Back On The Block - 808 vs Q

Ice-T, let me kick my credential

A young player bred in South Central

L.A., home of the bodybag

You wanna die to wear the wrong color rag

I used to walk in stores and yell, "Lay down!"

You flinch an inch, AK spraydown

But I was lucky 'cause I never caught the hard times

I was blessed with the skill to bust a dope rhyme

All my homies died or caught the pen so

Lost their diamonds, cops towed their Benzos

Livin' that life that we thought was it

Fast lanin', but the car flipped

I'm not gonna lie to you 'cause I don't lie

I just kick thick games, some people say "Why?"

'Cause I'm back on the block, I got my life back

So I school the fools about the fast track

I get static from the sound of my technique

Profanity, the bloody way in which I speak

But the dude knows the streets ain't no kiddie game

You don't know the dude? Quincy's his first name

He told me, "Ice, keep doin' what you're doin', man

Don't give a damn if the squares don't understand

You let 'em tell you what to say and what to write

Your whole career'll be over by tomorrow night

Rap from your heart and your heart's with the street

Rap on my record, man, come in, go send Ice the beat"

The dude is definitely back, what can I say?

The man can roll with Ice-T, a mic check

Back, back on the block

Back, back on the block

Back on the block

So we can rock it with the soul

Rhythm and blues, bebop and hip-hop

Back on the block, back on the block

I'm back on the block, on the screen, I'm on the wax

I'm on the stage, I'm on the scene

I'm on the case just like an attorney

The dude took me on a magic journey

To dance in France, a thong in Rome, born on farmlands in Nebraska

The cold of Alaska, the heat of the motherland

To be with my brother band

On top of a snow-capped mountain I'm scoutin'

What another man saw in a race of people

To see him givin' life for the price of diesel

The highest wisdoms, the richest kingdoms

The Song of Songs, we heard David sing them

He showed me me when I was young and hung out

He showed me makin' love, he done showed me strung-out

He showed me pumpin' iron, standin' on the Rock

But tears came to my eyes when he showed me my block

Stoke is just stoking, mama (Stoke is stoking)

And one by one each woman he kisses

He's kissing and she will fall in love)

Stoke is just stoking, you know (Stoke is stoking)

'Til someone shows that they have enough

Ain't nothing wrong about stoking, 'cause)

Some say they can't take it no more

Coming in, coming in hard, 'cause)

But who did not come through this for

Stoking? (Back on the block to stay)

Some say he ain't gonna be with us

Coming back, coming back to the street)

But do he know you'll never forget us? (Back on the block to stay)

Back up and give a brother room to let poetry bloom

To whom it may concern or consume

As I reminisce before this the bliss did exist

But now he brought about a twist

'Cause I remember reasons of my people bleedin'

Put through slavery and killed for bravery

We shoulda got our freedom much sooner

You never seen a Black man on The Honeymooners

But now somehow we've learned to earn to close the show

The elevation of our people built it so

Jesse Jackson, Miss America, a Black one

No more livin' for just a small fraction

I was once told by the dude that knowledge is a food

To nourish, so I took the clue

This from an Asiatic descendant, Big Daddy is shot

To cue me back on the block

Back, back on the block

Back, back on the block

Back on the block

So we can rock it with the soul

Rhythm and blues, bebop and hip-hop

Back on the block, back on the block

An everlasting omnipresence is my present

State of being, seeing the unpleasant

Sight of righteous souls, live like peasants

The mind starts growth in adolescence

My insight enables me to enlight

The weakest of minds and I put 'em in flight

As I transcend the ascent of descent

Recreate, reincarnate and reset

The powerful scripts of our ancestors

For those that don't know how God blessed us

Because man messed up the media best up

Lies perpetrated as truth and it left us confused

But I've seen it all before

From Babylon to the Third World War

I'm more than a man, I'm more like an entity

Back on the block, and this time my identity's the dude

Stoke is just stoking, mama (Stoke is stoking)

One by one, one by one, my new song

One by one, one by one, my new song)

Stoke is just stoking, you know (Stoke is stoking)

One by one, one by one, my new song

One by one, one by one, my new song)

Ain't no, ain't no, ain't no, ain't no

Coming in, coming in, coming in, no)

No follow, follow, follow, mama (Don't follow, mama, 'cause)

Ain't no, ain't no, ain't no, ain't no

Coming in, coming in, coming in, no)

No follow, follow, follow, follow, follow (Don't follow, mama, 'cause)

(Ohh, ohh, ohh