featuring Lonnie Liston Smith *

* featured artists on this album were jazz musicians

[Guru]
Down the backstreets down the backstreets
Down the backstreets down the backstreets
(I'm walkin down the backstreets)
Down the backstreets down the backstreets
Down the backstreets down the backstreets
(I be walkin down the backstreets)

Yo here goes some info on my flow and how I move
to a def groove, I keep my rep smooth
On the down-low, I travel with my mind to the street
Concrete, like the gravel I'm in deep
So I gotta hit ya from a real perspective
Cause anyone who's talkin that crap, will surely get his
I'm not the one to act flashy
Cause man where I be at, we don't have to be classy

Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(I'm walkin down the backstreets)
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(I be walkin down the backstreets)
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(Walkin down the backstreets)
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(I be walkin down the backstreets)

Check it stupid
While you're out there, on the main streets frontin
Your game's week, so I'm huntin you down clown
Cause you need to learn somethin
All that bluffin, won't get you nothin but killed
No mission fulfilled, because there's others who will
get jealous, hell if they can take clout from you, they'll do it
So that's what I'm about to do, I'll step to it
and strip you of your pride (your pride)
And then I'll stick and I'll rip you up from all sides
or possibly I'll let you slide, slime
Cause you'll set your own death in just a matter of time
Yeah, and I'll be somewhere on the sidelines, y'know

Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(Walkin down the backstreets)
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(I be walkin down the backstreets)

So when you're lookin for me, here's where I'll be
I'll be walkin down the backstreets in your vicinity
Cause I been out here for a few
So all that you're doin, ain't really nothin new (nothin new)
I peeped the way you always perpetrate
You're so phony, you make me wanna regurgitate
Since you're ridin so high, you're bound to fall
while I stand tall, and you don't get no props at all out here

Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(walkin down the backstreets)
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(I be walkin down the backstreets)
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(Walkin down the backstreets)
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(It's the backstreets)
Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
(In your backstreets)

Down the backstreets, is a mind state
Cause I don't have to be a pop star to rhyme great
I've been out here observin things
So now all fake gangsters and pranksters I'm servin
YouknowhatI'msayin? I'm the king
Come down the backstreets where it's dark
I'ma snatch your heart
So get a handle on life and quit livin so trife
Or else we're gonna have to run up, and SMACK all the weak
Comin straight from the backstreets
And I'm out, ninety-three, it's all