It was back
Back in 86 and I remember it so clear
West Coast art,
hip -hop graffiti came here
Homies with spray cans
were tearin' it up
Now it's seven years later,
still fuckin' it up
You can find them at any bus stop
They're lookin' for cops
and when it's all clear
They tag the bus windshield
Smoothin' too fast, packin' a bus pass
With paint on their hands,
they walk away and laugh
It's 3 a .m., but an artist never stops
Creepin' through the city
and mobbin' the
Sometimes they're in a posse,
sometimes they roll alone
Tagging freeway signs
on their way back home
They're up 30 feet high
with a pocket full of fat caps
Hat to the back, supplies in a backpack
They started their mission
around a quarter till eleven
Now with spray can in hand,
they're going to the heavens
It's rainin' on me,
negativity on the wall
I posse your homies
and they just can't wait
Because they mobbin' 10D,
well me and Streaks and Spraypaint
The bus pulls up, at the stop you see smiles
Cause they know that the tags'll
run for miles and miles
From city to city they collect much fame
No one knows her face
but everyone knows her name
And if you know what I'm sayin',
this song was written for you
For you and your crew,
and all your neighborhoods too
You got police runnin' around,
tryin' to keep you down and get involved
But you give them a problem
they simply just can't solve
They don't understand,
y 'all, that it's a family thing
And they don't understand, y 'all,
that you're a deaf city king
And true kings don't stop
when they're on the attack
He's gettin' up on the wall,
his homies watchin' his back
So open your eyes,
realize that graffiti and rap
I'm both gonna stay in L
.A. and it's like that
Cause it's an art
and it's part of our hip -hop lives
So we say peace to the artists
who fight to keep it alive
You ask the mind artists,
yeah,
but I don't use spray cans
We go to the heavens
when we're in front of a mic stand
It's raining on
me,
there's graffiti on the
wall
This prob lem,
is getting serious
It makes us delirious, and furious
Suspicious and curious
Crews today are insane and hard to explain
I thought it was art,
but now you all wanna tag, bang
Back in the days,
artists used to compete
But now if there's beef,
you leave them dead in the street
Fourteen years old,
sometimes they're even younger
And dead for a name,
come on,
it's gotta make you wonder
When will it stop and end,
go back to art again
Put down the gun, homie, pick up a pen
Do you wanna be the reason
that graffiti fell?
It started in the heavens,
don't let it go to hell
It's raining today,