Released: August 30, 1994

Songwriter: GZA RZA

Producer: RZA

[Hook: GZA and RZA]
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas that front, they be pulling stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas who front (they be pulling stunts)

[Verse 1: GZA]
I was always taught my do's and don'ts
For do's I did, and for don'ts, I said I won't
I'm from Brooklyn, a place where stars are born
Streets are shot up, apartment buildings are torn
And ripped up, stripped up, shacked up and backed up
From fiends, cause the bosses on the scene, they got it cracked up
Kids are slinging in my lobby
Little Steve and Bobby
Getting paid but it's a life-threatening hobby
Yeah, they still play hide-and-seek
The fiends seek for the crack, and they hide and let the cops peep
Grown folks say they should be out on their own
Before the gangs come and blow up their mom's home
Because they lifestyle is hectic, so fucking hectic
Blaow! Blaow! Blaow! Bullets are ejected
My lifestyle was so far from well
Could've wrote a book with a title "Age 12 and Going Through Hell"
Then I realized the plan
I'm trapped in a deadly video game, with just one man
So I don't only watch my back, I watch my front
Cause it's the niggas who front, they be pulling stunts
Back on the Ave of Livonia and Bristol with a pistol
Sticking up Pamela and Crystal
You know your town is dangerous when you see the strangest
Kid come home from doing the bid and nothing changes
What is the meaning of CRIME (what?)
Is it Criminals Robbing Innocent Motherfuckers Everytime?
Little shorties take walks to the schoolyard
Trying to solve the puzzles to why is life so hard
Then as soon as they reached the playground, blaow!
Shots ring off and now one of them lay down
It's so hard to escape the gunfire
I wish I could rule it out like an umpire
But it's an everlasting game, and it never cease to exist
Only the players change, so

[Hook: GZA and RZA]
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas that front, they be pulling stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas who front (they be pulling stunts)
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas that front, they be pulling stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas who front (they be pulling stunts)
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas that front, they be pulling stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas who front (they be pulling stunts)
I gotcha back so you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas who front, that be pulling stunts
I gotcha back but you best to watch your front
It's the niggas who front, that be pulling stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas that front, they be pulling stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas who front (they be pulling stunts)
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas that front, they be pulling stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas who front (they be pulling stunts)
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas that front, they be pulling stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas who front (they be pulling stunts)
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas that front, they be pulling stunts
I gotcha back, but you best to watch your front
Cause it's the niggas who front (they be pulling stunts)

[Outro: (LP version only)]
Your, tech, nique, is, mag-ni-ficent
When cut across the neck
A sound like wailing winter winds is heard, they say
I'd always hoped to cut someone like that someday
To hear that sound
But to have it happen to my own neck is... ridiculous
*man gasps for air*

GZA

The oldest member and co-founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, Gary “GZA” Grice was the only member of what became the Wu-Tang Clan to release an album before the group’s 1993 release Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), with his 1991 album Words From the Genius.

GZA’s 1995 solo album Liquid Swords is widely regarded as a hip-hop masterpiece.