originally appeared on the Fresh soundtrack and as a single



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 pullin 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