[1 Verse: Has-lo, no Chorus] From the moment of my conception The foot of my fate using the effort of every muscle he could in his frame To put on his weight, to push on the gas peddle Propellin me here, to be the cat you might've slept on Who deads your career Is destiny. All I had to do was stay alive Biding my time waitin for a sign to arrive It came in the form of L.L.'s tape The one that had the same title as the picture on the front of the case 9 years young in '88, Rob Base Easy E, Cube, Ren & Dre, G and Kane Hammer on the first lp, EPMD Nike, Reebok, Fila Scrape a little tar off the curb, hold the needle on your spinning top Dubbin the ca**ettes on my double deck boom box Funny 3-quarter length tube socks Run to the Koreans on the ave for a stop watch Until the next thing; black, red & green Black power, and Islam and talks by Farrakhan Pete Rock and the Mecca Don Groomed in the game by an array of all of the ultimate in rap ever In any era to do it. '92: Redman, '93: Black Moon I'm into high school, mad puerto ricans In came the Wu-Tang, everything changed The world of hip hop watched Rza make 7 straight cla**ics Nas shredded my dome with Illmatic I spent '95 married to the Mobb When a mixtape used to be a Maxell U-R S&S, Tony Touch, Clue and Doo Wop Me and mike used to swap lps in cla** He let me hold both Jeru and Gang Starr We'd bang a joint like 3 days and trade off When the real heads owned and shaped the heart and the soul of the art That we authored and sold Until them devils strong armed the control And now it's all corporate, but I ain't in the pulpit I just remember Tribe. I just remember walkin to the store in the summertime To cop Stakes Is High I just remember Com' Sense, Bootcamp Clik Black scully hats and my first pair of timbs I saw rappers locked up, saw them get free I saw rappers lose their careers over beef I saw rappers on coke, crack, weed and d I saw them in their prime die younger than me I saw Biggie die on the eve of Life After d**h To see him alive in the video is eerie inside Murdered by his own people. I guess ‘Pac wasn't enough I thought that all we got is us The world of hip hop had hardly even gotten up Then Big L took a frickin bullet in the brain a couple of weeks past When my born day came, and Freaky Ty from the Lost Boyz got slain And Big Pun's health caught up and his heart failed him We sat angered ‘cause we ain't have the power to save him But all things come to an end. Spring, summer to fall Winter to spring and summer again Now I'm hearin hip hop is dust in the wind 6 feet deep covered in dirt and dead under my timbs Like it was one of our peeps, so we keep the essence alive ‘cause that's the way that some of us live I feel the hunger in my stomach and ribs I'd rather starve for my craft, than slob for the math And it's a couple cats holdin it down But in the mainstream current overflow and they drown