| I am the first son of Betsy and Edward Mensah
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| Made love and made a legend, Woodlawn and 47th
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| Gunshots outside my window, drug deals out by the Citgo
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| But mama always made sure the tooth fairy found my pillow
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| My pops was always workin', he put the family first
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| Chicago Saturdays in the park and Sundays at church
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| Kept me from off the corner where Stones and GDs was warrin'
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| And Kings and BDs and VLs all had dreams of bein' Jordan
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| Even dope fiends was scorin', swish, tryna be like Mike
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| Shootin' through that baseline in their veins tryna reach that height
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| I was a little rockstar, dressed up like Jimi Hendrix
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| In Hyde park in the good part in the hood like Hemi engines
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| Teachers didn’t see my vision, had me in IEPs
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| Kicked out of kindergarten, they didn’t know that I was me
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| Tattooed my tears, wrote my story in my skin
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| Because even as a boy I always knew I’d be the man
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| In my dreams (In my dreams)
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| I saw it in my sleep (yeah)
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| The city will be mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine
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| Memories
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| On 47th street (yeah)
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| Sebastian got me high
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| One day it will be mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine
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| At age 12 I learned the difference between white and black
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| Police pulled me off of my bike, I landed on my back
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| Back to reality, oops, a victim of gravity
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| Where they pull you down and keep you there
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| Dependin' on how you keep your hair
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| Now it’s fuck 'em up and bumpin nothin' but NWA
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| Smokin' a 7 or an 8th, way before 7th grade
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| My classmates sellin' yay
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| Sebastian got me high that first time
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| In the back of an abandoned truck by Webster Place
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| Couldn’t feel my face
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| Sprayin' paint to see my name on trains, try not to catch a case
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| Age 13 at Cam granny house, watchin' him shoot up the Ace
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| He took the needle out and waved it in my face
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| If I ain’t tell that boy, «Be easy, dog,"I coulda died of AIDS
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| I started realizin' my talents 'bout the time I was 15
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| Tryna take over the world like Pinky and the Brain
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| Sellin' kush and hittin' stains, still in True Religion jeans
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| 16, I was shinin' just like a Stanley Kubrick scene
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| Sneakin' into Lollapalooza, I fell off of that bridge
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| 15, 000 volts went through my elbow, fell over 30 feet
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| The doctor said I should be dead, still alive and still ain’t scared
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| In the hospital bed, writin' these rhymes in my head
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| In my dreams (In my dreams)
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| I saw it in my sleep (yeah)
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| The city will be mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine,
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| all mine
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| Memories
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| On 47th street (yeah)
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| Sebastian got me high
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| One day it will be mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine
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| In a land of desperation we often turn to self medication as a coping mechanism.
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| Some make a living as hood pharmacists while some just inhale to remove them
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| from hell. |
| I watched from the window of a gated community until I grew old
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| enough there was no immunity from allure of the life |