Textbook Stuff

[Hook: Imogen Heap]

There, there, baby

It's just textbook stuff

It's in the ABCs of growin' up

There, there, baby

It'S just textbook stuff

It's in the ABCs of growin' up

[Verse 1: XV]

Three women raised me

Famous Footwear paid me not enough to blow up

But showed up cause I ain't fuckin' lazy

And teachers thought I was dumb or crazy, or both

With hopes of being a Nas or Jay-Z, I slumped

In my chair and my grades, my head wasn't raised

Being fly was priority to the lowest

I would stand on my desk just to see the world in a different way

The dead society of a poet—homie, I'm focused

But there's somethin that a dude can't prove

I mean, fam, I was damn near invisible at school

So I banged for a minute cause all my niggas was Crippin'

Just me and my two of my dudes, Blue Man Group

Had dreams of doing things they say that you can't do

'Cause everything ain't black and white, 'less you chew bamboo

So I was after big bills like a toucan do

All the while, my mom askin' why I'm truant at school

She said:

[Hook: Imogen Heap]

There, there, baby

It's just textbook stuff

It's in the ABCs of growin' up

There, there, baby

It'S just textbook stuff

It's in the ABCs of growin' up

[Verse 2: XV]

Ugh, so why ain't I go to college?

My mama's ultimatum, made me say that I know I got it

My niggas said V's buggin'

Stay on your computer software, debugging

But we holding hardware 'cause we thuggin'

Now they in the traphouse with some guns that they done borrowed

And all this snow, I call it Infant Sorrow

With plans to reach the end even if I had to start slow

Sold CDs in the mall, making dough like Sbarro

Then I left the hood, like, "Fuck it," don't need the cargo

They banking I don't do well, and I don't mean Fargo

But even when you leave, somehow, it still try to follow

Baby brother took a charge harder than LeBron and Rondo

Trying to keep his head up while his eyes are in the Bible

'Cause they say a mind that's idle is a devil's toy aisle

My nephew looking at me 'cause his daddy is his idol

I looked at him, told him, "Sit down, this information is vital, look"

[Hook: Imogen Heap]

There, there, baby

It's just textbook stuff

It's in the ABCs of growin' up

There, there, baby

It'S just textbook stuff

It's in the ABCs of growin' up

[Verse 3: Kendrick Lamar]

Living my life like I'm living right

In the midst of a fire pit, the gangbanging and violence

Is the sweetest song, and I roam with the heart of a violin

Don't violate my patience I'm waiting... to kill a man

As I stare at the ceiling fan, as a fan of these wicked streets

If I gotta eat, I steal like a metal piece

I'm screamin' out, "Fuck the police"

I'm dealing my cards with Jokers on em

You can disown him or stone him

I'm throwing them rocks back with the fury of bullets

You couldn't live your life for the moment

When I'm foaming at the mouth and my sharpest of teeth showing

I'm in the back of a black Buick finna black out, like February—

Ain't that's how Blacks do it, right?

I cut off my ears before I hear your advice and vice versa

I'm screaming for help as loud as I can, but that's not working

I'm working them corners like blueprints

Then caught a L on my first offense

The judge threw the book at me and said this:

[Hook: Imogen Heap]

There, there, baby

It's just textbook stuff

It's in the ABCs of growin' up

There, there, baby

It'S just textbook stuff

It's in the ABCs of growin' up