Pete Rock
San Francisco
I was born in February on a rainy day
10 pounds is how much that baby weigh
Dapped up my doctor at the Kaiser permanente
Liked my diaper loose and my pasta al dente
Talked from day one, my first word was ball
Cuz I had a jew fro and my best friend was bald
I couldn’t two step, so I’d fall and I crawl
Ya I moved slow, but my brain was on hall
Chubby kid getting chased on the playground
Fire drills when they said stay down I’d stay down
The humpty dumpty wall, the cardboard slide
Laughing, smile wide, I never really cried
Always a performer, hand up in the auditorium
Always a recorder, eyes wide at Exploratorium
Or zeum, creating Claymation
Frisco was the canvas for my imagination

Theres something bout the city of frisco
That always makes me wanna reminisce yo
Maybe it’s how the wind blows, or is it how the mist goes
In the city where memories have an echo
Something odd in the city of SF
That makes me wanna take a deep breath
18 years living in this bubble on the west
In every crevice of this city my memories rest
5 years old there was the asthma attack
Rushed to the ER I was flat on my back
Strapped to my back was a mask filled with gas
Since then Ive been thoughtful bout life and its path
West portal lived here my whole lifetime
Know the characters, give homeless guys highfives
Muni trains soundtrack the gate to the city
8.50 sub center is the taste of the city,
Haight Street, marijuana aroma
Downtown, with my mama at moma
Sunset, for some cold tapioca
Moms doing yoga, the citys a supernova
Oracle arena, Amicis pizzeria
The juiciest tortillas, burritos la taqueria,
Let the murals be your guide through the mission
Go to Glide for some giving, as you glide to the rhythm
Stirred, like lying awake after a quake
Still, like the feeling of floating down Stowe Lake
Glen park, playing soccer in the mud and the rain
And I went to Jew school by brotherhood way
Where I squeezed my first titty, friends did crazy shit
Where I learned my heritage, and became an atheist
Where I was the class clown, but so were 5 other guys
Where lunch was kosher so I dealt ham on the side
I tutored in Hunters point, found beauty in the smiles
And the pupils of the child in the poorest part of town
On a clear night my dad described the constellations
San fran was the framework for my exploration
[Hook]

High school started and I felt old now
Navigating mainstream, westfield and stonestown
Went to panda express, I’ll order some pandas
Went to banana republic, where are the bannanas?
The first parties, chillin in Twin peaks
First time running from the cops, adrenaline streaks
Too many flaccid dicks as Im walking through the castro
Take an owl bus at 3 am, everyone’s dunzo
On the bus I rap battled a crackhead
In the castro I met some trannies in fishing nets
The city where vignettes move like sillohetes
So I instagram it put it on the internet
I’m headed to Noe so I get the J
I won't pop no E, but I’ll hit the J,
San Fran where time is your last worry
Keep the grass burning cuz we height it when the Ash buried,
420 in DP , the city seems blazed
The misty scene hazed and my krispy kreme glazed
Ghosting down the block, wind in our face
Singing slow down, whiplash from the bass
And everytime a friends birthday came around
They blew out the candles on a fresh stack of in n out
Mothers day, searching sands for carnellions
Daly city, learning dances for cotillion
Yesterday we went to bernal overlooked our city
Hearts warm from a 40 but the weather was chilly
Rollin blunts of memories, so one forgets
Breathing in our success exhaling regrets
[Hook]

What is SF, dirty benches and white fences
Down to earth and pretentious, appeals to all the senses
Smells like eucalyptus, sewage, and jasmine
Sounds like jazz men, seagulls and tantrums
Salsa, latin, Chinese, Italian
Tastes like chow mein, Ice cream and scallops
All clean organic, hot tea and salads
Feels like drizzling cold air and balance
It’s the feeling in your stomach at the end of a flight
The familiarity of a sky forever white
It’s the frostbite of love, the warmth and the buzz
The seasons never change, but everything else does
Call us hippies hipsters or gay cinderellas
But the real sanfriscan’s the kid who says hella
They say you leave your heart here, I got cardiac surgery
So SF now can be part of Frak permanently,
Now I’m leaving to Sothern California
But you were my first, no one else makes me hornier
I’ll be back, college is but a vacation
SF, the foundation for my inspiration