Land Of Promise lyrics - Nas (feat. Dennis Brown) (with Damian Marley)

[Damian Marley]
Imagine Ghana like California with Sunset Boulevard
Johannesburg would be Miami
Somalia like New York
With the most pretty light
The nuffest pretty car
Ever New Year the African Times Square lock-off
Imagine Lagos like Las Vegas
The Ballers dem a Ball
Angola like Atlanta
A pure plane take off
Bush Gardens inna Mali
Chicago inna Chad
Magic Kingdom inna Egypt
Philadelphia like Sudan
The Congo like Colorado
Fort Knox inna Gabon
People living in Morocco like the state of Oregon
Algeria warmer than Arizona bring your sun lotion
Early morning class of Yoga on the beach in Senegal
Ethiopia the capitol of fi di Congression
A deh so I belong
A deh di The King come from
I can see us all in limos
Jaguars and B'mos

[Dennis Brown]
Riding on the King's Highway

[Nas]
Promised Land I picture Porsches
Basquiat Portraits
Pinky Rings realistic princesses
Heiresses bunch a Kings and Queens
Plus I picture fortunes for kids out in Port-Au-Prince
Powerless they not allowed to fit
But not about to slip
Vision Promised Land with fashion like
Madison Ave Manhattan
Saks 5th Ave and
Rodeo
Relaxing popping labels
Promise Land no fables
This where the truth's told
Use them two holes
Above your nose
To see the proof yo!
Imagine a contraption that could take us back when
The world was run by black men
Back to the future
Anything can happen
If these are the last days
And 100-food waves come crashing down
I get some hash and pounds
Pass around the bud then watch the flood
Can't stop apocalypse
My synopsis is catastrophic
If satellites is causing earthquakes
Will we survive it
Honestly man it's the sign of the times
And the times at hand

[Dennis Brown]
There's alot of work to be done, O gosh
In the Promised Land





In His Own Words lyrics - Nas (with Damian Marley)

[Chorus - Jr. Gong]
Jah told you in his own words
And I’ll see you through
To guide you through this cold world
And I’ll see you through

Jah told you in his own words
And I’ll see you through
To guide you through this cold world
And I’ll see you through

[Verse 1 - Nas]
Two steps away from death, a vest and a holster
I detest detectives arresting us over
Weapons possession, they was checking the Rover
Inspecting the tattoos on my neck and my shoulder
How many times I’m one of six coffin-holders
Or sitting with goons in a visiting room
Flip it, I could’ve been you
Behind state walls bidding
These are the things that a G pray for, acquit us
A little stash in the safe or a little shorty to wait for
Or a shorty to take the weight for him
What really did I escape from?
Thought I saw God’s face on the design on my vintage Claiborne
Swear I see em every day in the bus or the train
Or the billboards out there that hang tall
I still give thanks for him, have faith for him
No matter what his name’s called

[Chorus - Jr. Gong]

[Verse 2 - Jr. Gong]
Hey can you think of a colour that you’ve never seen?
Can you reminisce on places you’ve never been?
Well is many are called
But them never deemed
Worthy for the cause
Cause them never clean
Help who help themselves
Jah nuh raffle dream
That’s why me chummy with Jah Jah
Like a Cherubim
Keep us strong through the winter like an Evergreen
And all of us are more connected than it ever seems
All things are related and creation is a package
Generate together and we increase the wattage
A how them a go manage?
Tell Babylon them can’t do Rasta damage
Nor stop we through the passage
Jah did make a promise, God is always honest
Always keep his word, don’t care what the plan is
Don’t be astonished
Stumbling bocks vanish
One day the meek gonna live inna di palace, Woah!

[Chorus - Jr. Gong]

[Verse 3 - Nas]
Some people ask me if I feel the zionists are real
And in my songs do I plan to expose and reveal
Word to the curb that’s under these chrome wheels
My homies is only ones I’m taking care of
But severe reality starts to become more clear
And these know-it-all rappers have become more weird
As if they were superior and fans are inferior
How I balance between the streets and the theories of
Collegiate literature, I hold mirrors up
Give combinations of pain, joy, fear, and love
Through my perspective I can see Jah reflection
In the highest definition getting high with my brethren
Could’ve asked us why Africans dying from circumcision
They lack proper surgeons, suffer malnutrition
Underestimate the wealth of their own wisdom
It’s like it’s been exchanged for this penicillin

