Intro - Ruslan

I come from nothing

Immigrant refugee

The foreigners, the lesser me

A soviet, I’m all of it, the government I grew up in couldn’t get the best of me

We left before the fall of it, it’s called communism by the way

So I appreciate this parliament

And by the day we made it to America my parents marriage was hanging on by a

thread, from

Past hurts and infidelities, in the 6 months it took to cross the globe,

their marriage was dead

My dad went out the picture

I got to see my mom struggle on welfare and coming out of abusive relationship

after abusive relationship

See she was a hopeless romantic and couldn’t stand to be alone

Plus a full gamut of other emotional damage done to her so she did her best and

sacrificed to raise me right, and figured it out

Got a job, left her relationship and became an even bigger superhero in my sight

See in my life I didn’t have a ton of advantages

English was not my first language

Skipped a few meals but never famished

We were in poverty but without anguish

And to be honest I didn’t even know we were broke

So we finally moved closer to the 'burbs and some rich kids cracked jokes

'Cuz I was raised mainly around black folk

So I never knew that my speech sounded ghetto

Huh

Needless to say I didn’t fit in

Didn’t know how to read, in freshmen year I finally begin

Pops wasn’t in the picture so I had to pretend like I knew how to be a man

And the work ethic I have came from sports but my mom forced me to get a job at

15 as a last resort so I have to report every penny to her and save for my own

car

'Cuz that’s just something she just couldn’t afford

A C+ student, I’m not stupid but I just wasn’t motivated to do it

Went to college 'cause that’s what you do with

grants and fee were main truancy

They didn’t take attendance but I remained that class, clown, smart aleck

nuisance, I

Say all that to say my life wasn’t perfect but the struggle was worth it

I had to work my tail off in and outside of any class room, I was never that

type of person, but I learned that I could never afford to stop learning

I could never afford to stop working, I’ve made every dumb decision there is to

make

Racked up all kinds of debt

And I wish would’ve knew then I know now

But I don’t have any regret

Under the Southern California sun pretty close to paradise, my

New life after life has finally just begun