Lyrical Breakdown of Once Upon A Time In The Projects - A Journey through Words and Rhymes

Once upon a time in the projects, yo

I damn near had to wreck a hoe

I knocked on the door, "Who is it?"

It's Ice Cube, come to pay a little visit to ya

And what's up with them brothers in the parking lot

She called 'em suckas, 'cause they smoke crack a lot

I sat on the couch, but it wasn't stable

And then I put my Nikes on the coffee table

Her brother came in, he's into gang bangin'

'Cause he walked up and said "What set you claimin'?"

I don't bang, I write the good rhymes

The whole scenery reminded me of Good Times

I don't like to feel that I'm put in a rut

By a young punk, that needs to pull his pants up

He threw up his set, then he was gone

I'm thinkin' to myself, won't this girl bring her butt on?

Her mother came in with a joint in her mouth

And fired up the sess, it was sess no doubt

She said, "Please excuse my house", and all that

I said "yeah," 'cause I was buzzed from the contact

Lookin' at a jacked-up black and white

Her mom's fussin' 'cause the county check wasn't right

She had another brother that was three years old

That had a bad case of the runny nose

He asked me who I was, then I had to pause

It smelled like he took a dump in his little drawers

I saw her sister, who really needs her butt kicked

Only thirteen, and already pregnant

I grabbed my forty out the bag, and took a swig

'Cause I was getting overwhelmed, by BeBe Kids

They was runnin' and yellin' and playin' and cussin' and tellin'

And look at this young punk bailin'

I heard a knock on the door without the password

And her moms got the twelve gauge Mossberg

The brother said "Yo, what's for sale?"

And her moms came out with a bag of yayo

She made the drop, and got the twenty dollars

From a smoked-out fool with ring around the collar

The girl I was waitin' for came out

I said, "Girl, I didn't know this was a crack house"

I grabbed my coat, and suddenly

"Stop, the police, don't move! Freeze! Or I'll kill ya!"

The cop busted in I had a Mac-10 pointed at my dome

And I said to myself, "Once again, it's on"

He threw me on the carpet, and wasn't cuttin' no slack

Jumped on my head and put his knee in my back

First he tried to wrap me up, slap me up, rough me up

They couldn't do it so they cuffed me up

I said, "damn, how much abuse can a brotha take"

'Ey yo officer, you're making a big mistake

Since I had on a shirt that said I was dope

He thought I was selling base and couldn't hear my case

He said, "get out my face" and musta had a grudge

His reply, "tell that sad story to the judge"

The girl I was wit' wasn't sayin' nothin'

I said "'Ey Miss Thang you better tell him somethin'"

She started draggin' and all of a sudden

We all got tossed in a paddy wagon

Now I beat the rap, but that ain't the point

I had a warrant, so I spent two weeks in the joint

Now the story you heard has one little object

Don't get wit' a girl from the projects

Yo man, them projects ain't no joke Loc, I'm tellin' you

Especially the ones in Watts and South Central L.A. boy

Don't mess around those projects

The rats will get with your punk brown

Yeah, you know it

I wanna say what's up to my boy Sir Jinx for hookin' up the track

You know what I'm sayin'?

This goes out to the Lench Mob

We'll be lynchin'