come up hard

1. Grow up poor. (Urban slang, probably from Southern slang.)

"Trouble Man," by Marvin Gaye
"I come up hard, baby,
But now I`m cool.
I didn` make it, sugah,
Playin' by the rules."

"The Search for Meaning: Americans Talk About What They Believe and Why," by Phillip L. Berman
"Hell, we come up hard . . . We were so damn poor you had to work to feed your stomeach instead of goin' to school."

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