Hope I Don’t Go Back Lyrics

[Intro: E-40 & Otis & Shug]
Hoppin' over barbed wire fences, nigga, I had this one broad, right?
She was so damn sprung, she used to hold my motherfuckin'
Motherfuckin' sack, nigga

Thought you thought, nigga (Ooh)
In a motherfuckin', VHS, uh, motherfuckin', canister (In a what? Ooh-ooh-ooh)
Nigga, yeah, ayy (Yeah)
I promise you, nigga, this game been so damn good (Said this rap game's been good to me)
Hard times (But I dunno how long that's gon' be, yeah)

[Chorus: Otis & Shug, E-40]
I hope I don't go back to slangin' yayo (Don't wanna go)
Slangin' yayo (Slangin' what?) to get my mail (Oh no)
I hope I don't go back to slangin' yayo (Don't wanna go back)
Slangin' yayo (Slangin' what?) to get my mail (To get it, oh no)

[Verse 1]
Been a hustler since birth, mama sellin' dinners for the church (Church)
Red-handed, caught me stealin' money out her purse
Got branded (Branded), permanent whip scars on my back (Ooh)
'Cause I used to get beat with racing car tracks (Tracks, ooh)

But now me got wealth, holdin' a conference call on my hands free car telephone
Lookin' like I'm talkin' to myself, shootin' the breeze, cuttin' it up real tough-like
Choppin' it up like true businessmen (Man), talkin' about, "By the way
B, what we do this week on SoundScan?"
If I ain't in Japan, I'm in the Valley (Valley, ooh)
Or maybe next door in Gary Payton bowling alley (Ooh)
Or maybe at the shootin' range, me and Banks (Banks)
Or on the golf course (Ooh), with Merton Hanks (Merton Hanks, ooh)
Goin' back in the sun, give me my propers (Propers)
With a beat that's out of this world, lookin' down on doctors (Ahh)
Sippin' on Port, watchin my kids play basketball in the backyard
On a forty by sixty-three foot long sports court (What?), biatch!
[Chorus: Otis & Shug, E-40]
I hope I don't go back to slangin' yayo (Huh?)
Slangin' yayo (Slangin' what?) to get my mail (Ooh)
I hope I don't go back to slangin' yayo (Slangin' what?)
Slangin' yayo (What else?) to get my mail (Biatch!)

[Verse 2]
Built a spot up in the wilderness, coyotes and wild boars, DuPont Registry
Aluminum pool table made strictly for outdoors
Twenty inch chrome slippers, Bravas on my 'Ville, feelin' that everybody ain't able
To be blessed with a successful-ass independent record label (Record label), check it out
Marbles (Marbles), I got the game from my Uncle Saint Charles (Uh, Saint Charles)
Used to bank across the street at Wells Fargos (Wells Fargo's)
But now it's Merrill Lynch (Merrill Lynch)
And just think, I used to sit the bench (Bi-biatch!)
I remember gettin' chased by the cops
Had to get my stomach pumped, swallowed a quarter ounce of rocks (Rocks)
Late afternoon (Uh), po-po waitin' for me outside of Vallejo Kaiser Permanente emergency room with Glocks
Ready to Rodney King me to death (Uh)
Somehow I managed to make my escape through the back of the cafeteria by the vending machine department quickly
Found myself runnin' through the Friendship Apartment Complex
Over there by the railroad tracks, around the corner from the People's Continuation High School
Somewhere off in Lofas, behind Jenai's Liquor, ooh (Biatch!)

[Chorus: Otis & Shug, E-40]
I hope I don't go back to slangin' yayo (Check it out, check it out, check it out, ooh)
Slangin' yayo (Check it out, check it) to get my mail (Check it out)
I hope I don't go back to slangin' yayo (I don't want to)
Slangin' yayo (Slang yayo) to get my mail (To get my mail, check it out)
[Chorus: Otis & Shug, E-40]
I hope I don't go back to slangin' yayo (I ain't bullshittin')
Slangin' yayo to get my mail (I ain't bullshittin', nigga)

[Outro: Otis & Shug, E-40]
It's too many jealous brothas in this game
I can't stand to see it, yeah, I gotta get mine, yeah
I hope I don't go back to slangin' yayo (Get my money on)
Slangin' yayo (Ohh-ohh) to get my mail Oh, get my money on
Hey, yeah, don't wanna go
Don't wanna go (Don't wanna go)
Don't wanna go back, back to the game (To get your mail)
Hey, yeah (Biatch!)

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About

Genius Annotation

That track was brought to me by Ant Banks. Otis and Shug—two great singers [who are brothers] from out of the Bay Area—they got on the record and killed the hook. [The beat] was a playover from Ramsey Lewis and Earth, Wind, & Fire.

The concept was whatever you doing now, you like what you doing. But whatever you was doing before, you didn’t really like it. So I’m a soil narrator, I speak for the soil. I broadcast live on Magazine Street telling somebody else’s stories, or pretty much telling mine.

Being the narrator, I’m saying if a motherfucker was selling dope back then, he don’t want to go back to selling no damn yayo cause now he’s rapping, or he’s an athlete, or now he’s doing this or that. Like, he’s made a better life for himself. If a motherfucker work at the oil refinery, he don’t want to have to go back to working at the oil refinery. That’s why I named it ‘Hope I Don’t Go Back’.

“E-40 Breaks Down His 25 Most Essential Songs”, Complex

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Credits
Produced By
Written By
Additional Vocals
Mixing Engineer
Recording Engineer
Mastering Engineer
Recorded At
The Orange Room
Release Date
August 11, 1998
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