Yellow Brick Road
[Verse 1]Alright come on, let's cut the bullshit enoughLet's get it started, let's start addressing this issue and open it upLet's take this shit back to the basementAnd we can discuss statements that's made on this tapeAnd its whole origin of the music that we all know and loveThe music that we all enjoy the music you accuse me of tryna destroyLet's rewind it to 89 when I was a boy on the east side of DetroitCrossin 8 Mile into Warren, into hick territoryI'd like to share a story, this is my story and can't nobody tell it for meYou will well-inform me, I am well aware that I don't belong hereYou've made that perfectly clearI get my ass kicked damn near everywhereFrom Bel-Aire shopping center just for stopping in thereFrom the black side all the way to the white sideOkay there's a bright side: a day that I might slideYou may call it a pass, I call it hauling my assThrough that patch of grass over them railroad tracksOh them railroad tracks, them old railroad tracksThem good old notorious oh well known tracks
[Hook]Come on, let's go backFollow the yellow brick road as we go on another episodeJourney with me as I take you through this nifty little placeI once used to call home sweet home
[Verse 2]I roam the streets so much they call me a drifterSometimes I stick up a thumb just to hitch hikeJust to get picked up to get me a lift to 8 mile and Van DykeAnd steal a god damn bike from somebody's backyardAnd drop it off at the park that was the half-way markTo meet KimHad to walk back to her mama's on Chalmers after darkTo sneak me in the house when I'm kicked out my mom'sThats about the time I first met Proof with Goofy Gary on the stepsAt Osbourne handing out some flyers, he was doin some talent showsAt Center line High, I had told him to stop by and check this out sometimeHe looked at me like I'm out my mindShook his head, like "white boys don't know how to rhyme"I spit out a line and rhymed "birthday" with "first place"And we both had the same rhymes that sound alikeWe was on the same shit, that Big Daddy Kane shitWith compound syllables sound combinedFrom that day we was down to rideSomehow we knew we'd meet again somewhere down the line
[Hook]
[Verse 3]My first year in 9th grade, can't forget that day at schoolIt was cool till your man MC Shan came throughAnd said that Puma's the brand cause the Klan makes TroopsIt was rumors but, man, god damn they flewMust've been true because man we done banned they shoesI had the new ones, the Cool J, Iceland suede tooAnd we just threw them in the trash like they yesterday's newsGuess who came through next? X clan debutProfessor X (vanglorious), exists in a state of red, black, and greenWith a key, sissies! now with this bein a new trendWe don't fit in crackas is out with Cactus albumsBlackness is in, African symbols and medallionsRepresents black power and we ain't know what it meantMe and my man Howard and would go to the mall with 'emAll over our necks like we're showin 'em off not knowin at allWe was being laughed at, "you ain't even half black!You ain't supposed to have that homie let me grab that"And that Flavor Flav clock we goin' have to snatch thatAll I remember is meeting back at Manix's basementSaying how we hate this, how racist but dope the X Clan tape isWhich reminds me back in 89 me and Kim broke up for the first timeShe was tryna two-time me, and there was this black girlAt our school who thought I was coolCause I rapped, so she was kinda eyeing meAnd - oh the irony - guess what her name was?Ain't even goin' say it, plusThe same color hair as hers was and blue contacts and a pair of jugsThe bombest god damn girl in our whole school, if I could pull itNot only would I become more popularBut I would be able to piss Kim off at the same timeBut it backfired, I was supposed to dump herBut she dumped me for this black guyAnd that's the last I ever seen or heard or spokeTo the "Oh foolish pride" girlBut I've heard people say they heard the tape and it ain't that badBut it was I singled out a whole race and for that apologizeI was wrong cause no matter what color a girl is, she's still a ho
[Hook]