I cut another tree down to pass the time While I watch a lifetime pass me by Looking back on old days, glassy-eyed Watching years go, like my aunties mind We used to sit up in the car park and rhyme Now a night like that is hard to find Looking back on old times, I can't rewind Talking in my old friends that aren't alive no more The years gone by Talking about years gone by Now lets take it all the way back to '84 (yeah, yeah) Lets hear it for the boy playing through the wall (yeah, yeah) Lets hear it for the boy crawling on the floor In an Orwellian Estate Hall he walked In '85, he ran and in '86 we flew From a kingdom united into a land in two In '87 we settled, In '88 we moved Into a place called Avondale, first day in school In '89, it was me myself and I 'Cause my mother couldn't find my baby brother Must have lost him like that time at the supermarket Five candles on my Donatello cake Celebrate life, cellotape up on my Hammer tape 1990, I was a plumber with a pipe dream, side of screen Hunting for mushies that were lime green, lightspeed To '91, that was the year I met this girl and fell in love Her name was Chun, and then we jump Jump jumped in bootleg pumps In '92 my drunk dad jumped ship on mum In '93 I won my first fight, like a D O double G Still mad at the man I wanted to be In '94 I got a hiding and I tried to hide But you can't keep running away, In '95 So I dried my eyes, the 'All Eyez On Me' Number 9 on rewind Stacking my pocket money up to 96, Blew it all on 64 Blew my Ocarina loud, swinging swords with the force '97 hit the court, got slicker with the sauce The vocal cords dropped and, I got slicker with the broads Figure four in '98, hit the floor in '99 Doing 90's in my clydes, tryna rhyme on the side Way back, when I had the red and black Swanndri In my Mazda hatchback travelling back in time Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa Talking years, gone by Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa Years gone by Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa Yeah the year was 2001, I bumped that 2001 Moved out of my mum's house, flunked out like a bum First year I got something was that first year I got sprung Next year I got dumped, and that whole year I got drunk That was '02 then '03 my old man got done For some dumb shit, got one year and that year I got numb Then '05 he got out and got out of it at once Then '06 my homie hung in the park where we all hung Yeah my shit got fucked up that year, my shit got real rough that year Horsed it on my bruv that year, fuck that year, fuck that year That taught me, who the people that care for me From the people that just corny, when the phony homie disowned me then call me when they saw me On the cover of some magazine: Up to brother, how you been It's been a minute, I ain't seen you since we were Set the screen and roll on into 20 0 7, and it's all a blur from then to 2011 I was on a bender that went on four years long Celebrating for the first win I ever got That was the same year LeBron won A short run in the long run Woke up when the swan sung her song, I hit the gong, I was gone They shot me down from the top of the poppy Got too cocky, that melancholy got me And they forgot me, but everybody need somebody Every Bobby need some Whitney So when I met her I asked her to ring me Gave her the ring and asked her to king me That was 2013, we moved out of the city Had about 2014 problems in 2015 Hit me hard, losing Ziggy But the middy stuck with me through the dark Then my son came out, I called him Quincy And now I watch his eyes watching mine Watching life on rewind, too divine to define in one line In the same neighbourhood I walked in in '89 Raising beers for the cheers Saying here's to the years gone by Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa