"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.
"I'ma say this and I'ma end mine
If you ain't down for the Africans here in the United States
Period, point blank
If you ain't down for the ones that suffered in South Africa
From Apartheid and shit
Damnit, you need to step your punk ass to the side
And let us brothers and us Africans step in
And start puttin' some foot in that ass"
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
I got my finger on the trigger, some niggas wonder why
But livin' in the city, it's do-or-die
I got my finger on the trigger, some niggas wonder why
But livin' in the city, it's do-or-die
Dem wonder why mi violent, dem no really understand
For di reason why mi take mi law in mi own hand
Mi not out for peace and mi not Rodney King
Dey gun goes click, mi gun goes bang
Dem riot in Compton and dem riot in Long Beach
Dem riot in L.A. 'cause dem no really wanna see
Niggas start to loot and police start to shoot
Lock us down at seven o'clock, barricade us like Beirut
Mi don't show no love 'cause it's us against dem
Dem never ever love mi 'cause it's sport to break dem
And kill, at my own risk, if I may
To lay, to spray with my AK and put 'em to rest
"Yes, we have, there have been riots, uh, rioting
Well, I don't wanna say rioting but there's been looting downtown
But right now Bree, what I want to show you is
They have started fires down at the end of the street"
How many niggas are ready to loot?
Yeah, so what you wanna do? What you wanna do?
I said how many niggas are ready to loot?
Got myself an Uzi and my brother a nine
"That's what they told us today, in other words, you still a slave
No matter how much money you got, you still ain't shit!"
Sittin' in my livin' room, calm and collected
Feelin' that gotta-get-mine perspective
'Cause what I just heard broke me in half
And half the niggas I know, plus the niggas on the Row is bailin'
Laugh now, but cry much later
You see when niggas get together they get mad 'cause they can't fade us
Like my niggas from South Central, Los Angeles
They found that they couldn't handle us
Bloods, Crips on the same squad
With the Ese's helpin', nigga, it's time to rob and mob
(And break the white man off somthin' lovely, biddy-bye-bye
I don't love them so them can't love me)
Yo, straight puttin' down gettin' my scoot on
It's jumpin' off in Compton so I gots to get my loot on
And come up on me some furniture or somethin'
Got a VCR in the back of my car
That I ganked from the Slauson Swap Meet
And motherfuckers better not try to stop me
'Cause they will see that I can't be stopped
'Cause I'ma cock my Glock and pop 'til they all drop
"Yes, on videotape we seem to have the, uh
People in the crowd throwing things at the officers"
"And swinging at them as well
As there was a, uh, young woman there, you see, took a swing at-
At an officer with some object in her hand"
How many niggas are ready to loot?
Yeah, so what you wanna do? What you wanna do?
I said how many niggas are ready to loot?
Got myself an Uzi and my brother a nine
I got my finger on the trigger, some niggas wonder why
But livin' in the city, it's do-or-die
I got my finger on the trigger, some niggas wonder why
But livin' in the city, it's do-or-die
One-time trigger happy, no nigga love
One-eighty-seven time, time to grab the glove
Can't get prints so a nine I throw away
Or get prints on my Uzi when it spray
Pop-pop, pop, another motherfucker drop
And I get relief like, plop, plop, fizz
Smash, I crashed his head like a window
I ain't Nintendo, I'm high off the indo
Creepin' with the quickness to the cut
Bust one to his head while he munches on a donut
And crack up, so now he best to back up
I guess I gots to pack up, fillin' the clip up
I zip uptown, the motherfuckin' cops are all around
Helicopters flyin', these motherfuckers tryin'
To catch me and stretch me on Death Row
But hell no, the poor blacks refuse to go
"This now covers a very, very wide area of Los Angeles
Where these fires have been, uh, ignited
I mean, from here to the, uh, to the south end of South Central is a long way"
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
The outcome of this is destruction, so them all fall
Niggas don't give a fuck, so them bust and them fall
The description of three blacks
Shows no justice, so, speak up it's your right
If we riot again, mi turn the other cheek
We be too many, mi got mi nine to my side
So mi bust, flick, 'cause he don't give a fuck
And mi don't give a fuck
And all my problems end with that buck-buck
Blam-blam, blam 'til dem fall
Listen to the shots from a nigga, Doggy Dogg, biddy-bye
Dr. Dre, him bust gun shots
Diggidy Daz and RBX, dem bust gun shots
Come again
If you ain't down for the Africans here in the United States
Period, point blank
If you ain't down for the ones that suffered in South Africa
From Apartheid and shit
Damnit, you need to step your punk ass to the side
And let us brothers and us Africans step in
And start puttin' some foot in that ass"
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
I got my finger on the trigger, some niggas wonder why
But livin' in the city, it's do-or-die
I got my finger on the trigger, some niggas wonder why
But livin' in the city, it's do-or-die
Dem wonder why mi violent, dem no really understand
For di reason why mi take mi law in mi own hand
Mi not out for peace and mi not Rodney King
Dey gun goes click, mi gun goes bang
Dem riot in Compton and dem riot in Long Beach
Dem riot in L.A. 'cause dem no really wanna see
Niggas start to loot and police start to shoot
Lock us down at seven o'clock, barricade us like Beirut
Mi don't show no love 'cause it's us against dem
Dem never ever love mi 'cause it's sport to break dem
And kill, at my own risk, if I may
To lay, to spray with my AK and put 'em to rest
"Yes, we have, there have been riots, uh, rioting
Well, I don't wanna say rioting but there's been looting downtown
But right now Bree, what I want to show you is
They have started fires down at the end of the street"
How many niggas are ready to loot?
