Chorus: GZA and RZA

I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggaz that front, they be pullin stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggaz who front (they be pullin stunts)

Lyrics:

I was always taught my do's and don'ts
For do's I did, and for don'ts, I said I won't
I'm from Brooklyn, a place where stars are born
Streets are shot up, apartment buildings are torn
and ripped up, stripped up, shacked up and backed up
from fiends, cause the bosses on the scene, they got it cracked up
Kids are slingin in my lobby
Little Steve and Bobby
Gettin paid but it's a life-threatening hobby
Yeah, they still play hide and seek
The fiends seek for the crack, and they hide and let the cops peep
Grown folks say they should be out on their own
Before the gangs come and blow up their mom's home
Because they lifestyle is hectic, so fuckin hectic
Blaow! Blaow! Blaow! Bullets are ejected
My lifestyle was so far from well
Coulda wrote a book with a title "Age 12 and Goin through Hell"
Then I realized the plan
I'm trapped in a deadly video game, with just one man
So I don't only watch my back, I watch my front
Cause it's the niggaz who front, they be pulin stunts
Back on the Ave of Lavonia and Bristol with a pistol
Stickin up Pamela and Crystal
You know your town is dangerous when you see the strangest
kid come home from doin the bid and nuthin changes
What is the meaning of CRIME (what?)
Is it Criminals Robbin Innocent Motherfuckers Everytime?
Little shorties take walks to the schoolyard
Tryin to solve the puzzles to why is life so hard
Then as soon as they reached the playground, blaow!
Shots ring off and now one of them lay down
It's so hard to escape the gunfire
I wish I could rule it out like an umpire
But it's an everlasting game, and it never cease to exist
Only the players change, so...

Chorus 3X

RZA - I gotcha back (8X)
I gotcha back so you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggaz who front, that be pullin stunts
I gotcha back but you best to watch your front
It's the niggaz who front, that be pullin stunts

Outro: (LP version only)

*old man*
Your, tech, nique, is, mag-ni-ficent
When cut across the neck
A sound like wailing winter winds is heard, they say
I'd always hoped to cut someone like that someday
To hear that sound
But to have it happen to my own neck is... ridiculous
*man gasps for air