This song outlines some of the struggles involved in Crooked I’s comeup, which literally made him “sumthin from nuthin.”
Check out the Producer Genius annotation for a more in-depth look at the meaning behind this track.
[Produced by Crooked I]
[Intro]
Yeah man, I remember back when a nigga ain't had no money for studio time barely. No muhfuckin' beats, we made our own beats and shit, no producers, we be like, hahah. Nigga would do anything he had to do to get at this hip-hop shit man, anything, know what I'm sayin'? Start beating on the mic like this, for the drum you know, that's the mic. Niggas would rap about some shit they never even fuckin' had, we wanted that shit though. We be like: "Ridin' on some big wheels, bank account 6 mil. Livin' on the street called life, and I'm on that bitch heel." Even though we ain't have no of that shit back then, but we do know though, let me get back at it
[Verse]
Hair trigger, big steel, quick kill, wig peeled
Rapping about the struggle so vivid you know the shit's real
Empty fridge wasn't even 20 [?] simply kids
Not a penny to pitch, fuck it we pitchin Henny lids
To make the pockets bulge, can't divulge shit we did
Risky biz, type of shit that'll get me 50 bids
Coming of age, it wasn't a lick I wasn't down to hit
I think I knew some Nigerians who used to counterfeit
Funny money, I think I had like 30 pounds of it
But this is only rap so tell the detectives downtown to quit
Gotta watch how I speak to the beat
Cuz I'm on the streets as we speak and I won't sleep til we eat
G code of silence, all the secrets we keep
Could make a movie about it but nah, we gon' keep it discrete
But I can rap about going from Virgin to Death Row
To Em recognizing one of the best flows on the West Coast
And even though I'm blessed, the vest still on my chest close
You got the life of this black star backwards like I was Def Mos
We really out here, nah, we really out chyeah
I'm in the zone nigga, I got a long way to go but I'd be lying if I said we wasn't on nigga
We on nigga, we on nigga, we on nigga, we on nigga
We on nigga, we on nigga, we on nigga, we on nigga
We on nigga, we on nigga, we on nigga, we on nigga
We on nigga, we on nigga, we on nigga, we on nigga
Sumthin’ from Nuthin was written by Crooked I.
Sumthin’ from Nuthin was produced by Crooked I.
Crooked I released Sumthin’ from Nuthin on Tue Jul 30 2013.