This is some super nerd rap shit. But I am thinking you could easily string together an autobiography of Andre300 based purely on his verses. Seems like at this point, 3000 has dropped enough autobiographical versus that you can string together a life story through verse for him. Check out what I put together so far and let me know what verses I am missing.

I might not get this all done at once, so bear with me and contribute if you can.

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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Summary: Easy to figure the year because he mentions it explicitly. Sounds about right as he talks about life as a 16 year old pre-Outkast. Notice the theme of marking time by cars and girls.


The Verse:


Summer '88, or was it '89
Or was it winter-time, ah, nevermind
I'm in my room, booming
Drawin' LL Cool J album covers with
Crayolas on construction paper
I'm trying to fuck my neighbor, I'm tryna hook my waves up
I'm tryna pull my grades up, to get them saddle lace ups
Before lil' Marc was Jacob, before them girls wore makeup
Before my voice would break up,
before we'd tour them shake clubs
Before my mama wake up, before my palms would cake up
Before they tell me they love me and we'll never break up
Before the time she makes love to someone that
I thought was my homeboy
But boy, was I wrong, now
I don't budge, don't want much, just a roof and a porch
And a Porsche, and a horse and unfortunately
But of course an assortment of torches that scorches the skin,
when they enter
Intruders, whose tutors did a lousy job
How's he God if he lets Lucifer let loose on us?
That noose on us won't loosen up,
but loose enough to juice us up
Make us think we do so much and do it big
Like they don't let us win, I can't pretend
But I do admit, it feel good when the hood pseudo-celebrate
Hence, why every time we dine we eat until our belly aches
Then go grab the finest wine and drink it
Like we know which grape and which region it came from
As if we can name 'em, hint hint, it ain't, um, Welch's
Hell just fell three thousand more degrees cooler
Ya'll can't measure my worth
But when you try, you'll need a ruler made by all the
Greek gods
Because the odds have always been stacked against me
when back's against the wall
I feel right at home, y'all sitting right at home
All Kelly green with envy while I'm jelly beans descending
Into the palm of a child, looks up at mama and smile
With such a devilish grin, like "where the hell have you been"
She yelling that selling's a sin, well so is telling young men
That selling is a sin, if you don't offer new ways to win
A dolphin gon shake his fin, regardless if he gets in
Or out of water, most important thing for him is to swim
And Flipper didn't hold his nose, so why shall
I hold my tongue?
(I miss the days of old when one could hold his gal on his arm)
And I set off these alarms, when camera's
snap snap snap snap
Return fire, pa-pa-pa, pa, pa-pa, pa, pa, pa
They'll learn why, mere privacy, so essential
They won't make no laws,
I break their laws til they see out our window
I take the fall to make them all treat human kind more gentle
Forsake them all, I hate them all, don't like em,
don't pretend to
Yea something tells me we ain't in Kansas anymore
All that shit that used to be cool ain't cool anymore
All the women we were pursuing, now they want more
And they deserve it all, don't settle for what ain't yours





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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Summary:

Hard to pinpoint a year. The first part of the song sounds like he is a late teenager (definitely pre-fame which puts him less than 19). The second part of the verse sounds like it's early post-fame which I put some time after 1994.


Verse:

Now Suzy Skrew had a partner named Sasha Thumper
I remember her number like the summer
When her and Suzy yeah they threw a slumber
Party, but you can not call it that cause it was slummer
Well, it was more like spend the night
Three in the morning yawning, dancing under street lights
We chilling like a villain and a nigga feeling right
In the middle of the ghetto on the curb, but in spite
All of the bullshit we on our back staring at the stars above
Talking bout what we gonna be when we grow up
I said, "What you wanna be?" She said, "Alive"
It made me think for a minute, then looked in her eyes
I coulda died, time went on, I got grown
Rhyme got strong, mind got blown
I came back home, to find lil' Sasha was gone
Her mamma said she with a nigga that be treating her wrong
I kept on singing my song and hoping at a show
That I would one day see her standing in the front row
But two weeks later she got found in the back of a school
With a needle in her arm, baby two months due
Sasha Thumper


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Summary: Easy to pinpoint a rough period of time because he mentions a couple of years ago (ATLiens came out in 1996) and the subject matter is the making of their first album (which dropped in 1994). Interesting verse because it describes an artist the moment before they drop.

