​​Wicked in the year of the pig, when I came to earth
In the hell of the Vietnam era like an airburst
Blowing up, flowing like the stratospheric jetstream gets mean
Daddy in his blue jeans, mama with a gangster lean
And a fly routine
I got cut, I went nuts, eatin’ cigarette butts and ice cream
Such was my dream
And it came to be that little old me could engage with reality
I had subjectivity
Coupled with a mind that could fast-rhyme into infamy
That was it for me
All I needed was a m-i-c and a beat like a seismic DJ
I'm'a count to three

Bestride the narrow world like Colossus
Boxed out, preposterous, me my boys and us
Coveted like a royal flush was the cold we crushed
Hey, you smoking mother nature, I got you sussed

Riding into town bringing downtown southbound
Listen up, Danny Boy, this is what they call a showdown

I didn't never had a chance to blink before the darkness flooded over me like a India ink
Floating face down in the drink
Thinking when I’m gonna sink like I never was a fink
Never was a caveman stinking like a missing link
Atavistic in the misting pink
And love stinks
And my brain is just static generation, tuned to a dead station
Body is a live wire, but mind is on vacation
Tell me where to stand for my ovation

[Chorus]
I am a rock-hard trooper to the bone
(The Year of the Pig)

The brass said, me and Peter Graff, said would would never last, nevermore set our little asses in the same class
But we lads had a blast while it lasted
Spazzin’ at the other brats we lambasted

The bottom fell out, the ground beneath me shifted
Only two dimes I could rub together was what I grifted
And I still persisted
Couldn't quit. I was young, insane and gifted.
Next stop the Bronx, and I bricked it, whiffed it
Solid, never met a wallet that I couldn’t lift it
And I set sail in the Blue Whale, rollin’ in the tail with my frail
And the Cup brothers hot on my trail
They’re pulling on my suit lapel
Saying, “Why’d you bring along that female?”
Didn’t have nothing but a tale to tell
But I told it well
And the rhymes that I wrote back then had begun to gel
They had me fitted for a padded cell
Walking round in a magic spell, I was a classic swell
I looked fine but inside my mind I was in Seventh Hell
Standing in the rut of a runaway dump truck
And I knew right then I was bucked, outta luck and thunderstruck

The Year of the Pig, it was gone and forgotten now
I would have run but I’d forgotten how
It was somehow altogether rotten now
And my brain said, “Laughing Boy, I got you now”

[Chorus]
I am a rock-hard trooper to the bone
(The Year of the Pig)