[Talking: Royce da 5'9"]
Protecting Ryan
Protecting Ryan
Back when I was a teenager
Me, my brother Vish, and My brother Greg was playing basketball at the court
There was these two n***as in general that just kept fouling, just fouling, fouling
So I went up for a lay-up, I'm like "ball n***a!"
God damn, they talkin' sh**, I'm talkin' sh**
He jumps up in my face
So I throw an overhand right and a hook
b**h! 'wham! wham!'
This n***a falls to the ground asleep
All you see is Z's, birdies, stars, you hear all that sh**
And then I run up on the n***a that he was with that was also talkin' sh**
I said "what's up"
Soon as I said that, this n***a Vish just threw the basketball and hit him in the face hard as f**, 'boom!'
Now if he was about to say something tough, he must have just changed his mind 'cause that n***a turned around and broke running
All I heard that n***a saying was, "I don't want a problem"
And right when I was thinking to myself, 'where the f** is Greg at?'
I'm reminded of why I never call him when there's a problem
He got this thing about protectin' Ryan, he just kinda overdo sh**
So the next thing that happened in my mind, went like this:
Greg flew into the picture, possibly from out of the sky, I think he was wearing a cape
He landed infront of me like 'duhn duhn dah duhn'
With a knife in his hand, with the handle taped up that he had been keeping under his front driver's seat in his car the whole time and nobody knew
This n***a just blacked out and started swinging the knife at the dude I dropped
'swoosh swoosh swoosh' "I'mma k** you mother f**er!"
And start cuttin' the n***a
I had to grab him like, "Greggy, what are you doing? Don't k** this n***a!"
The whole park just went silent
And then the silence gets broken by police sirens
And all you hear from each way is people going, "Greg throw the knife on the roof! Greg throw the knife in the pool! Get rid of the knife, Greg!"
And he drops the bloody knife right in the gra**
I look at him, he looks back at me
Prison bars just come in between us and surrounds him completely
My mother and father just outta nowhere pops into the picture
And I said, "You ain't have to try to k** him Greggy"
My mother and father, "Why you have to try and k** him Greggy?"
He said, "I was protecting Ryan!"
And then he went to prison and started writing letters home
"Dear Momma
I'm so sorry
All I was doing was protectin' Ryan"
And then he came home
"Ryan got a record deal, did you hear, Greg?"
"Yeah, I deal with a record everyday that I got for calling myself protecting Ryan."
"But you ain't have to call his wife a b**h right to her face"
"See here we go again, don't nobody never see my side of the story. Everytime I turn around, y'all either defending or protecting Ryan"
I think I get it now
Thank you for protectin' me
I wouldn't be where I'm at today if you hadn't protected me
Thank you
Thank you for teaching me how to rap
Thank you for teaching me how to scrap
Thank you for sacrificing your life so I can have a better life
Greg, is that what you want to hear?