Times was simply plain I knew they'd eventually change   Let's take a trip down memory lane   With the game talker, native new yorker   Gators on my feet, formerly british walker   Yes love, that's how it was before   When you was funky fresh or down by law   Parlay with your crew at the corner store   Carrying a boom box 'til your arms were sore   We be wildin' on the corner free stylin'   Or politickin' 'bout doe we see piling   Or either girls we be getting with, how we be hitting it   Lying bout skins that we didn't get   Slow moving at paces through the rat races   The jordache look and fat laces   Making moves any type of way   I remember it like yesterday, hey      Chorus   Here's to you   That's how it was before   When you was funky fresh or down by law   Way back in the days how we used to do   Thank you for the good times y'all   Repeat      Verse 2   Déj? vu, things ain't nothing new   Shorties make me think how we used to do   When you couldn't be sleeping, if you plan on keeping   Hold of your sheepskin, heads do be peeping   Think it can't happen to you, now could it?    Came to school wearing puma's went home barefooted   And on the weekends when everybody click   To slide to the deuce to check karate flicks   Come back around the way after dark   So the crew could embark on the jam in the park   What would happen that night, was to scrap in a fight   Only way to break it up was playing rappers delight   And as I sit back watching you   Shorties out there doing what you got to do   I feel for you being sincere   Cause where you trying to go I already been there, yeah      Chorus      Verse 3   Ain't nothing but love I got to give   I don't playa hate cause we all got to live   That negative lifestyle I prohibit   Good life I got to live it, bubbly I got to sip it   Now I'll admit that I sort of be flashing   But yet and still I do it in an orderly fashion   Bring on the honeys and watch me mack these, stack cheese   Go on with your bad self, black caes   Just when the game got the stakes set high   Straight from bed stuy, the return of the jedi   With a jewel cause I'm tired of seeing   Charges being brought up, on brothers getting caught up   Now it's about time we connect, organize and collect   A new wold order's in effect   I send this out to the shorties in the hood   I wanna see you all live good      Chorus         Chorus