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This is the story of Slim & Chance,
Always peacock-ing and runnin’ game
Dubbed the neighborhood know-it-alls
No two stories were ever the same.
Flashing names like badges
Like detectives on a case.
Til the tangled web of lies
They wove gave chase.
Tryna get by on the get by
Mouths runnin’ like Niagara Falls
Even once made front page
Of The Grapevine Times and all.
Folk knew they was bad news
And avoided them like the plague
Nothing good ever turned out
When contact with them was made.
Always struttin’, always fast talkin’
Pointing fingers left & right
They’d throw you under a brakeless bus
Before the day turned to night.
Always fakin’ never takin’
Responsibility for their actions,
Con smilin’ and tryna bribe folk with
Washingtons, not Hamiltons or Jacksons.
Word traveled through the streets
That their time was coming nigh
Laughing it off they said, “Man,
We’re Slim & Chance, y’all must be high!
What Slim & Chance failed to see was
Their payment to the piper was due,
In their fashion they stepped to run
And ran into a wall of blue.
It was Big Moe & his boys
Suited and jeweled from head to toe,
“Well, well, well, look who it is!!
You crooks got somewhere to go?”
I ain’t seen my money or goods
And it’s past time for you to pay,
Make this easy on yourselves now
Or we can do it the hard way.
“T-t-trust us, they stutteringly smiled
Your goods are right over there,
Go ahead, see for yourself,
W-w-we’ll get outta your hair.”
Slim brushed off Big Moe’s lapel
As knuckles started to crack
And with the first dip of the strut
Big Moe’s boys grabbed ‘em back.
They got Slim by his collar
They had Chance by his throat
When one of his boys gave the signal
Big Moe said “take them out on the boat.”
Slim & Chance pleaded for their lives
“You got your goods, why not let us go?”
It’s high time you boys learned a lesson
You never mess with Big Moe!
Slim & Chance weren’t seen for weeks
Until they were fished from the bay
The tag team who once ruled the streets
Slumber under soil blankets this day.
No more struttin’, no more fast talkin’
The neighborhood know-it-alls were dead
The Grapevine Times final page
Pictured a tombstone that said:
Here lies Slim & Chance,
Who ran their life by the streets
Could’ve really had it good
If only the truth they would speak.
The moral of this story is,
Life is a system of checks and balances. Selfishly taking for personal gain and giving back nothing ultimately leads to one’s demise. If all you do is take, eventually you too will be taken….. Out.
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