ELZhi - Growing Up lyrics

Yeah, this goes out to all the hoods in the D
Glen Street, 7 Mile, Coney Gardens
School Craft
Just thinkin back on how crazy that shit was
Roamin the block
Makin somethin out of nothin
This is my story niggas

Yeah, g-growin up on 12th Street, Rosa Parks
Was a young prodigy who had flows to spark
Surrounded by killers, thieves, pimps
Hoes and narcs dead bodies in the allies
Back roads and parks
My life counted out before I
Memorized the number chart in the cold
The block was hot before the summer start
And I was lookin up to
Chris Bud and Black Bill
And Curtis for whom I let the yak spill
Heard somebody got knocked but
Hate chose his path how the fuck he turned
Snake like Moses' staff?
Huh? Got to switchin and started snitchin
On everybody in the kitchen
Down to the ones' pitchin
You know that go against the code
So they beefin
Where the homeless lookin for something
To stick their teeth in
And you could say I was a thief then
Stealin out of corner stores
Gettin mines, while ignorin yours
Up in my cousin's tree house, puffin squares
Thinkin about how life ain't
Easy and nothing's fair
My talent for writtin songs hid while
Hangin with the wrong kids
Who later would live short lives
Or do long bids
I guess you could say I was saved by hip hop
Young, recitin "Fuck The Police"
I got my lip popped
Who'd thought I'd rise from the bottom
And to the tip top rip shop, chillin
While the ceiling on my whip drop
Yo yo, went from hand me down shit to Polo
From Polo to Louie Vuitton, I'm a don
And since my biological left, my mom is gone
All I got is my brother and step father
So I'm a rep farther life's in our hands
From there we got to make decisions
Either advance or stay inside
The Devil's kitchen
Divided we stand, no one can act up the story
It's up to the man to rise
And try to find the glory, glory

Yeah, yeah, yeah, ha
I made it bitch, get the cock and balls
I'm from a block where niggas
Go through rock withdrawals
Poverty debts, folks with a lot of regrets
Blowin smoke, goin broke, off of lottery bets
You got fatherless sons
Lookin up to ballers
When they was smaller they got
They dollars in ones now you see 'em in they
Old school Impalas with guns
That go "pop!" but rather pop
Their collars for fun
Cause it's wild as a mug
(mug) , somebody's child is a thug
That can't even show they proud with a hug
Though they help around the house
Movin thousands of drugs
(thousands of drugs)
Just as quick as movin crowds with a slug
(movin crowds with a slug)
The reverends say that we headed for Hell
With the same literature read or put
On a bed of a cell
Police say we'll be dead or in jail
But like July 4th
I bust up like the lead in a shell
From the same place where niggas
Get murdered and became trace
And even if you not a player
Got to keep your game face
I'm an example for the youth
On the city blocks
That want a nice car, rich
Fur and pretty rocks, don't stop

Life's in our hands
From there we got to make decisions
Either advance or stay inside
The Devil's kitchen
Divided we stand, no one can act up the story
It's up to the man to rise
And try to find the glory, glory