| It’s that D2 shit, you know
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| Hit-Boy
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| Yeah, Freshman 10
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| This shit makin' me feel old, damn
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| I gotta go back to '010
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| When the best car I rode in was a old Benz (Swerve)
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| And new enemies was still old friends (Friends)
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| Honestly, I think it was around '09
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| The time I got the XXL cosign (Yeah)
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| Remember thinkin', «I should been on the last couple years, nigga, both times»
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| (Both times)
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| For the first time, felt like I was walkin' in my truth
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| Cold day in NYC, nervous, walkin' in the room
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| Bumped into the coolest nigga, Wiz, he like, «Dude
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| You made it here too? |
| You know I really fuck with you
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| I even hit you on MySpace like two years ago, you the truth
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| Anyway, I’m 'bout to drop a new mixtape
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| Two of 'em, Cabin Fever and Kush &Orange Juice, I need you on there»
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| I’m like, «Shit, send it through» (Send it through)
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| Then I saw OJ tha Juiceman walkin' too
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| He like, «Sean, what it do?»
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| First nigga that I seen rockin' that many diamonds and real diamonds inside his
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| tooth
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| I said, «Shit, nigga, just tryin' to be as poppin' as you» (Ayy)
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| He ain’t laugh, it was cool
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| Then they made us all stand together like we was a big-ass group (Group)
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| Then I seen my nigga Nipsey there in all blue (Woah)
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| Back then, niggas thought he talked and looked just like Snoop, damn
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| I’m just lookin' for this new nigga that Hov' signed
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| Some nigga from North Carolina
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| I heard him named J. Cole (Cole) and they said they delayed his flight
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| So they gotta Photoshop him in, I hope that shit look right (I hope it right)
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| Goddamn, Freshman 10
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| The funny thing about bein' next up is that shit, you’ll never be next again
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| ('Gain)
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| Got my foot in the door, been steppin' it up ever since (Since)
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| Crazy how some of the longest, most stressful days of your life
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| End up bein' the times that you wish you could live twice
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| Only two mixtapes in, but in my city, one of the realest, though
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| And at that time, niggas peep niggas was stealin' flows and buildin' off it
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| (Off it)
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| And at that time, that nigga Ye was like, «Dre, I’m just tryin' to make them Ms
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| off it» (Ms)
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| Later that night, I hit the stu' with Nip' and Wiz
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| French Montana too, but he wasn’t on the cover
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| I mean, at least not ours, but they put him on another (Another)
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| And to sum up the whole night, I get back to the hotel, few doors down
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| It was Jay Rock, he said, «Today was wild, shit
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| But let me introduce you to my young dawg, next up, named K. Dot» (K. Dot)
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| Who woulda thought? |
| It’s crazy memories, our gems our mind keeps in the vault
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| My, how life can change in on year?
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| Okay, but what about ten? |
| I guess I’ll check back in, what up?
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| Yeah, huh, you know, freshman ten
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| I know some niggas made it and some niggas didn’t (Didn't)
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| That’s the realest reality we all hate hittin'
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| But love to the whole clique (Clique)
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| 'Cause we got a platform that most don’t get (Get)
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| So shoutout Nip', Wiz and Cole (Cole, who else?)
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| Shoutout Pill and OJ too (Yeah)
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| Gangsta Gibbs for Sean Don and Jay Rock, too
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| Real shit, I think we was the best class that ever came through (Through)
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| Huh, freshman ten
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| I remember my graduatin' class in like '06
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| And I remember between then, and, you know, to the XXL cover
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| Them was prolly some of the hardest years of my life
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| 'Cause a lot of my niggas, a lotta, you know what I’m sayin'
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| Just, everybody around me was in school, goin' to college, gettin' jobs,
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| whatever it was
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| And I was just still chasin' that dream, you know what I’m sayin'?
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| I just remember havin' to record in my niggas' basements
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| You know, settin' up the mics in our fuckin' closets and the bedroom
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| And, just like, goin' in
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| And all them listens, even though I had the deal from Ye, which was a blessin'
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| It was like, shit, Ye was Ye, so he was busy
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| You know, shit was a little stagnant
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| But in them four years, when my niggas was graduatin', you know
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| That was the same year that I got the XXL cover
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| So in a way, it was like, that was my college degree
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| You know, all the mixtapes, all that grind, all the hard work
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| That was like my, my first degree, you know what I’m sayin'?
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| So I just appreciate the whole process, the whole journey
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| Lookin' back, I wish I woulda lived in the moment more, but
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| I guess that’s what memories are for |