[Refrain]
I cut another tree down to pass the time
While I watch a lifetime pass me by
Looking back on old days, glassy-eyed
Watching years go, like my auntie's mind
We used to sit up in the car park and rhyme
Now a night like that is hard to find
Looking back on old times, I can't rewind
Talking in my old friends that aren't alive no more
The years gone by
Talking about years gone by

[Verse 1]
Now lets take it all the way back to '84 (yeah yeah)
Let's hear it for the boy playing through the wall (yeah yeah)
Let's hear it for the boy crawling on the floor
In an Orwellian Estate Hall he walked
In '85, he ran and in '86 we flew
From a kingdom united into a land in two
In '87 we settled, In '88 we moved
Into a place called Avondale, first day in school
In '89, it was me, myself, and I
'Cause my mother couldn't find my baby brother
Must have lost him like that time at the supermarket
Five candles on my Donatello cake
Celebrate life, sellotape up on my Hammer tape
1990, I was a plumber with a pipe dream, side of screen
Hunting for mushies that were lime green, lightspeed
To '91, that was the year I met this girl and fell in love
Her name was Chun, and then we jump
Jump jumped in bootleg pumps
In '92 my drunk dad jumped ship on mum
In '93 I won my first fight, like a D O double G
Still mad at the man I wanted to be
In '94 I got a hiding and I tried to hide
But you can't keep running away, in '95
So I dried my eyes, the 'All Eyez On Me' Number 9 on rewind
Stacking my pocket money up to 96, blew it all on 64
Blew my Ocarina loud, swinging swords with the force
'97 hit the court, got slicker with the sauce
The vocal cords dropped and, I got slicker with the broads
Figure four in '98, hit the floor in '99
Doing 90's in my clydes, tryna rhyme on the side
Way back, when I had the red and black Swanndri
In my Mazda hatchback travelling back in time
[Refrain]
Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa
Talking years, gone by
Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa
Years gone byyyy
Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa
Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa

[Verse 2]
Yeah the year was 2001, I bumped that 2001
Moved out of my mum's house, flunked out like a bum
First year I got something was that first year I got sprung
Next year I got dumped, and that whole year I got drunk
That was '02, then '03 my old man got done
For some dumb shit, got one year and that year I got numb
Then '05 he got out and got out of it at once
Then '06 my homie hung in the park where we all hung
Yeah my shit got fucked up that year, my shit got real rough that year
Horsed it on my bruv that year, fuck that year, fuck that year
That taught me, who the people that care for me
From the people that just corny
When the phony homie disowned me then call me when they saw me
On the cover of some magazine, "Up to brother, how you been
It's been a minute, I ain't seen you since we were-"
Set the screen and roll on into 20 0 7, and it's all a blur from then to 2011
I was on a bender that went on four years long
Celebrating for the first win I ever got
That was the same year LeBron won
A short run in the long run
Woke up when the swan sung her song, I hit the gong, I was gone
They shot me down from the top of the poppy
Got too cocky, that melancholy got me
And they forgot me, but everybody need somebody
Every Bobby need some Whitney
So when I met her I asked her to ring me
Gave her the ring and asked her to king me
That was 2013, we moved out of the city
Had about 2014 problems in 2015
Hit me hard, losing Ziggy
But the middy stuck with me through the dark
Then my son came out, I called him Quincy
And now I watch his eyes watching mine
Watching life on rewind, too divine to define in one line
In the same neighbourhood I walked in in '89
Raising beers for the cheers
Saying here's to the years gone by
[Refrain]
Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa
Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa
Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa
Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa

[Instrumental Outro]