Respect - The Notorious B.I.G.

Verse one]

Nineteen-seventy somethin', nigga I don’t sweat the date

My moms is late so I had to plan my escape

out the skins, in this world of fly girls

Tanqueray and Hennessy until I cold hurl

Ten months in this gut, what the fuck

I wish moms’d hurry up so I could get buck

wild, juvenile rippin’mics and shit

New York New York, ready for the likes of this, uh Then came the worst date, May 21st

2:19, that’s when my momma water burst

No spouse in the house so she rode for self

to the hospital, to see if she could get a little help

Umbilical cord’s wrapped around my neck

I’m seein’my death and I ain’t even took my first step

I made it out, I’m bringin’mad joy

The doctor looked and said, He’s gonna be a Bad Boy

Now I’m thirteen, smokin’blunts, makin’cream

On the drug scene, fuck a football team

Riskin’ruptured spleens by the age of sixteen

Hearin’the coach scream at my lifetime dream, I mean

I wanna blow up, stack my dough up So school I didn’t show up, it fucked my flow up Mom said that I should grow up and check myself

before I wreck myself, disrespect myself

Put the drugs on the shelf?

Nah, couldn’t see it Scarface, King of New York, I wanna be it Rap was secondary, money was necessary

Until I got incarcerated--kinda scary

C74-Mark 8 set me straight

Not able to move behind the great steel gate

Time to contemplate, damn, where did I fail?

All the money I stacked was all the money for bail

Ninety-four, now I explore new horizons

Mama smile when she see me, that’s surprisin'

Honeys is tantalizin', they freak all night

Peep duckin’cops on the creep all night

As I open my eyes and realizin’I changed

Not the same deranged child stuck up in the game

And to my niggas livin’street life

Learn to treat life to the best, put stress to rest

Still tote your vest man, niggas be trippin'

In the streets without a gat?

Nah, nigga you’re slippin'

If I’m pimpin on The F with weed on my breath

Original hustler with the muffler on the Tec

Respect to the Mac’s and the Ac’s

To the freaks in the Jeeps, lick shots to my peeps