“How It Started,” the prequel to “Get Money, Spend Money,” is a tense confession of desperation, betrayal, and a conscience unraveling under pressure. The song opens with a stark spoken intro: “Before the sirens. Before the lick. Before I taped up Dominick... There were choices. And I made all the wrong ones.” Instantly, the stage is set for a story about reckoning with the decisions that lead to a breaking point.

The first verse drops us into the grind of poverty—eviction notices, hunger, dead-end jobs, and mounting frustration. The protagonist watches others, like Dominick, flaunt unearned wealth, fueling resentment: “Back home, news flash—Dom just hit a score, Flexin’ on the 'Gram with a safe behind his door.” Prayer offers no comfort, so he turns to scheming with friends, crossing the line out of survival, not greed: “It was eat or be eaten, and I ain’t playin’ that game. Tried to stay clean, but the dirt paid quick… This how a good man gets turned to a lunatic.”