make the same mistakes that your uncle made, |
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He was so real, Cadillacs, new Sevilles, |
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Pocket full of big bills, nerve pills, |
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I'm the new generation automatics and chrome wheels, |
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Raised by the old code, boy you don't squeal, |
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Uhn uhn, you don't rat, don't snitch, |
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You never fuck with a man dogs, money, or his bitch, |
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N in this life there very few free lunches, |
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Take your boxes with yo' bruises, roll with the punches, |
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When they tell you you was wrong tell 'em fuck y'all, |
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I could've never fed my family with a football, |
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It's a'ight to have some weaknesses, it ain't a'ight to let 'em show, |
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You'd didn't have no break in stints, so why the hell you let 'em know, |
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Somethin' I had to pay a price for I'm givin' you free, |
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Just hopin' you can grow up n be even bigger than me, Yo... |
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[Chorus] |
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So much more than a portrait on my upper arm, |
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He was the bomb, my dad an' my mom, |
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Huh I sit back an' smoke, thinkin' bout way back when, |
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Tears trickle off my cheek onta an 8x10, |
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Don't even seem as though you really gone, |
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I'm still stunned, you treated me like a son, |
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An' no one made you, a lil' bad ass boy, |
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But still you raised me, and in the process, |
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I damn near drove nanny crazy, |
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By the way she's doing good, |
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She took it better than we ever thought she would, |
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You had to suffer so we understood, |
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Probably the last time we gonna come togetha as one, |
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They, my family n we ain't seen each other in months, |
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Experiencin' harder times with every day, |
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I find myself sayin' what would papa say, |
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If you were here, you'd guide me through this, |
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No doubt, but your gone, n' I'm grown, n' I know... |
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[Chorus] |