Yeah, so what you wanna do? What you wanna do?
I said how many niggas are ready to loot?
Got myself an Uzi and my brother a nine
"That's what they told us today, in other words, you still a slave
No matter how much money you got, you still ain't shit!"
Sittin' in my livin' room, calm and collected
Feelin' that gotta-get-mine perspective
'Cause what I just heard broke me in half
And half the niggas I know, plus the niggas on the Row is bailin'
Laugh now, but cry much later
You see when niggas get together they get mad 'cause they can't fade us
Like my niggas from South Central, Los Angeles
They found that they couldn't handle us
Bloods, Crips on the same squad
With the Ese's helpin', nigga, it's time to rob and mob
(And break the white man off somthin' lovely, biddy-bye-bye
I don't love them so them can't love me)
Yo, straight puttin' down gettin' my scoot on
It's jumpin' off in Compton so I gots to get my loot on
And come up on me some furniture or somethin'
Got a VCR in the back of my car
That I ganked from the Slauson Swap Meet
And motherfuckers better not try to stop me
'Cause they will see that I can't be stopped
'Cause I'ma cock my Glock and pop 'til they all drop
"Yes, on videotape we seem to have the, uh
People in the crowd throwing things at the officers"
"And swinging at them as well
As there was a, uh, young woman there, you see, took a swing at-
At an officer with some object in her hand"
How many niggas are ready to loot?
Yeah, so what you wanna do? What you wanna do?
I said how many niggas are ready to loot?
Got myself an Uzi and my brother a nine
I got my finger on the trigger, some niggas wonder why
But livin' in the city, it's do-or-die
I got my finger on the trigger, some niggas wonder why
But livin' in the city, it's do-or-die
One-time trigger happy, no nigga love
One-eighty-seven time, time to grab the glove
Can't get prints so a nine I throw away
Or get prints on my Uzi when it spray
Pop-pop, pop, another motherfucker drop
And I get relief like, plop, plop, fizz
Smash, I crashed his head like a window
I ain't Nintendo, I'm high off the indo
Creepin' with the quickness to the cut
Bust one to his head while he munches on a donut
And crack up, so now he best to back up
I guess I gots to pack up, fillin' the clip up
I zip uptown, the motherfuckin' cops are all around
Helicopters flyin', these motherfuckers tryin'
To catch me and stretch me on Death Row
But hell no, the poor blacks refuse to go
"This now covers a very, very wide area of Los Angeles
Where these fires have been, uh, ignited
I mean, from here to the, uh, to the south end of South Central is a long way"
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
Break 'em off somethin'
The outcome of this is destruction, so them all fall
Niggas don't give a fuck, so them bust and them fall
The description of three blacks
Shows no justice, so, speak up it's your right
If we riot again, mi turn the other cheek
We be too many, mi got mi nine to my side
So mi bust, flick, 'cause he don't give a fuck
And mi don't give a fuck
And all my problems end with that buck-buck
Blam-blam, blam 'til dem fall
Listen to the shots from a nigga, Doggy Dogg, biddy-bye
Dr. Dre, him bust gun shots
Diggidy Daz and RBX, dem bust gun shots
Come again
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