[Chorus - Jr. Gong]


Nah Mean lyrics - Nas (with Damian Marley)

[Intro]
Tougher than concrete
Eh bwoy
Go labbajuice
Watch ya
Check it!
Boom

[Verse 1 - Jr. Gong]
You Nah Mean
Mi dip out a whole fourteen
Nah Mean
And reload man extra magazine
Nah Mean
A wounded them housing scheme
Nah Mean
Nuff a dem a move sideways and lean
Nah Mean
Cant come bout when man deh in
Nah Mean
We nuh like dem colonial regime
Nah Mean
Ethiopian nuh like Mussoline
Nah Mean
Mi Queen hafi rock and come in
Nah Mean
And jump pon mi big trampoline
Nah Mean
And boost up her self-esteem
Nah Mean
Nuff a wonder how man kitchen so clean
Nah Mean
And which recipe dat a steam
Nah Mean
The lyrics dem a flow like a stream
Nah Mean
Mek you feel like you living in a dream
Nah Mean
It come to the crop man a cream
Nah Mean
It come to discipline man a Dean
Nah Mean
Mi tougher than a Hummer limousine
Nah Mean
We stepping we fresh and we clean
Nah Mean
I burn the stinkest of green
Nah Mean
Better listen up careful and keen
Nah Mean
A Puppa Nas a rock and come in
Nah Mean

[Verse 2 - Nas]
We celebrate like I finished probation
Boy Boy
Notty Head with no chaser
Boy Boy
From the mouth I can spit out a razor
Boy Boy
Open up your facial like your boy Roy
In his prime
Eat food
Dinnertime
Jr. Gong pass the Guinness
Handle business
Black Velvet sippers
Females never bid us farewell
They with us
Cause we arrive on the scene
Just like a high beam
Nah Mean
Dont let us have to make the 9 scream
Nah Mean
At your racial
Policing Regime
Nah Mean
Spiritual like a Elohim
Nah Mean
In a casino or a yacht
Wherever Im seen
My brothers and sisters are never forgot
Nah Mean
Dont wanna hear another soldier drop
Nah Mean
Another dope addict get shot with the morphine
And Feds are indicting my block
Nah Mean
Theyre wearing Red from they shoes to they top
Nah Mean
Im wishing that all the violence would stop
Nah Mean

[Verse 3 - Jr Gong]
We nuh like the sound of siren
Nah Mean
And some bwoy soft like ice cream
Nah Mean
From a bwoy mek the Feds intervene
Nah Mean
We send a bwoy go tek intravene
Nah Mean
Parabellum dem a itch up inna spleen
Nah Mean
Inna Queens
Gunman reign Supreme
Nah Mean
Kingstonians are real blood fiends
Nah Mean
The world is a big crime scene
Nah Mean

[Chorus / Bridge]
Yo Yo Mr. President
What you doing for my residence?
Yo Mr. Minister
Why you being sinister?
Yo Yo Mr. President
What you doing for my residence?
Yo Mr. Minister
Why you being sinister?

[Verse 4 - Jr Gong]
Se Man a di real Buffalo inna Rastafari Regime
Bush Bungalow is where mi dwell with mi Queen
Trash to the bone down inna camouflage green
Nuff a dem that cant go the places we been
Nuff a dem that cant see the sights whe we seen
Thats why them face all a twist up and a lean
Nah Mean
Dem better mine we kick it off clean
Nah Mean
Man a Gangster just like Gambine
Dat Mean
Dem cant serve Congo Dread court supine
Nah Mean
A who you want come in convene
Nah Mean
Attorney have to rock and come in
Nah Mean
Mi pocket dem green like spurlene
Nah Mean
Mi regular fly out and fly in
Nah Mean
The stadium pack like sardine
Nah Mean
Cant catch mi speed a fassy hole need caffeine
Nah Mean
Run out a breath and antihistamine
Nah Mean
Wash over gold dem come in like Listerine
Nah Mean
You think a lie we badder than Al Pacine
Nah Mean

[Verse 5 - Nas]
Its Genocide
Its a Genocide
Its a Genocide
Its Genocide
5th Floor cooking raw
Had my own supply
Cause of capitalist ways
That was back in the days
So now I do rap and it pays


Patience lyrics - Nas (with Damian Marley)

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kiye
Ni kêra môgô
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kagni
Ni kêra môgô

