Back in the Day

Yeah, ahh yeah Back in the days (3X) Back in the days (2X) Back in the days of eighty-three Breakdancin at the crib with my man Dupri When the Saturday nights was LIVE in the West When honies were fly, the flavor was good but On the burnt side, was where it took place On the cheap sound system without no bass Coolin with my man DayDay, the DJ Machete I want a record deal, but I knew I wasn't ready But back then I still had more fun I even rode around my guy the rookie named Michael Jordan Long before Tag Team and 95 South Real Planet Rock shit used to funk the house But the schoolyard Crips and PPD's were too rowdy Some of them started rollin to the ?dotua? parties My dance group called the Frat Boys was winnin The parties was live cause General Lee was spinnin When the summer came I was off to the Ridge With my pen and my pad, I met new kids Marty Mar, a.k.a. the Big Mo Big Ben, Af Rock, yo we stole the show Makin tapes all the time, it's like I couldn't quit But when I listen to em now I'll admit That it wasn't alla that in fact we was wack But every now and then, huh, I wanna go back Back in the days I wanna go back in the days (4X) I wanna go back (2X) Spring eighty-seven, down with the four man crew Kool Kat, Disco, and my man Steve Blue No record deal, but I was still rhymin Big Mo hooked me with a kid named Diamond D Not the one from the East he went to school in Arizona Said he liked the way I rocked the microphone-a We knew our, producer, but he was a flake That lived in the projects, said we had to wait Sittin in the car for hours at a time, buckin bullets down But that's how bad I wanted to rhyme Back when the hip-hop shit always had the airplay The best station in nation which was KDAY I got serious about my flow Hooked up with a brother that they call Domino And Diamond quit and left the twelve, over at my crib I hooked it up to my cassette player, tell you what I did I would pause mix breaks, whatever it would take I only had three records couldn't dig in any crates And there was times when I wanted to stop flowin but my Best friend and lover Ajay, yo, she said to keep goin When all we had to eat was cup of noodles in the six pack Cause I went and spent all my ducats on the six track On the real, no food in the fridge But when I won the rap contest at Northridge Everybody flipped, yo we didn't know how to act Daaam, I wanna go back I wanna go back I wanna go back in the days (6X) Bill Duke, a well known deep brother Hooked me with the soundtrack on Deep Cover That's how I met Bilal, from the Bronx He had more beats that house niggas got conks Showed me all kind of beat makin tricks Just like Machete showed me how to pause mix And I was married to the shit like a husband to a wife But when I tried to rhyme up at the Good Life Yo I got dissed I couldn't buy no respect But in two years I came back to catch wreck On the set and jet, cause that's how it had to be And my man Tragedy became amazed at me So he put me inside, the Cadillac The chaffeur drove off, and now I can't go back Hahaha, back in the days I wanna go back in the days (6X) I wanna go back (4X)