* featured artists on this album were jazz musicians
 [Guru]
 Down the backstreets  down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets  down the backstreets
 (I'm walkin down the backstreets)
 Down the backstreets  down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets  down the backstreets
 (I be walkin down the backstreets)

 Yo  here goes some info on my flow and how I move
 to a def groove, I keep my rep smooth
 On the down-low, I travel with my mind to the street
 Concrete, like the gravel I'm in deep
 So I gotta hit ya from a real perspective
 Cause anyone who's talkin that crap, will surely get his
 I'm not the one to act flashy
 Cause man where I be at, we don't have to be classy

 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (I'm walkin down the backstreets)
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (I be walkin down the backstreets)
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (Walkin down the backstreets)
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (I be walkin down the backstreets)

 Check it stupid
 While you're out there, on the main streets frontin
 Your game's week, so I'm huntin you down clown
 Cause you need to learn somethin
 All that bluffin, won't get you nothin but killed
 No mission fulfilled, because there's others who will
 get jealous, hell if they can take clout from you, they'll do it
 So that's what I'm about to do, I'll step to it
 and strip you of your pride (your pride)
 And then I'll stick and I'll rip you up from all sides
 or possibly I'll let you slide, slime
 Cause you'll set your own death in just a matter of time
 Yeah, and I'll be somewhere on the sidelines, y'know

 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (Walkin down the backstreets)
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (I be walkin down the backstreets)

 So when you're lookin for me, here's where I'll be
 I'll be walkin down the backstreets in your vicinity
 Cause I been out here for a few
 So all that you're doin, ain't really nothin new (nothin new)
 I peeped the way you always perpetrate
 You're so phony, you make me wanna regurgitate
 Since you're ridin so high, you're bound to fall
 while I stand tall, and you don't get no props at all out here

 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (walkin down the backstreets)
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (I be walkin down the backstreets)
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (Walkin down the backstreets)
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (It's the backstreets)
 Down the backstreets, down the backstreets
 (In your backstreets)

 Down the backstreets, is a mind state
 Cause I don't have to be a pop star to rhyme great
 I've been out here observin things
 So now all fake gangsters and pranksters I'm servin
 YouknowhatI'msayin? I'm the king
 Come down the backstreets where it's dark
 I'ma snatch your heart
 So get a handle on life and quit livin so trife
 Or else we're gonna have to run up, and SMACK all the weak
 Comin straight from the backstreets
 And I'm out, ninety-three, it's all me