I never wanted to write songs about right wrongs
or wrong rights, but song might just end the spree of me
writing verses about persons other than me. Please,
don't take offence to my attention or my intentions to please me
instead of heeding to the abstract of that rap or that song. I ain't wrong;
in fact this is the one I get my Grammy on.
Who am I kidding?
Who wanna hear a kid spitting 'bout how when he grew up
he never learned to be tough
and his peers gave him no respect, treating him rough.
Getting called white was a daily insult,
but I was black so I didn't get it---were they slow? No,
they just didn't like me much
because my speaking style didn't match what they used at lunch.
But I was inundated in the culture, no frontin',
my whole family from the country---you could call us some bumpkins.
I knew I was black from my head to my toes,
but these kids were too stupid;
they would always say no
like: "Man, you some kind of oreo?"

Look, just because I'm middle class, in honors class,
speak well, don't smell
like a wave cap, got nappy hair that I don't pick, do not fit in cliques;
I'm never with a frown, always smiling 'round,
picking up a skateboard whenever I get bored
or sorting out chords on a keyboard---
that's what I knows keys for; there's no kilo of cocaine sharp.
My nose drains start only when I'm sick,
and when I'm talking about music, mucus is continuous.