Runnin' - Lyrics - J Dilla
James Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer and rapper who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan. According to his obituary at NPR.org, he "was one of the music industry's most influential hip-hop artists", working with big-name acts including A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, MF Doom, Poe, The Roots, The Pharcyde and Common. Yancey died in 2006 of the blood disease thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.
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[Chorus: x4]
Can't keep runnin' away
[Fat Lip]
I must admit on some occasions I went out like a punk
And a chump or a sucker or something to that effect
Respect I used to never get when all I got was upset
When *** use to be like 'What's up fool!' and tried
To seat a *** like the Lip for no reason at all I can
Recall crip *** throwin' c in my face down the hall
I'm kickin' it in the back of the school eatin' chicken at
Three, wonderin' why is everybody always pickin' on me
I tried to talk and tell tham chill I did nothing to deserve
This But when it didn't work I wasn't scared just real
Nervous and unprepared to deal with scrappin' no doubt
Cause my pappy never told me how to knock a *** out
But now in 95 I must survive as a man on my own ***
Around with Fatlip yes ya get blown I'm not trying to show
No macho is shown but when it's on, if it's on, then it's on!
[Chorus: x4]
[Slim Kid Tre]
There comes a time in every mans life when he's gotta
Handle up on his own Can't depend on friends to
Help you in a squeeze, please they got problems of their
Own Down for the count on seven chickens *** don't
Get to heaven til they faced these fears in these fear
Zones Used to get jacked back in high school I played
It cool just so some real *** won't get full blown Being
Where I'm from they let the smoke come quicker than an
Evil red-neck could lynch a helpless colored figure And
As a victim I invented low-key til the keyhole itself got
Lower than me So I stood up and let my free form form
Free. Said I'm gonna get some before they knockin' out me.
I don't sweat it I let the *** blow in the breeze
In other words just freeze
[Chorus: x4]
[Knumbskull #1]
It's 1995 now that I'm older stress weighs on my shoulders
Heavy as boulders but I told ya
Till the day that I die I still will be a soldier and that's all I told
Ya and that's all I showed ya
And all this calamity is rippin' my sanity
Can it be I'm a celebrity
Whose on the brink of insanity
Now don't be wishin's of switchin' any positions with me
Cause when you in my position, it ain't never easy
To do any type of maintaining cause all this gaming and famin' from
Entertainin' is hella straining to the brain and
But I can't keep running I just gotta keep keen and cunnin'
[Repeat: x13]
Cant keep runnin' away
