The Realness

[DJ Escrow]
(Man can show you a thing and you can be even) further ahead
You know them ones?
I know a grown man said:
Don't waste time doing the crime if it's already been done You know?
Don't waste time doing the crime if it's already been done
Do you know how real that is?
The feds know these things, you know
You got to be smarter than that
That's why I'm here, you know?
Not just to play tunes
Like but to show man certain things init
You can rise up and be better like
You can like, you know, like advance yourself init
You ain't gotta be doing these like fucked and these little things no more
Like you can move up and move onwards
You know them ones?
I'm chatting too much here
Let me just play that fucking tune

For me and many others on the streets:
Friendship was based on who's there for you
And that includes having your boy's back no matter what
I personally saw it as a way of showing love and keeping it real
For most peeps on the street
When someone had your back it created a silent special bond
For some of us, that bond was like a life insurance policy
And even though we became tight, I still wasn't a hundred percent sure they had my back til their end
There's too many fake hard Suge Knights nowadays
I couldn't tell who was real and who wasn't
When it came down to it
I realized that the only person I could depend on one hundred percent and be was me
Trust is a luxury I can't afford
Betrayal is something I can't ignore

If I'm honest
I didn't even know what the full meaning of keeping it real was anymore
I assumed it meant:
Always backing a mandem's beef
Never snitch
Never touch a brother's wifey
And never snake man

I couldn't understand why most of the mans in my party found it so hard to maintain these simple guidelines
We never had no olders backing us
They all went when the flats got knocked down

At this time
I found a lot of realness had come from listening to one N.Y. rapper called Cormega
His tunes had me in the zone
Especially when I had a spliff to hand
My favourite album at this time had to be
Cormega: The Realness
I could listen to that album from the first track all the way through
The interlude alone had me pulling out the track over and over

Yo, when you deal with niggas
You know what I'm saying?
You gotta know where they stand
Cause everybody's your man when things is getting right
Uh, but what about when things are getting wrong?
Then, then in the first verse you killed it

Ask yourself:
Am I your man?
Would I die for you or by your hand?
If I go broke, would you divide your gram?
Put me in your plans?
Hold me down in the heat if my shit jams
And then the chorus says it all
If I died, would you cry?

Hey, nah
This type of tune here
You wanna rise up on like a fucking Marcus Garvey ting or sutin?
You know them ones
It's one of them type of tunes
You know them ones