That's How I'm Livin' (On The Rox Remix) (1993)

I was born in new jersey, I said it before
 But I guess nobody heard me
 My mother died young
 No sistas or brothas, I was the only son
 When I was twelve my pops died too
 What a brotha was supposed to do?
 They sent me out West
 To live with my aunt
 I guess they though it was the best
 But there was no love there
 Growin' with no moms 
 I guess I was prepared to live in a vacuum
 The bedroom the kitchen, the hall and the bathroom
 I didn't leave home much, didn't like L.A.
 Didn't have no friends to trust
 Got busted to a school
 Blacks and whites, I guess the [bad word] was cool
 But in highschool I changed
 Didn't wanna bust, didn't wanna play the game
 I walked to Crenshaw high, [bad word] was fly
 I hooked up with new cru
 Some brothas that knew what the [bad word] to do
 You might call it gang but we called it a set
 And it was our own thang
 The whole school was down
 And one way or another everybody [bad word] around
 When the hardcore or not
 you wore the right color or your [bad word] got shot
 That's how i'm livin'...

 I did three years in and made close friends
 Havin' no love my homies came my only
 I was glad: a family I never had
 But I grew up fast got a girl on 10th grade pregnant
 Needin' cash, I had to change my style
 Switched from bangin' to hustlin'
 No more goin' buckwild
 Had to get a cashflow
 But my hustle was weak, it was a no go
 I join the army, four years in that [bad word]  Be all [bad word] you can be
 Came back to the hood
 My homies had done good
 Had elevated their game
 About 100 gees a lick, no [bad word]  shame
 Passed for the jewels
 Baby sledgehammers with the tools
 I speak on this with a hesitation
 Even though it passed the statue of limitation...

 I checked the bank
 Bought a porsche and gear, earn high streetrank
 But as I grew my whole crew fell thru
 Cops had us on the books as innerstate crooks
 Murder robbery rape escape, the whole [bad word] nine
 You robbed a [bad word] blind
 I had too much juice, I cut my boosters loose
 I was intread with the pimpgame
 Took on the ice-name
 But the pimpgame moved too slow
 Especially for a [bad word] who was hooked on quick dough
 In one nite late I was in a carwreck
 And I was lucky to escape
 Hospital for teen weeks, in bed almost dead
 And when I got well, I got gaught in a cross
 And got locked in a jailcell
 That's how I'm livin'...

 They cutted me loose
 And I had to change troops
 This time they didn't catch me
 Next time they'll strecth me
 Cause my time was gettin' short
 All my homies was in court
 Or locked in a hole, this [bad word] was gettin' old
 So I changed my life
 Putted down the gun and picked up the mic
 It took ten years to get from there to here
 But I still keep a gun, cops got me on the run
 And they hate me more now
 Than they ever did before
 My homies came back from pen
 And we all worked together 
 True friends but every once and while
 Some punk mistakes me as a junk
 And he gets in my face
 Wrong [bad word]  place
 And I aint lyin', that's how you dyin'...