[Verse]
I come from nothing
Immigrant refugee
The foreigners, the lesser me
A soviet, I'm all of it, the government I grew up in couldn't get the best of me
We left before the fall of it, it's called communism by the way
So I appreciate this parliament
And by the day we made it to America my parents marriage was hanging on by a thread, from
Past hurts and infidelities, in the 6 months it took to cross the globe, their marriage was dead
My dad went out the picture
I got to see my mom struggle on welfare and coming out of abusive relationship after abusive relationship
See she was a hopeless romantic and couldn't stand to be alone
Plus a full gamut of other emotional damage done to her so she did her best and sacrificed to raise me right, and figured it out
Got a job, left her relationship and became an even bigger superhero in my sight
See in my life I didn't have a ton of advantages
English was not my first language
Skipped a few meals but never famished
We were in poverty but without anguish
And to be honest I didn't even know we were broke
So we finally moved closer to the 'burbs and some rich kids cracked jokes
'Cuz I was raised mainly around black folk
So I never knew that my speech sounded ghetto
Huh
Needless to say I didn't fit in
Didn't know how to read, in freshmen year I finally begin
Pops wasn't in the picture so I had to pretend like I knew how to be a man
And the work ethic I have came from sports but my mom forced me to get a job at 15 as a last resort so I have to report every penny to her and save for my own car
'Cuz that's just something she just couldn't afford
A C+ student, I'm not stupid but I just wasn't motivated to do it
Went to college 'cause that's what you do with
[?] grants and fee [?] were main truancy
They didn't take attendance but I remained that class, clown, smart aleck nuisance, I
Say all that to say my life wasn't perfect but the struggle was worth it
I had to work my tail off in and outside of any class room, I was never that type of person, but I learned that I could never afford to stop learning
I could never afford to stop working, I've made every dumb decision there is to make
Racked up all kinds of debt
And I wish would've knew then I know now
But I don't have any regret
Under the Southern California sun pretty close to paradise, my
New life after life has finally just begun