When I Was Young - Jon Connor, Chris Webby, Smoke DZA

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful…

Oh it was beautiful, magical…

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful…

Oh it was beautiful, magical…

Rap was all I ever thought about, listened to, talked about

Back before money was all they talked about, horse shit

When I young, the rappers could really rap, kid

Now they more concerned about they average

Listening to rappers like a student in a lecture

Mimicking the cadences and practicing the gestures

Eminem was rappin' 'bout pills, so I popped those

Swinging my shirt in the air like Petey Pablo

Studied the greats from Pun to Tupac

Walked around my private school with my tapes in a shoe box

Handed my music out to people I sold weed to

Watching MTV, tellin' myself «that's gonna be you»

Tapin' the radio and puttin' it on cassette

Now I’m gettin' bombs after my shit by Funk Flex

It’s a trip, man — I just sit back and roll the purple

Now watch this whole thing come around full circle

Young nigga, influenced by the TV heavy

Eatin' Little Debbies', tuned into Fab Five Freddy

Vids I watched ‘em all, emulating applause

I ain’t fuck with Superman, my super hero was Biggie Smalls

Rappin' with my dawgs proudly, nobody was cold as me

Wishing somebody’d notice me

Dreams to get a deal 'cause the speech so sick

Now they talkin' 'bout deals, and I’m like «keep that shit»

Went through a lot of BS, lucky me

Times had me like «this ain’t what it’s cracked up to be»

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander

It’s good for the blogs, it’s good for the slander

Nowadays, they wishing it was how it was before

But that was back in the days when I was young

I’m not a kid anymore

The OGs that I listened to, I’m friends with

When I was younger, a nigga never would’ve thinked this

When I was younger nobody told us or showed us, crooked promoters

Flint, Michigan, General Motors held the weight on our shoulders

Until the shops started closing, felt like ain’t nobody want us

Our parents worked to the bone, now they ain’t got a bone to throw us

Now see how many kids is daydreaming about a label

Yep, this rap shit is a bitch but the only one that was faithful

Make it or die trying, at times it almost got fatal

My niggas was moving ‘caine in the times they was barely able

Brothers killin' brothers, shit goin' on all around me

Genesee County would ground me and teachers would try to clown me

‘Cause I had heart that was bigger than my surroundings

I got flooded with hate, but no way I could let ‘em drown me

Picture this one:

I used to go to sleep at night listening to «It Was Written»

Then fastforward, Nas is tellin' me «nigga, you gifted»

If you fall, just shake it off

Now they sayin' it’s my time, but time just caught up with my thoughts

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful…

Oh it was beautiful, magical…