Butterfly Effect

If I had a time machine that was built with a flux capacitor
I would go back to the rappers the media massacred
Back to the first time Pac was blasted in Manhattan
I would prove it wasn't Biggie so that beef would never happen
Hop to the present, get the president in my presence
Shake his hand, then send him back to the Great Depression
To hit a bar with FDR for a second
And together they could assess an effective way to address the recession
I stay stressin,' lookin' for work here
Havin' flashbacks of a frat bash from my first year
I wanna talk to little Jeremy the college kid
Take his resume to polish it, and get a scholarship
Have a couple of shots with him after he promises
That he acknowledges the clock on the wall and he knows what time it is
Cause the problem is the single lesson I neglected
Is that minutes turn to seconds faster than you would expect it

But if I could go back, I don't think I'd go back
I wouldn't wanna change things, I would do the same thing
I would just embrace things, I would just embrace things
I would embrace them the way they are
I said, but if I could go back, I don't think I'd go back
I wouldn't wanna change things, I would do the same thing
I would just embrace things, I would just embrace things
I would embrace them the way they are

If I had a time machine that was built with a flux capacitor
I would travel to Africa with a pack of ambassadors
Way before this crazy war erupted in Sudan
So my man Aleer would never have to flee his homeland
Then I'd stop in Germany, hop on Operation Valkyrie
Watchin' Hitler talk to a crowd atop of a balcony
But at the first announcement, I'm sneakin' around the bouncer
With a pouch of cyanide to pour inside his Alka Seltzer
Yo if I could time travel, I'd be goin' right back
To that battle in that parkin' lot where I got sliced at
Convince homeboy to put his knife back
So my left cheek wouldn't permanently have a white slash
And I know that I'm getting older
When the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder
I get reminded of that fateful evening in October
When my girl called me up on the phone and said it was over
If I did it all again, I woulda been a little bolder
There are things I shoulda said and I regret I never told her
So I drink away the pain but I'm afraid of being sober
Cause I know that I'mma wake up all alone and wanna hold her

If I had a time machine that was built with a flux capacitor
I would actually sell it back to its manufacturer
Matter fact, go to the factory where it's packaged
And I'd smash every last flux capacitor to fragments
Cause way before the butterfly effect happened to Ashton
Ray Bradbury practically labeled it black magic
The mathematical path to the aftermath
Rollin' snowballs yesterday and today you trapped in an avalanche
Why does everybody wanna change they stars?
Why don't they embrace them just the way they are?
And just play they cards? Laugh in the face of the demons
Haven't you ever been told that everything happens for a reason?
If his woman didn't leave him, and give him all of that pain
Yo would he have ever written the chorus to "Airplanes"?
He was stranded in the rain, at the verge of going frantic
When that Airplane crash-landed him in the Atlantic...
The butterfly effect…