Visualizing the realism of life and actuality Fuck who's "the baddest"; a person's status depends on salary And my mentality is money-orientated I'm destined to live the dream for all my peeps who never made it Cause yeah, we were beginners in the hood as 5 percenters But something must of got in us cause all of us turned to sinners Now some resting in peace and some are sitting in San Quentin Others such as myself are trying to carry on tradition Keeping the effervescent street ghetto essence inside us Cause it provides us with the proper insight to guide us Even though, we know somehow we all gotta go But as long as we leaving thieving We'll be leaving with some kind of dough So, until that day we expire and turn to vapors Me and my capers will be somewhere else stacking plenty papers Keeping it real, packing steel, getting high Cause life's a bitch and then you die Life's a bitch and then you die That's why we get high Cause you never know when you're gonna go Life's a bitch and then you die That's why we puff la Cause you never know when you're gonna go I woke up early on my born day, I'm 20, it's a blessing The essence of adolescence leaves my body, now I'm fresh and My physical frame is celebrated cause I made it One quarter through life some Godly-like thing created Got rhymes 365 days annual plus some Load up the mic and bust one, cuss while I puffs from My skull cause it's pain in my brain, vein, money maintain Don't go against the grain, simple and plain When I was young, at this I used to do my thing hard Robbing foreigners, take their wallets, their jewels And rip their green cards Dipped to the projects flashing my quick cash and Got my first piece of ass smoking blunts with hash Now it's all about cash in abundance Niggas I used to run with is rich or doing years in the hundreds I switched my motto; instead of saying "fuck tomorrow" That buck that bought a bottle could've struck the lotto Once I stood on the block, loose cracks produce stacks I cooked up and cut small pieces to get my loot back Time is Illmatic, keep static like wool fabric Pack a 4-matic that crack your whole cabbage Life's a bitch and then you die That's why we get high Cause you never know when you're gonna go Life's a bitch and then you die That's why we puff la Cause you never know when you're gonna go