[Produced by Tae Beast, Sounwave & Thundercat]

[Intro: Dr. Dre]

K-Dot, pick up the phone, nigga

Every time I call, it's going to voicemail

Don't tell me they got you on some weirdo rap shit, nigga

No socks and skinny jeans and shit, ha

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haha

Call me on Shaniqua's phone!

[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar]

I been A-1 since day one, you niggas boo-boo

Your home boy, your block that you're from, boo-boo

Lil' hoes you went to school with, boo-boo

Baby mama and your new bitch, boo-boo

We was in the hood, fourteen with the deuce-deuce

Fourteen years later, going hard like we used to

On the dead homies

On the dead homies

[Verse 1: Kendrick Lamar]

I don't give a fuck about no politics in rap, my nigga

Our lil' homie Stunna Deuce ain't never comin' back, my nigga

So you better go hard every time you jump on wax, my nigga

Fuck what they talkin' 'bout, your shit is where it's at, my nigga

Came in this game, you stuck your fangs in this game

You wore no chain in this game, your hood, your name in this game

Now you double up, time to bubble up the bread and huddle up

Stickin' to the scripts, now, here, if them Benjamins go cuddle up

Skip, hop, drip, drop

Flip, flop with the white tube sock

It goes, "Sherm sticks, burn this"

That's what the product smell like when the chemicals mix

50-nigga salute, out the Compton zoo, with the extras

El Co's, Monte Carlos, Road Kings, and dressers

Rip Ridaz, P-Funkers, Mexicans, they fuck with you

Asians, they fuck with you, nobody can fuck with you

[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar]

I been A-1 since day one, you niggas boo-boo

Your homeboy, your block that you're from, boo-boo

Lil' hoes you went to school with, boo-boo

Baby mama and your new bitch, boo-boo

We was in the hood, fourteen with the deuce-deuce

Fourteen years later, going hard like we used to

On the dead homies

On the dead homies

[Verse 2: Kendrick Lamar]

Hopped out the Caddy, just got my dick sucked

The little homies called and said, "The enemies done cliqued up"

Oh, yeah? Puto want to squabble with mi barrio?

Oh, yeah? Tell 'em they can run it for the cardio

Oh, yeah? Everything is everything, it's scandalous

Slow motion for the ambulance, the project filled with cameras

The LAPD gamblin', scramblin', football numbers slanderin'

Niggas' names on paper—you snitched all summer

Streets don't fail me now

They tell me it's a new gang in town

From Compton to Congress

Set-trippin' all around

Ain't nothin' new but a flu of new Demo-Crips and Re-Blood-icans

Red state versus a blue state—which one you governin'?

They give us guns and drugs, call us thugs, make it they promise to fuck with you

No condom, they fuck with you, Obama say, "What it do?"

[Interlude: Kendrick Lamar]

Obama say, "What it do?"

Obama say, "What it do?"

Obama say, "What it do?"

[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar]

I been A-1 since day one, you niggas boo-boo

Your homeboy, your block that you're from, boo-boo

Lil' hoes you went to school with, boo-boo

Baby mama and your new bitch, boo-boo

We was in the hood, fourteen with the deuce-deuce

Fourteen years later, going hard like we used to

On the dead homies

On the dead homies

[Verse 3: Kendrick Lamar]

Everybody want to talk about who this and who that

Who the realest and who wack, or who white or who black

Critics want to mention that they miss when hip-hop was rappin'

Motherfucker, if you did, then Killer Mike'd be platinum

Y'all priorities fucked up, put energy in wrong shit

Hennessy and Crown Vic, my memory been gone since

Don't ask about no camera blocking at award shows

No, don't ask about my bitch, no, don't ask about my Vogues

'Less you askin' me about power, yeah, I got a lot of it

I'm the only nigga next to Snoop that can push the button

Had the Coast on standby

"K. Dot, what up? I heard they opened up Pandora's box"

I box 'em all in, by a landslide

Nah, homie, we too sensitive, it spill out to the streets

I make the call and get the Coast involved, then history repeats

But I resolved inside that private hall while sitting down with Jay

He said, "It's funny how one verse can fuck up the game"

[Chorus: Kendrick Lamar]

I been A-1 since day one, you niggas boo-boo

[Poem: Kendrick Lamar]

I remember you was conflicted

Misusing your influence

Sometimes I did the same

Abusing my power full of resentment

Resentment that turned into a deep depression

Found myself screaming in a hotel room

I didn't want to self-destruct

The evils of Lucy was all around me

So I went running for answers

Until I came home

But that didn't stop survivor's guilt

Going back and forth

Trying to convince myself the stripes I earned

Or maybe how A-1 my foundation was

But while my loved ones was fighting a continuous war

Back in the city

I was entering a new one