[Intro: Mac Dre]
Up in this muthaf**a trippin', man
Thinkin' about how it was
Back in the days, you know
Beat soundin' kinda cool, feelin' kinda cool
Let gon' and do somethin' to this though
Check it out
[Verse 1]
Once upon a time, my nine stayed in the small of my back
I sold crack and drove a Cadillac
Shot craps, made snaps on the corner by the stop sign
Strapped with my ‘gnac, dank sack and my Glock nine
Kickin' it with the homies on the grind for cabbage
A Double-R soldier, 3C savage
Runnin' from the ones with the nightsticks
High-speed chasin' and racin' in tight sh**
Back in '85 selling goop was the sh**
Wasn't a thing that them fiends wouldn't do for a hit
b**hes s** dick, n***as rented they cars
While young players like me became street stars
Glued to the track with a sack and a handgun
Steady sweatin' sales, stoppin' cars at random
Runnin' from the 50, hittin' fences and hidin' out
Seven cars deep is how the homies is ridin' out
House parties pop, stayed packed with hoodrats
n***as on the mic, drunk, bustin' them hood raps
Hooked on the dank, Thunderbird we drank
Rollin' in the bucket with the f**ed up paint
24-7 on the hunt for coochie
Sportin' Troop, Nikes, Fila, and Gucci
Makin' much money on the dope track
But when the crack slacked then n***as started to jack
Every young n***a tryna stay in the mix
Was breakin' them tricks and cold hittin' a lick
Jackin' became the quickest way to make some mail
But some n***as fell and spent years in jail
Droppin' nine in the pen tryna make they chest bigger
Some n***as died gettin' jacked by the next n***a
But that's the way it goes, you pay the price
When you're deep in the game, and you're livin' that life
[Chorus]
Everybody wants a little something
(When you're livin' that life)
Cool but you got to give it all
(When you're livin' that life)
‘Cause everything in life has a price you're…
(When you're livin' that life)
Livin' the life, livin' the life, livin' the life, oh
[Verse 2]
I was against all odds, fresh out the womb
My only hope was to soak game, so I consume
While n***as chilled and parlayed, I learned the hard way
Scuffed and roughed up, the game had scarred Dre
Back in the days, all I knew was the hood and rocks
Lookin' for funk and headed straight for a wooden box
Prone to quick cash and gettin' the grit fast
Never really trippin' on how long would sh** last
Earnin' my ghetto stripes from scraps and ghetto fights
f**in' with hoodrats, them tramps and ghetto types
Never givin' a f**, nah, not even sometimes
Just havin' a fun time, runnin' from one-time
Trippin', and wasn't even peepin' the sh**
Slippin', and steady gettin' deep into sh**
I let the game control me, shape and mold me
Then it treated me coldly, it pimped and hoed me
I was sellin' the crack but not stackin' a damn thang
And now that I look back, man it's a damn shame
Couldn't recognize there was game to peep
The dank had me gone and my brain is sleep
I finally woke up in the federal pen
Broke than a muthaf**a beggin' for ends
I was a midget, a small digit…forgotten
Game was stale, my name was rotten
Had life by the a**, my sh** was twisted
I thought about the hood and how much I missed it
But the life I was livin' wasn't really sh**
I was clockin' them ends but wasn't stackin' a grip
They had the world thinkin' I was runnin' in vaults
I rea**essed my thoughts, and proved my faults
And for the next four years, I kicked and waited
Becoming top notch while incarcerated
But that's the way it goes, you pay the price
When you're deep in the game, and you're livin' that life
[Chorus]
[Outro: Mac Dre]
Livin' that life
Growin' up in the hood, slangin' that c**aine
f**in' with them hoochies
Runnin' from the rollers
Goin' to juvenile hall, county jail, penitentiary
All that sh**
But you gotta pay the price, when you're livin' that life
If you're soft, homeboy, think twice
It ain't nuthin' nice
Got my boy Khayree up in here, man
We just doin' this sh**