"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
[Phonte of Foreign Exchange:]
bangin it...it goes down again...
J League, Living Legends, Tigallo, Murs the Millionaire...
Keep it going ya'll...check it
Yo, I heard ya style & I peeped you nigga;
Ya whole album, I sleep through nigga;
'Cause Tay's an avalanche so call the ambulance
And tell 'em ta pick up ya people, nigga
Don't call Farrakhan to squash it
Better yet call the sheriff and the coroner's office
Tell 'em it's a dead body on the corner of Lawson
in Austin, run to proceed with caution
These mafucka's really think that Tay done lost it
He sold a couple records now they thinkin' he flossin'
But I ain't stopped battling, I just stopped rattling off rhymes for free 'cuz y'all was making me nauseous
Understand fucka I'm gon' win regardless
I still got the hunger pains from my apartment
When me and 9th was broke splittin' cans of Starkist
Arguing about who LP was the hardest
with a hand full of CD's ready to burn
Some real hip hop for your listening nerves
A year later hooked up with a nigga named Murs
Now everybody play our records for they women and churn
J. League got the east coast getting the loot
Living Legends on the west coast, ready to shoot
Get a cellphone and call out the troops
Phonte, Taylor made for the game
y'all just following suit, my nigga.
[hook]
hey, yo we animals, ready for war, destined for combat
Play the CD or tape and then rewind that
You want beef motherfucka nevermind that
(And if he owe me money, bitch nigga betta find that)
We animals, ready for war, destined for combat
Play the CD or tape and then rewind that
So let me know where ya mind at? (what!)
[Verse 2: Murs]
Murs 3:16 meets Foreign Exchange
Keep ya ear to the speaker, quit ignoring the names
Welcome to the next level, top floor in the game
the League done hooked up with a Cloverdale nigga so
Skip ya Sidekick, I'm a Nextel nigga
If I hit ya on the chirp with a verse you better roger that
Picture-word perfect from the land where the Dodgers at
Trying to get some money with some pussy on the side of that
Never have to ask where my killers or my riders at
But when fake gangstas tryin' ta find where them dollars at
Go to any city where there's pretty broads to holla at
The illest in your state when on the tour-date,
and more great than your grandfather's father
Tay I know it gotta hurt 'em as they stand by the slaughter
Oughta be locked away when I rock this way
Get rocked on the airwaves but not for play
If my heart should stop and I drop today
I went against all odds and I got my way, alright.
[hook]
Hey yo we animals, ready for war, destined for combat
Play the CD or tape and then rewind that
You want beef motherfucka nevermind that
(And if he owe me money, bitch nigga betta find that)
We animals, ready for war, destined for combat
Play the CD or tape and then rewind that
So let me know where ya mind at? (what!)
bangin it...it goes down again...
J League, Living Legends, Tigallo, Murs the Millionaire...
Keep it going ya'll...check it
Yo, I heard ya style & I peeped you nigga;
Ya whole album, I sleep through nigga;
'Cause Tay's an avalanche so call the ambulance
And tell 'em ta pick up ya people, nigga
Don't call Farrakhan to squash it
Better yet call the sheriff and the coroner's office
Tell 'em it's a dead body on the corner of Lawson
in Austin, run to proceed with caution
These mafucka's really think that Tay done lost it
He sold a couple records now they thinkin' he flossin'
But I ain't stopped battling, I just stopped rattling off rhymes for free 'cuz y'all was making me nauseous
Understand fucka I'm gon' win regardless
I still got the hunger pains from my apartment
When me and 9th was broke splittin' cans of Starkist
Arguing about who LP was the hardest
with a hand full of CD's ready to burn
Some real hip hop for your listening nerves
A year later hooked up with a nigga named Murs
Now everybody play our records for they women and churn
J. League got the east coast getting the loot
Living Legends on the west coast, ready to shoot
Get a cellphone and call out the troops
Phonte, Taylor made for the game
y'all just following suit, my nigga.
[hook]
hey, yo we animals, ready for war, destined for combat
Play the CD or tape and then rewind that
You want beef motherfucka nevermind that
(And if he owe me money, bitch nigga betta find that)
We animals, ready for war, destined for combat
Play the CD or tape and then rewind that
So let me know where ya mind at? (what!)
[Verse 2: Murs]
Murs 3:16 meets Foreign Exchange
Keep ya ear to the speaker, quit ignoring the names
Welcome to the next level, top floor in the game
the League done hooked up with a Cloverdale nigga so
Skip ya Sidekick, I'm a Nextel nigga
If I hit ya on the chirp with a verse you better roger that
Picture-word perfect from the land where the Dodgers at
Trying to get some money with some pussy on the side of that
Never have to ask where my killers or my riders at
But when fake gangstas tryin' ta find where them dollars at
Go to any city where there's pretty broads to holla at
The illest in your state when on the tour-date,
and more great than your grandfather's father
Tay I know it gotta hurt 'em as they stand by the slaughter
Oughta be locked away when I rock this way
Get rocked on the airwaves but not for play
If my heart should stop and I drop today
I went against all odds and I got my way, alright.
[hook]
Hey yo we animals, ready for war, destined for combat
Play the CD or tape and then rewind that
You want beef motherfucka nevermind that
(And if he owe me money, bitch nigga betta find that)
We animals, ready for war, destined for combat
Play the CD or tape and then rewind that
So let me know where ya mind at? (what!)
Lyrics submitted by convince
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