Released: June 15, 1995

Songwriter: Michael J. Powell DJ U-Neek Wish Bone Bizzy Bone Layzie Bone Krayzie Bone

Producer: DJ U-Neek

[Chorus: Layzie Bone & Bizzy Bone]
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up

[Verse 1: Krayzie Bone]
Hey, my niggas, we havin' a wonderful day
And I won't fuck with me, why? 'Cause it's the first of the month
And now we smokin', jokin', rollin' blunts
And sippin' on 40 ounces, thuggin'
Come, come, we've got the blunts and rum
From jumpin' all nights, we high
Hit up the block to where? East 99
I get with my nigga to get me some yayo
Double up, "Nigga, what you need?"
"We got weed to get P.O.D.'d, fiend for the green leaves"
Double up for the first, fo' sho' better lay low
'Cause the po-po creep when they roll slow
If you can't get away, better toss that yayo
Keep your bankroll
Yeah, we havin' a celebration, love to stay high
And you better believe when it's time to grind
I'm down for mine, crime after crime
Fin to creep to the pad cause moms got the grub on the grill
And we got the 4-0, you know it's the first of the month
And my nigga, we chills for real

[Chorus: Layzie Bone & Bizzy Bone]
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up

[Verse 2: Bizzy Bone]
Wake up, and I see that my sister was already dressed
She said, "I'ma run and go get my stamps"
"Watch and make sure no one snatches my check"
Nigga, that's the mailman
Sort through the mail and put it up into me pocket
So I be hittin' the 99 to get me a dub for 40 duckets
But ain't no bucket ride that RTA, hop on the 10 to the Clair
Ready to get 'em up with-a me thugs
And to cash that dum, man, I gotta get paid
Playa, playa, holla, holla, St. Clair got much to offer
Whether it be weed on 93
Or off on the Glock-Glock for some dollars
So, get a bag of dope and a quarter O, oh
Most all of my niggas got the same
And we gonna roll it all up to smoke
Hittin' that reefer hydro, you know the cut so fuck them po-po
Toss all that yayo then roll with a pound and stay low
Runnin' through the alley and into the mêlée
Up on the second the sundown
Those run from January, November, December
I'm lovin' the first of the month

[Chorus: Layzie Bone & Bizzy Bone]
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up

[Verse 3: Wish Bone]
Gotta grind, gotta get mine
In the hood that I claim and I slang on that double 9-9
Gotta find them dubs
Gonna get a 40, can a thug get love?
What's up? Try to slang on my corner
Nigga, you's a goner, St. Clair niggas don't like that
And sellin' them dummies, makin' that money
Come back, nigga, get pap, pap
From the 1st to the 15th
Niggas smoke plenty weed but I gotta save, gotta come up
Put my rocks on the cut
When I get high, nigga, blaze that blunt, huh
Time to roll to the pad, count up my profits and add it to the stash
Gotta watch my back, see for niggas that's tryin' to rob me, fool
But never no shorts or no losses
Dumpin', keepin' these niggas up off me
See, gotta search the whole block
Spend a couple of bills, thugs smoke a lot of weed on the 1st

[Chorus: Layzie Bone & Bizzy Bone]
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up

[Verse 4: Layzie Bone & Krayzie Bone]
Wakin' up, feelin' buzzed, up early mornin', stretchin', I'm yawnin'
Lightweight, bent, chugga-lugga take a 5th to the dome
Instead I kick it with my trues
But it's the 1st, so I'm gettin' me hustle on
Hop on the phone, callin' up Krayzie Bone
Wanna know, did your O.G. check come?
Sure, put me down!
I'ma hop on the bus with Biz (yo brother, let's get drunk!)
And I'm comin' with blunt after blunt of the skunk
Nigga T just put me down
Oh God, how I love when the 1st come around
Now I be freakin' me Black N' Mild
Headed cross town cause niggas, the 1st get celebrated
Rushin' to the block cause I wanna get faded
Lookin' all wild, 'cause I'm gettin' me hair braided
We heavy off into this game
True to the 1st, just call me that pro slang
Them nickels and dimes and 20's and 50's
The 1st be the day for the dopeman
Slangin' that cocaine, fool, and I'm workin' late tonight
And all them fiends be lovin' them thugs
'Cause I got them rocks for them pipes
Come, come with-a ease
I gotta get paid on the 1st, gotta blaze up my spliff
Get live with the Bone Thugs
Poetic Hustlaz and the Graveyard Shift, on the 1st

[Chorus: Layzie Bone & Bizzy Bone]
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
It's the first of the month
So get up, get up, get up, get up, get up
So cash your checks and come up

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is a hip-hop group from Cleveland, Ohio, formed in 1991 under the brief name, “Band Aid Boys.” Then they were B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e, consisting of Bizzy Bone, Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, and Wish Bone. Under this name, they released the 1993 album, Faces of Death. Then Flesh-N-Bone, Layzie’s brother, joined the group, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was solidified.

Rapper Eazy-E of the group N.W.A signed Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to Ruthless Records in 1994. The group’s debut EP Creepin On Ah Come Up included two hits, “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” (#22) and “Foe Tha Love of $” (#41). In 1995, their full-length album E. 1999 Eternal followed featuring another top 40 hit “1st of Tha Month”. An updated version of “Crossroad” from the album, renamed as “Tha Crossroads”, became a Grammy-winning international smash hit, holding the #1 spot in the US for eight weeks and reaching the top 20 in eight countries overseas including the UK.

Over the next fifteen years, the group scored six more top 40 hits including the platinum-selling “I Tried” (featuring Akon), but it was a tumultuous time. Flesh-N-Bone served eight years in prison for assault. The group kicked Bizzy Bone out after a couple of years of issues, but took him back five years later. Krayzie Bone also quit for a few months. In 2010, Wish Bone told