[Verse One]

I’m floatin’ down this road.
I’m driftin’ through time. Times long ago,
I think I realized (4)
the shortest truth in life is that life is finite.
Sometimes I think of my mothers eyes
and all her sacrifice. (4)
She told me about her brother. Told me how he died.
Told me about her mother. Told me how she cried (4)
Sounds of gunshots collide in her mind like a metal bucket of frozen tears tappin’
out the syllables for the word homicide (4)
Call me Number Two-Seven plenty of years I count these blessins’.
When I was just One-Seven my notebook would hold confessions.
I wrote and Tupac spoke about a life so wrestles on the brink of death and
tonight my sense of self so breathless.
Call me Number Two-Seven. Plenty of years I count these blessins.
Number Two-Seven same year that claimed Amy Janis, Curt and Hendrix.
Twenty-six years and forty-five weeks ago,
I was an infant hanging on to life because wasn’t no blood
running through my legs and toes (oh no).
My artery was stitched and sowed, re-stitched, I lived I was a miracle.
Que Milagro Paso?
Fate dances like un tiraso.
Seventeen years ago I learn to spit chingasos.
Que hubo vato?
Just a snot nose
speaking slanglish with my big primo, Kegan.
Chillin’ in the sun bakin’
con mi abuela contemplatin’
my Tio Ricky’s death and the man who slayed him.

[Chorus]

I say a prayer to you. I say a prayer for you,
with my abuelita.
Say a prayer for me.
Say a prayer for me,
Cuz you know I need ya.
In this game of life aint nobody ever-ever gets-gets out alive.

Forever twenty-seven, Forever twenty-nine,
Sam Cooke was the shit man I think that dude saved my life.

Forever twenty-three Forever twenty-five
Tupac was the shit man I know that dude saved my life!

[Verse Two]

In 67’ Otis was 26. He just recorded a song about the Frisco Bay.
Ain’t nothin’ colder than a crashed plane on the banks of a snowy lake.
Huey P was twenty-four years of age when the panther party started.
Same age as Christopher Wallace when his soul departed.
Young Biggie just one year older than my Tio Ricky.
When the gunman got shifty and blast my Uncle in the back,
cuz Ricky was about 6’3”,
gunman just a buck fifty.
It’s tragedy when something as small as a bullet
can tear through your whole family.
And my Momma, my Momma, my Momma weep.
She thinks of her brother as forever, forever, forever twenty three.

[Chorus]

I say a prayer to you. I say a prayer to you,
with my abuelita.
Say a prayer for me.
Say a prayer for me,
Cuz you know I need ya.
In this game of life aint nobody ever-ever gets-gets out alive.

Forever twenty-seven, Forever twenty-nine,
I’m bumpin’ Amy Winehouse until I reach the sky.
Forever twenty-three Forever twenty-five
My Momma and Joaquin Phoenix wish their brothers were alive.

[Verse Three]

Aliyah took that flight on August twenty-five.
A day after I turned fifteen. What a young life, she was twenty-two.
Same age I was when I was bumpin’ Amy in my living room.
Feelin’ like my body was a mess I bump those grooves to fit my mood.
I began to write this tune at twenty-seven.
A year later I return just to finish the session.
By the time this cross your mind I’ll probably be twenty-nine.
If I’m blessed with another year of my life.
Maybe it’s the last thing that I write.
Maybe I’m throwin’ up peace sign to you from the after life.
While you vibe to this in 2099.
Picture me wavin’ at you, wavin’ at you, wavin’ at you like, “Hi.”