[Teacher speaking]
Everything is hard, hard, hard
I mean life is hard, bills is hard
sh**, it's all hard (hard, hard, hard)
Got to get that out your mind
I want to think that hard, be real with yourself. College ain't for you
In fact, I want you to take up a trade
You know, become a carpenter
Did you know Jesus was a carpenter?
She don't want you. Getting in that girl's drawers is hard
Remember that, boy, hard
Good luck, baby
[Royce Da 5'9”]
Teacher, Teacher I don't understand what you even wanna talk for
Unless an interpreter's gon' come up there and talk for me
Because we don't speak the same language, you say sh** like “take up a trade and your thoughts bore me”
You don't teach me nothing, you just talk towards me
I'm gon' need your a**essment and fast
Look around you, do I look anything like the rest of your cla**?
Can't you see that I'm special?
I don't act like these f**ing crumb snatchers
I don't even breathe like ‘em
I was born with my lungs collapsing
I walked right up to the drug dealer in my cla** and asked him
“How did you get such a bad b**h?”
He said “it was hard and the best ones are the hardest to get”
And I went on to see the world, and he went on and started the trick
And now when I see his girl, she be on my dick
[Hook]
I guess f**ing the baddest b**hes around wasn't hard as I thought
Man, what the f** was I thinking? (Get Money)
Jewelry and cars (cars, cars, cars)
Achieving the highest level of success ain't as hard as I thought (top the world)
What the f** was I thinking? (I was drunk)
I was drunk or I was lost (You was lost) (Yeah)
My people said it would be hard (Hard, Hard)
My teacher said it would be hard (Hard, Hard) (It's gon' be hard)
What the f** was she thinking?
Why did I listen to y'all?
What the f** was I thinking?
[Verse 1]
My finest hour is here, this is what I see in my prayers
This is me, though I'm facing all of my fears
Making all my enemies look in the mirror
And see the meme of the Jordan face with all of the tears
What most of you an*lysts ignore, it's my explosive animal allure
I went away to get in the way of my wife planning a divorce
Handled it and came back more talented than all these rappers
Though I'm DiCaprio, all they have on me is the awards
I'm a Steinway grand piano, they're Casios, I will kindly pa** them the torch
The day that one of them are able to hold a candle to my corpse
I'll put a hand on your who*e, even if she ain't my type
And this song is inspired by Broadway play called Hamilton I saw that changed my life
Right away, so my next move is to either screenwrite a movie or write a play
[Hook]
I said f**ing the baddest b**hes around wasn't hard as I thought
Man, what the f** was I thinking? (Get Money)
Jewelry and cars (cars, cars, cars)
Achieving the highest level of success ain't as hard as I thought (top the world)
What the f** was I thinking? (I was drunk)
I was drunk or I was lost (You was lost) (Yeah)
My people said it would be hard (Hard, Hard)
My teacher said it would be hard (Hard, Hard) (It's gon' be hard)
What the f** was she thinking?
Why did I listen to y'all?
[Verse 2]
I'm looking like the black Bond in Africa
Hotel room look like a beautiful crime scene, in fact it's a
Spectacular Halle Berry, Vivica ma**acre
Left behind by a serial bachelor
Fall back, y'all, I really don't fall back enough
You're not gon' not sound soft to us
The shotgun will throw a box of black balls at ya like Count Chocula
That last line, I was just on my Pharoahe Monch
Rappers, kneel before me like I'm trying to prepare a punt
I'll cut your body up and put it in two different cars
Put it in the river, have you swimming in a pair of trunks
Momma asking when I'm coming to the church
My little brother asking for the Aston
I threw the keys to him like I'm fronting up some work (Ha, good looking, Nickle)
I used to not be a trendy guy
Now I probably got more pairs of Balmain jeans than Wale and Envy got
Ah, somebody pinch me
Pardon me
[Interlude]
Teacher, teacher, I'm so sorry I'm late
I'm Lyric Montgomery's father, I'm here for Career Day
(Hi, Mr. Montgomery)
Can I talk to the kids?
Hello, children, how was your day?
I'm Royce Da 5'9”, and over the years
I've been blackballed
I've been in jail
I've seen lives turned
But guess what I've learned?
[Hook]
I learned that f**ing the baddest b**hes around wasn't hard as I thought
Man, what the f** was I thinking? (Get Money)
Jewelry and cars (cars, cars, cars)
Achieving the highest level of success ain't as hard as I thought (top the world)
What the f** was I thinking? (I was drunk)
I was drunk and I was lost
[Verse 3]
And you know what else
Everybody asking me just because I'm a lyricist in this business
How come I haven't gone broke yet?
I tell 'em it's cause I'm the flyest backpacker ever
I'm flyer than Mos Def in a Trump tower surrounded by four chefs
Fixing him some salmon croquettes with Kendrick, Cole and Kweli
In their Jidenna clothes, try me, you and your crew will bleed
Y'all bums ain't shot for the stars since New Years Eve
Nothing was given to me
I had to go upside heads just to get upside hills
Never over the hill though, so I don't strike when the iron is hot
I strike whenever the f** I feel
I eat what the f** I k**
I got this way from not being allowed to eat dinner
If you knew how much I've lost, you'd have no problem with me winning
How many times could I be reinvented?
Money is the deadlier of the five venoms, in my denim
Definitively got a wad in 'em, garages with cars in 'em
Hanging out in bars to have menages with bartenders
God was an artist and Jesus was a carpenter
They put me together like an easel in the darkness of hell
And lost it and left me some loose screws, but
These are the nails to your coffin
These are the folk tales of a starving artist
Battling demons through his notepad like Adam and Eve eating kale in the garden
Flying private away from all charges