VERSE #1
When I'z 13, the beatdowns were horrible
The pain was intollable, the beef unresolveable
I hardly saw my own mother, then I developed a stutter
that was so fuckin' bad I couldn't talk to no others
I was always left out so I had so much self doubt
Kids would ask me my name—and nn nn nnnnnnno nnothing'd come out
If saying one word could make you struggle 10 minutes
then on the streets of NY, who u think'd let you finish!
How would you make friends if you couldn't say "WHAT UP?"
--as a kid I decided I would just stay shut up
But then I found out—that when I rapped I was fluent
But this was the 80s, I was white AND I'z Jewish
It ain't matter that I'z dope, no one cared that I'z live
White kids weren't allowed to rap back in 85
But hip-hop broke my silence then punks came at me with violence
--all over Queens and even parts of Long Island
I'z gettin' beated and cheated—every time that I rhymed
Cuz I was white and rhymed tight—emcees would kick my behind
They couldn't take me in battles so punks would rattle my crown
I was barely 13 on the ground ---beat down
Over and over—but I'd get up every time
25 years later – I'm still writing these rhymes
So get yerself up and hang on a lil' longer
'Cuz whatever doesn't kill ya'z gonna make u stronger
CHORUS
When you know it's all good, y'all it's really all good
When you say it's all good do you mean it's ALL good?
Iz you a victim or a hero, would you choose if you could?
'Cuz you can, y'all you can—when you know it's all good
VERSE #2
I'm not gonna lie to sound ghetto and try to say I knew poverty
We wuz lower middle class and it was like they'd forgotten me
Our apartment was empty so the pain would tempt me
To pull the kinda shit that would always send me
To the police station, my vacation from loneliness--
An—escape I'd create from all my family's phoniness
They was too lazy—they got my sister to raise me
--she was 13 years older—but she went crazy
The way she wound up found cut—OD'd on the floor
She went to rehab forever lef' me alone and whas' more
'This couldn't get fixed, I'z six tryin' to find
Why the woman who raised me—tried suicide nine times
My brother left early, a girly—saved him from the screamin'
My sister married a crackhead who was constantly beatin
her down so now we wuz both hidin' bruises
But I could waste my whole life bitchin' bout who wins and who loses
--but see if all 'dat ain't happened, I wouldn't be here now rappin
I wouldn't be who I am—I wouldn't have what I'm havin
A bad childhood and great life IS possible--
Cuz what I lived through has made me unstoppable
CHORUS
When you know it's all good, y'all it's really all good
When you say it's all good do you mean it's ALL good?
Iz you a victim or a hero, would you choose if you could?
'Cuz you can, y'all you can—when you know it's all good
VERSE #3
So what in yo—life—you think is unfairness?
Did your spouse turn out to be jus' like your parents?
I married this girl thinkin' she's well-adjusted
For a decade I trusted, then wound up disgusted
When she got busted with an alleged pedofile
Talkin' trash about me, I was scared for my child
An' she was jus' like my sis, she mutilated her wrists,
But I kicked her out bcuz I wouldn't live dissed
And she couldn't see that, so she went to rehab,
And I got to choose if this wuz all good or all bad
But it was all good y'all—and happenin' properly
In the end I got to keep both the kids and the property
And what I learned from my beatdowns made me a (multi) millionaire
Never coulda done that shit if the stuttering wasn't there
Cuz back when I stuttered, I said fuck entrepreneurs
Instead I used my head—became an entrepreneur
I'm sure thachu can bitch about the shit you been through
And call me a white boy with ridiculous issues
Maybe your dad was a dealer and he shot your mother
Your sister's a crackhead and you hate your gay brother
Your cousin got shot in the head by some gang
And you hadta kill some old man just to hang
But ask yo self this: even if your life sucks
You still where you at now—so who's keepin you stuck?
Learn from your past or be condemned to repeat it
Struggle with your problem or rise up and beat it
If there's strife in yo life, if there's crap you afraid of
GO THROUGH YOUR SHIT, SHOW THE WORLD WHACHU MADE OF
CHORUS
Cuz when you know it's all good, y'all it's really all good
When you say it's all good do you mean it's ALL good?
Iz you a victim or a hero, would you choose if you could?
'Cuz you can, y'all you can—when you know it's all good
Whether you live in the suburbs or you hang in the hood
When you say it's all good—you gotsta mean it's ALL good