The Verse:

One for the money, yes, sir, two for the show
A couple of years ago on Headland and Delowe
Was the start of something good
Where me and my nigga rode the MARTA through the hood
Just tryna find that hook up
Now everyday we looked up at the ceiling
Watching ceiling fans go 'round, tryna catch that feeling
Off instrumentals, had my pencil and plus my paper
We caught the 86 Lithonia headed to Decatur
Writing rhymes, tryna find our spot off in that light
Light off in that spot, knowing that we could rock
Doing the hole in the wall clubs
This shit here must stop, like "Freeze!"
We making the crowd move, but we not making no G's
And that's a no-no


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Summary: 3000 references an incident that happened just the other day so we can point this time period as 1996, the year ATLiens dropped. I always thought this was a cool verse because its an early description of dealing with fame, a theme he would revisit often.


Verse:

Got stopped at the mall the other day
Heard a call from the other way that I just came from
Some nigga was saying something, talking 'bout smoke something "Hey man, you remember me from school?" "No not really"
But he kept smiling like a clown, facial expression looking silly
And he kept asking me, "What kinda car you drive?
I know you paid, I know y'all got beaucoup of hoes
From all them songs that y'all done made"
And I replied that I had been going through the same things that he had
True, I've got more fans than the average man
But not enough loot to last me
To the end of the week, I live by the beat
Like you live check-to-check
If it don't move your feet then I don't eat
So we like neck-to-neck
Yes, we done come a long way like them slim-ass cigarettes
From Virginia, this ain't gon' stop, so we just gon' continue



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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Summary: Closest we have to a staright up autobiography from 3000 eventhough it reference a short period of time that begins at around the same point in the earlier verse references where they were making an album but it had not dropped yet and goes all the way to the meeting of and break up with Erkyah Badu.

Verse:

