Growing up in my house
Hip Hop caught a bad wrap
No one else in my house wanted to hear that kind of crap
Before my pen drains spark the membrane
Before the first couplet of my worst quatrain
Before I saw soul train or heard of coal train
I used to own multisided dice for role-playing
And my mom would pull intensive raids
To check my book bag for offensive tapes
Had to hollow out a whole in the back of my dresser set
Just to hide the doggystyle and predator ca**ettes
She wasn't looking for the condoms or the cigarettes
She didn't think I'd drink or ever want to stick it yet
But rap music soph*moric, [?], angry, violent, down right p**nographic
As rap got sicker moms got stricter
I scratched off parental advisory stickers
I had high speed dub and wasn't old enough to purchase
Couldn't let my tapes rock in my room I was nervous
So instead through head phones when I was in bed
I would listen eyes closed covers over my head
But now she sees the picture
I finally convinced her
She doesn't sweat nothing
Now her son's growing richer
He's a registered voter
Playing tennis and poker
Always laying in the sun with a whiskey and soda
I never gotta ask
Someone's paying the taxes
I've forgotten what the difference between a meal and snack is
[Hook]
Growing up in my house Hip Hop caught a bad wrap
No one else in my house wanted to hear that kind of crap
Walking to school I was always late with my Walkman and Backpack
I was afraid to borrow my friend's tapes because my moms wouldn't give them back
It wasn't my moms it was more like my pops
He used to break my NWA tapes and make me watch
Used to sneak behind his back geez how difficult was that
Especially when he trashed my whole collection it was sad
He hated that I listened to it never cared to hear it
He'd wait until I'd slip up and then ground me for a year
It was a whole new sound I'd say around 83
The message 5 minutes funk s**er MCs
It was saturday night and rappers delight
It was the real Roxanne and the glamorous life
It turned to lower waist lines and khakis with a crease
When Eazy dissed Dre Dre's day released
And all they played at parties Black Sheep in the G
Pete Rock knocked the boxes while they whopping in the streets
And me
See I'm an impressionable teen
A white middle cla** a**hole with a dream
[Hook]
Growing up in my house Hip Hop caught a bad wrap
No one else in my house wanted to hear that kind of crap
Walking to school I was always late with my Walkman and Backpack
I was afraid to borrow my friend's tapes because my moms wouldn't give them back
Justin! Turn that f**ing sh** down
Say my bad
I SAID RIGHT fu*kING NOW OR I'M KICK YOUR ASS
That was my dad in 96 when I started to spit
Always mad as sh**
Said I acted black as sh**
Tried to keep it a secret
Put my beats on headphones
Sometimes stereo when nobody was home
See my pop wasn't racist in the sense of violence
He just thought that sicilians should stick to blood lines
That kind of closed mindedness divided us for years
He was always in my hair but my moms never cared
She told me If you're happy son go with the flow
You only get one life whatever floats your boat
But every other day daddyo's at my throat
Throw clothes on the lawn in the cold with no coat
I was f** you I've got a gift from God
If you can't change your ways just kiss your son gone
To make a long story short this went on and on
Till my black girlfriend almost died in 01
Now he's on some guilt sh**
There was no more anger
I quote his exact words on that day in november
How could I hate someone for the color of their skin
Who bleeds like I bleed
Sins like I sin
And a tear drips off he as he turns to me and grin
You're my only son I hope to God that she lives
Live your life J
[Hook]
Growing up in my house Hip Hop caught a bad wrap
No one else in my house wanted to hear that kind of crap
Walking to school I was always late with my Walkman and Backpack
I was afraid to borrow my friend's tapes because my moms wouldn't give them back