This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I used to be a stick-up kid
Everybody in the ghetto tell me
Is it a lie that I must be a ruffneck
And wear a frown just to be down?
I kinda don't agree with bein (tough)
But you gotta be (rough)
It's either you claimin your hood, or you're not a gee
Forget about respect, I refuse to be the next guy
Fitted for a casket, either with it, or get blasted
I choose to gangbang, they give me a chrome-plated trigger
Say, "If you got any heart, go rob that Mini-Mart, nigga"
Now look what I done did, damn, I had to be the big man
They're lookin at me shifty, better shut up 'fore I get slammed
Man, I'm not a thief, good grief, and I don't want to act hard
But then they said if I didn't do it, they was gonna gat, far
As I could see (I was gonna be)
The next new member of the crew, cause it's 8 of them and 1 of me
I don't want to do it, but I will
Cause I still want folks to think that I'm hard and tough
Cause you gotta be (rough)
Cause you gotta be (tough)
Cause you gotta be (rough)
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
Well, it's the niggero, again, right back in where I left off
Still tryin to make a decision, I might go to prison if I don't step off
But if I don't rob this store, then I'm not sure
If I'm gonna be considered as a gee
And you gotta be (rough)
Cuffs are temporary, homies are for life
So I grab the deuce-deuce and go inside
I decide to prove in the Mini-Mart, "Don't nobody move
Start fillin up the paper sack with loot, or I might shoot"
But things didn't go as planned, cause this man had his own gun
We're standin toe to toe, eye to eye, so I figured why not
Pull the trigger? Put this nigga on the ground
It'll show that I had poise, then my boy'll know I'm down
But I didn't do it quick enough, or he thought of it first
Cause he blasted to the chest, and now I'm restin yellin, "Nurse!"
And holdin on to life, or at least tryin to hold on
In a jailward wearin cuffs
Cause I had to be (rough)
Cause you gotta be (tough)
Cause you gotta be (rough)
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
And everybody, everybody gotta be rough, y'all
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
And everybody, everybody gotta be tough, y'all
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
Well, that's the end of my tale, but before we know
Fools'll just forget what I said, and the story go
On and on, until you're up to no good
And back throwin up your hood
And still doin what you shouldn't
Niggeros, come together, cause divided we fall
So stall that gang shit, stand up
Quit standin in handcuffs
Really hard's when you got loot
And you ain't gotta shoot
Damn man, enough is enough
So why you gotta be (rough)
Cause you gotta be (tough)
Cause you gotta be (rough)
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
Everybody in the ghetto tell me
Is it a lie that I must be a ruffneck
And wear a frown just to be down?
I kinda don't agree with bein (tough)
But you gotta be (rough)
It's either you claimin your hood, or you're not a gee
Forget about respect, I refuse to be the next guy
Fitted for a casket, either with it, or get blasted
I choose to gangbang, they give me a chrome-plated trigger
Say, "If you got any heart, go rob that Mini-Mart, nigga"
Now look what I done did, damn, I had to be the big man
They're lookin at me shifty, better shut up 'fore I get slammed
Man, I'm not a thief, good grief, and I don't want to act hard
But then they said if I didn't do it, they was gonna gat, far
As I could see (I was gonna be)
The next new member of the crew, cause it's 8 of them and 1 of me
I don't want to do it, but I will
Cause I still want folks to think that I'm hard and tough
Cause you gotta be (rough)
Cause you gotta be (tough)
Cause you gotta be (rough)
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
Well, it's the niggero, again, right back in where I left off
Still tryin to make a decision, I might go to prison if I don't step off
But if I don't rob this store, then I'm not sure
If I'm gonna be considered as a gee
And you gotta be (rough)
Cuffs are temporary, homies are for life
So I grab the deuce-deuce and go inside
I decide to prove in the Mini-Mart, "Don't nobody move
Start fillin up the paper sack with loot, or I might shoot"
But things didn't go as planned, cause this man had his own gun
We're standin toe to toe, eye to eye, so I figured why not
Pull the trigger? Put this nigga on the ground
It'll show that I had poise, then my boy'll know I'm down
But I didn't do it quick enough, or he thought of it first
Cause he blasted to the chest, and now I'm restin yellin, "Nurse!"
And holdin on to life, or at least tryin to hold on
In a jailward wearin cuffs
Cause I had to be (rough)
Cause you gotta be (tough)
Cause you gotta be (rough)
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
And everybody, everybody gotta be rough, y'all
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
And everybody, everybody gotta be tough, y'all
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
Well, that's the end of my tale, but before we know
Fools'll just forget what I said, and the story go
On and on, until you're up to no good
And back throwin up your hood
And still doin what you shouldn't
Niggeros, come together, cause divided we fall
So stall that gang shit, stand up
Quit standin in handcuffs
Really hard's when you got loot
And you ain't gotta shoot
Damn man, enough is enough
So why you gotta be (rough)
Cause you gotta be (tough)
Cause you gotta be (rough)
(I used to be a stick-up kid)
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
You Gotta Be... Lyrics as written by Eric Barrier Ahmad A. Lewis
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Capitol CMG Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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