Released: December 9, 2016

Songwriter: Yuli Cardiak Jasmin Easterly J. Cole

Producer: Frank Dukes Cardiak

[Intro]
Awwwww...haha

[Verse 1]
Now I was barely seventeen with a pocket full of hope
Screamin' "dollar and a dream" with my closet lookin' broke
And my nigga's lookin' clean, gettin' caught up with that dope
Have you ever served a fiend with a pocket full of soap?
Nigga I can tell you things that you probably shouldn't know
Have you ever heard the screams when the body hit the floor?
Flashbacks to the pain, wakin' up, cold sweats
Six o'clock in the mornin', gotta hit the BowFlex
Get my weight up on the block, keep watch for the cops
God they love to serve a nigga three hots and a cot
Nowadays crime pays like a part time job
And the drought got me prayin' for a Carl Thom vibe
Summer Rain come again
Numb the pain 'cause it's hard for a felon
In my mind I been cryin', know it's wrong but I'm sellin'
Eyes wellin' up with tears
Thinkin' 'bout my niggas dead in the dirt
Immortalized on this shirt

[Chorus]
Real niggas don't die
Forward with the plot
One-Seven-Forty-Five
Form at the plot
Real niggas don't die
Form on the block
Real niggas don't lie
Form in the plot
My niggas don't die
Form on the block
Real niggas don't die
Form on the block
Real niggas don't die
Real niggas don't die

[Verse 2]
Have you ever seen a fiend cook crack on the spoon?
Have you ever seen a nigga that was black on the moon?
Have you ever seen your brother go to prison as you cry?
Have you ever seen a motherfuckin' ribbon in the sky?
Nope, all I see is that C.R.E.A.M nigga, that green
I'm a black king, black jeans on my black queen
And her ass fat, too fat for a flat screen
I'm the type of nigga make the whole fuckin' trap lean
Kingpin nigga, put wings on a crack fiend
If they want a nigga, they gon' have to send a SWAT team
And I'm goin' out like Scarface in his last scene
A legend, what that mean—?

[Chorus]
Real niggas don't die
Forward with the plot
One-Seven-Forty-Five
Form at the plot
Real niggas don't die
Form on the block
Hood niggas don't lie
Form in the plot
My niggas don't die
Form on the block
Real niggas don't die
Form on the block
Real niggas don't die
Real niggas don't die

[Outro]
To die a young legend or live a long life unfulfilled
'Cause you wanna change the world, but while alive you never will
'Cause they only feel you after you gone, or I've been told
And now I'm caught between bein' heard and gettin' old
Damn, death creepin' in my thoughts lately
My one wish in this bitch, "Make it quick if the Lord take me"
I know nobody meant to live forever anyway
And so I hustle like my niggas in Virgini-A
They tellin' niggas, "sell dope, rap or go to NBA"
In that order, it's that sort of thinkin'
That been keepin' niggas chained at the bottom and hanged
The strangest fruit that you ever seen, ripe with pain, listen...

J. Cole

Jermaine Lamarr Cole (b. January 28th, 1985), better known as J. Cole, is a rapper and producer who was born in Frankfurt, Germany and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He gained a passion for rap at a young age and first went by the names Blaza and Therapist (the latter was given to him by Bomb Sheltah, a respected rap group from Fayetteville) before settling on his own name.

He first started getting recognition in 2007 with the release of his debut mixtape The Come Up. First, after a failed attempt to share a CD of his with Jay-Z, it would later be Hov, that would come to his attention after he heard Cole’s song “Lights Please”, Jay-Z would go on to make J. Cole his first signing to his then newly formed record label, Roc Nation, in 2009.

Since then he has become one of the biggest names of the “new school” era, with the release of five platinum certified albums. His debut release Cole The Sideline Story defied industry expectations by selling over 200,000 copies in its first week without a top 40 hit single at the time and his sophomore Born Sinner, saw him go head-to-head with Kanye West in a now iconic sales battle in Hip-Hop. Before this, Cole released two projects that would eventually become his Truly Yourz series, the third project debuted on the deluxe edition of Born Sinner.