I met you in a club in Atlanta, Georgia
Said me and my homeboy were coming out with an album
You looked at me like, "Yeah, nigga, right"
But you gave me your number anyway, you were on the talcum
Powder—how's about them oranges?
Moved away from home to school with big plans
By day, studied the history of music
By night, just to pay for that shit, you'd dance
To get your pants was a Mission Impo–ssible
We were both the same age, but I
Suppose wasn't on the same page, but in
The same book of life, so I'd page you when
I felt you that were getting off of work
Or either when you're on your way to school
We started hanging like Ernie and Bert
And in my idle head I'm thinking, "Cool"
Just when I think I'm going down your shirt
You're hiking up your skirt now
The events that followed had me volley
If your hometown would be heaven or hell
The angelic nastiness you possessed made you by far the best
Therefore hard to tell
You'd dropped me off by the Dungeon
Never came in, but I knew that you were wondering
"Now are these niggas in this house up to something
Selling crack sack by sacks so they could function?"
W-W-W-Well, yes and no
Yes, we were selling it, but no, it wasn't blow
Cook it in the basement then move it at a show
Then grab the microphone and everybody yelled, "Ho!"
Meanwhile, the video starts playing
BET, college radio, and a van
Packed full of niggas with a blunt in their hand
And one in their ear, you know what I'm saying
But, I kept your number in my old phone
Got a new chip flip with the roam-roam
So it took me a minute to retrieve seven digits
But I promised I would call you when I got home
But, when I got home, I never did
By the time I did, heard that you had a kid
By some nigga in Decatur who replied, "See you later"
When he got the good news; that's life, shit
Now, I'm nineteen with a Cadillac
My nigga had a Lex with the gold pack
Got a plaque, but I'm living with my pop-pop
So I got a Glock and a LoJack
You kinda fast for that fella in class who used to draw
And never said much 'cause half of what he saw
Was so far from that place you wanna be
That words only fucked it up more, follow me
Are you starting to gather what I'm getting at?
Now if I'm losing you, tell me, then I'll double back
But keep in mind, at the time "keep it real" was the phrase
Silly once said now, but those were the days
When Spring Break, and Daytona, and Freakniks
Made you wanna drop out of college and never go back
Move to the South, but that ain't a Kodak
Moment, on went myself and Big Boi
Well, you knew him as 'Twan
That's right, you were around before this shit begun
When 'Twan had a daughter and
Sorta was made to mature before the first tour
We hit the road like Jack
Laughed and cried and drive it back with some Yak
Girls used to say, "Y'all talk funny, y'all from the islands?"
And I'd laugh and they'd just keep smiling
"No, I'm from Atlanta, baby, he from Savannah, maybe
We should hook up and get tore up and then lay down, hey, we
Gotta go because the bus is pulling out in thirty minutes"
She's playing tennis, disturbing the tenants
15-love, fit like glove
Description is like fifteen doves
In a jacuzzi catching the Holy Ghost
Making one woozy in the head and comatose, agree?
Enough about me, how's about you? How's the lil' kid?
She was about two the last time we spoke
I hadn't smoked or took a shot of drink
'Cause I'd start the second album off on another note
Now, that note threw some niggas in the hood off
But see, I'd balled out, and 'fore I'd fall out
I'd slow my Lac down to a nice speed
The brain was that fried egg I might need
New direction was apparent
I was a child looking at the floor, staring
So changing my style was like relief for the primitive beast
Yes, I was on the rise, yeast was the street
To make bread, never primary concern
Just to hop on these beats and wait my turn
I'd meet Muslims, gangstas, bitches, rastas
And macaroni niggas, imposters
So on a trip to New York on some beeswax
I get invited to a club where emcees at
And on stage is a singer with some thing on her head
Similar to the turban that I covered up my dreads with
Which I was rocking at the time
When I was going through them phases trying to find
Anything that seemed real in the world
Still searching, but I started liking this girl
Now you know her as Erykah "On and On" Badu
Call Tyrone on the phone, "Why you
Do that girl like that, boy? You ought to be ashamed"
The song wasn't about me and that ain't my name
We're young, in love, in short we had fun
No regrets, no abortion, had a son
By the name of Seven, and he's five
By the time I do this mix, he'll probably be six
You do the arithmetic, me do the language arts
Y'all stand against the wall blindfolded, we throw the darts
To poke you in the heart and take you from the start
To when luxury transportation meant a MARTA card
Or either when your girlfriend that went to Mays
Mama or her daddy let her borrow the Benz, because she's smart
Or maybe if your neighbor does you a huge favor
And he sells you that Rabbit that's been sitting in his yard
You fix it up, you trick it out, you give it rims, you give it bump
You give it all your time because that's all you can think about
And that's as far as I got..


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Summary: Nothing to really pinpoint it in time or other than the present. There is a reference to his cartoon. This could be fiction (but then all of the lyrics could be fiction) or a true story but I love the detail of the anecdote.

Verse:

I said, "What time you get off?"
She said, "when you get me off"
I kinda laughed, but it turned into a cough
Because I swallowed down the wrong pipe
Whatever that mean, you know old people say it so it sounds right
So I'm standing there embarassed, if we were both in Paris
I would have grabbed her by the waist and kissed her, but
We in the middle of Whole Foods, and those foods
Ain't supposed to beef, but you'd think they hated tofu
Check-in line got rowdy, my vision got cloudy
I started seein' circles like some Audi emblem
I'm hearing them say, "Come on, man"
"Do this own your own time, get the hell on, man"
I walked out, hm, I got 'bout
Halfway to my car when I heard shorty shout
"3000, forgot your credit card—smart move"
"By the way, my little sister loves your cartoon"
"Well, here's my name and numb'"
"If I ain't the one, lose it, if I am, use it"
"If a man chooses and he can do's it"
And if he don't, don't take it personal
He might be might be swamped
With making mozzarella—no, making worlds better
Cheese will come, believe me I'm
Never focused on the cash
Ask Mel Gibson, Jesus Christ I'm 'bout the passion


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Don't forget
TI's Sorry (2004-??)
Future's Benz Friendz (2008-??)

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"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415

Then we might could talk.

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Twitter & IG: @rulerofmyself
SC: rulerofmyself17

Yes! She's on the drugs. (c) BoHagon