And they say they know me

Get the fuck outta here

Only God knows what I've been through, man

So if you wanna talk, get your facts straight first

And if you really wanna know, let me ask you something

Have you ever walked in the shoes of a giant?

Or had to fill the position of a boss before you were even a client?

It's no wonder growing up under the roof of a tyrant

That I would be the poster boy for defiance

Now I'm the voice of the silence

Fuck being quiet I've seen twenty years worth of violence

I'm tired, it's a burden for me to open my eyelids

Not an undercover cop but it's safe to say that I'm wired

I can't even get a grip on my life with pliers

I'm fucked up in the head

Close my eyes cause I see demons around my bed

So depressed, open them up hoping I'm dead

Thought the fame would make it better but it only fucked me over

Never used to touch a bottle, now I'm hardly ever sober

People want to be my friend

But where the fuck were y'all when I was ten

Eleven or twelve getting bullied and beat up in the gym?

I couldn't never get a girl, now all the sudden I'm the man

Students try to get back cool with me again, fuck 'em all

Because guess where they're gon' be when my record stops playing?

Gone with the wind, off in the record shop saying that "Kells fell off"

I knew it would happen, stop hating, cause a month ago you was all over my jock saying

That I'm "that mu'fucker"

But now I'm whack, mu'fucker?

Opinions change, but you cannot change facts mu'fucker

If you want bullet points then call me a gat mu'fucker

I'll lay my whole life out like a mat mu'fucker

Man, I've experienced some things that would stop you from eating

My schizophrenic cousin tried to end my life while I'm sleepin

My bummy uncle wanna call now that he sees me succeeding

My momma left me for a teacher, lost my dad to the preaching

Half my friends are buried six feet, all the rest in the precinct

Literally watched my Grandmother die from Diabetes

I guess my prayers were answered when my Aunt got Cancer and beat it

Now I want to get her out a job, give her the garden of Eden

I did a lot of bad shit, God got even

But for the price I had to pay, I wish I'd stopped breathing

My girl sat in the bathtub, eight hours bleeding

Hearing the doctor tell us our child's heart stopped beating

Fuck a million, I wouldn't take a dollar for a life

But I will do what's in my heart, and trade this dollar for a mic

I wrote this song in hopes that it could help someone get through the night

With no intentions of getting paid, I'm just doing what is right

I do it for the fans, no, the real fans

Who stuck with me through the storm cause they understand

That there's a genuine pain behind the words I'm saying

And they embrace me, so I thank y'all for staying

Ain't it crazy, that passion is my achilles heel?

Either that or keeping it way too real

But they don't know how it feels, to feed off the energy of a crowd

Step on stage and they get loud

Dad, I'm gonna make you proud

I know we don't speak right now but I think turning new leaves is what we need right now

I love you

And you may not see right now but I'm begging for forgiveness, I'm on my knees right now

You saw your son as a dropout

Stuck around when I ran

Saw your son as a felon

Now see your son as a man

See your son be a father, to a beautiful child

Or just see your son Dad, see me smile

Who would have thought what started at the bottom would someday grow?

From three people in the crowd, unpaid shows

Six people in the room, one meal a day

Another opening act where no one knows my name

Saw the demos that I passed out laying on the ground

Saw the rappers I befriended copying my style

Saw opportunities pass while these fakes got rich

Now I can't stop speeding like my breaks ain't shit

For six months I went through hell and back

Right at the height of my success all of the sudden doctors said I couldn't rap

I had a polyp on my vocal chords

Left with a choice, stop now or possibly lose my voice

But I woke up and recorded every morning till my throat swole shut

Coughed blood after every show because it hurt that much

I went weeks without even saying a word to myself

No health insurance so doctor bills piled on the shelf

But for my daughter and my fam, and every single fan

I pushed through it, now I'm back for y'all again

As for my competition, this is the beginning of the end

But right now this is my return, amen

Kells

And they say they know me

Get the fuck outta here