[Verse 1: Illecism]
Back in the day, back in the day
I would go out & play with all my n***as
Future Crip & Blood k**ers
Robbers, drug abusers, & dealers
Never ever thought we'd get older man
Or go from learning Pokemon to how to poke a man
Or thought bullets would replace water in our guns
Me, him, & you would hold in hand
Or me & you would be holding hands at his funeral
I don't know when we went from pushing wooden wagons down a black road
To putting wooden coffins under a black rose, but I suppose
It's what the Devil like to see
Where we from angel sightings are unlikely
Never knew how nostalgic life could be until I hopped in my time machine & decided to go
[Hook]
Way back in the day
Are the moments of which I dream
As I rest in my time machine
Way back in the night
Being far from a place called home
In the street being way too grown
[Verse 2]
Back in the night, back in the night
I would start up a fight with any old
n***a on the boulevard
Before I ever wanted a deal Illy would still pull your card
I wanted what the OGs rocked so I transformed to the walking weed spot
The bicycle hustler who recycled customers and made paper no Xerox
Wonder if my bb gun that used to pop shots would have evolved to an AK, like
Stealing candy from the mom & pop shop
Then to armed robbery in broad daylight for my peeps
The streets taught us all kinds of things like getting ugly to possess finer things
If I was still there, where would I be?
Dead or in jail where no one could hear me sing anything about
[Hook]
[Verse 3]
We no longer roam to the tree tops
Write raps just to spit over a beat box
Sell d**, hoping fiends don't detox
So tell us what's right, you need not
Already know that we can't be stopped
And you can't walk in the shoes or in these socks
No one can tell you where the dream stops
Cuz in my world we don't see clocks
But mama said, "stop
Acting like an infant, soon you may have your own infant
Either go to college and study statistics
Or be acknowledged a statistic", this is
America's philosophy
May be true for you but not for me
If I don't know where I'm coming from won't know where I'm going
So let me drive my time machine and go
[Hook]