Some of the smartest dummies
Can't read the language of Egyptian mummies
An' a flag on a moon
And can't find food for the starving tummies
Pay no mind to the youths
Cause it's not like the future depends on it
But save the animals in the zoo
Cause the chimpanzee dem a make big money
This is how the media pillages
On the TV the picture is
Savages in villages
And the scientist still can't explain the pyramids, huh
Evangelists making a living on the videos of ribs of the little kids
Stereotyping the image of the images
And this is what the image is
You buy a khaki pants
And all of a sudden you say a Indiana Jones
An' a thief out gold and thief out the scrolls and even the buried bones
Some of the worst paparazzis I've ever seen and I ever known
Put the worst on display so the world can see
And that's all they will ever show
So the ones in the West
Will never move East
And feel like they could be at home
Dem get tricked by the beast
But a where dem ago flee when the monster is fully grown?
Solomonic linage whe dem still can't defeat and them coulda never clone
My spiritual DNA that print in my soul and I will forever Own Lord

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kiye
Ni kêra môgô
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kagni
Ni kêra môgô

Huh, we born not knowing, are we born knowing all?
We growing wiser, are we just growing tall?
Can you read thoughts? can you read palms?
Huh, can you predict the future? can you see storms, coming?
The Earth was flat if you went too far you would fall off
Now the Earth is round
If the shape change again everybody woulda start laugh
The average man can't prove of most of the things
That he chooses to speak of
And still won't research and find out
The root of the truth that you seek of
Scholars teach in Universities and claim that they're smart and cunning
Tell them find a cure when we sneeze
And that's when their nose start running
And the rich get stitched up, when we get cut
Man a heal dem broken bones in the bush with the wet mud
Can you read signs? can you read stars?
Can you make peace? can you fight war?
Can you milk cows, even though you drive cars? huh
Can you survive? Against all odds, now?

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kiye
Ni kêra môgô
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kagni
Ni kêra môgô

Who wrote the Bible? Who wrote the Qur'an?
And was it a lightning storm
That gave birth to the Earth
And then dinosaurs were born? damn
Who made up words? Who made up numbers?
And what kind of spell is mankind under?
Everything on the planet we preserve and can it
Microwaved it and try it
No matter what we'll survive it
What's hue? What's man? What's human?
Anything along the land we consuming
Eatin', deletin', ruin
Trying to get paper
Gotta have land, gotta have acres
So I can sit back like Jack Nicholson
Watch niggas play the game like the Lakers
In a world full of 52 fakers
Gypsies, seances, mystical prayers
You superstitious? throw salt over your shoulders
Make a wish for the day cuz
Like somebody got a doll of me
Stickin' needles in my arteries
But I can't feel it
Sometimes it's like 'part of me, but I got a real big spirit'
I'm fearless.... I'm fearless
Don't you try and grab hold of my soul
It's like a military soldier since seven years old
I held real dead bodies in my arms
Felt their body turn cold, oh
Why we born in the first place
If this is how we gotta go?
Damn


My Generation lyrics - Nas (with Damian Marley) (feat. Joss Stone, Lil Wayne)

[Chorus - Joss Stone & Choir]
My generation will make a change
This generation will make a change
(Yes we will)
My generation will make a change
This generation will make a change
(Do You hear me now)
My generation will make a change
This generation will make a change
(we bout to make a change)

[Damian Marley - Verse 1]
Now mi love fi see the schoolas dem a graduate
A study hard and save the party for the holidays
Diplomatic with dem Diploma
And them bound fi great
Because dem nah pick up no matic and a perpetrate
And then I love the energies whe dem a generate
My Generation it so special it will make a change
Because the elders sew the seed and it a germinate
So anytime dem see the progress dem a celebrate
Because we rising up despite of the economy
And then a we a star the show like the astronomy
And how we keep on breaking through is an anomaly
Because we keep remaining true without apology
The mission ha to carry through and finish properly
Say Gambia to Guadeloupe Paris to Napoli
Say Zambia to Honolulu back to Tripoli
And everybody want a future living happily

[Chorus - Joss Stone & singers]

[Nas - Verse 2]
Can you blame my generation, subjected gentrification,
Depicting their frustrations over ill instrumentation
Cause music is the way to convey to you what I'm facing,
Placing my life in front of your eyes for your observation
Now if you can't relate then maybe you are too complacent,
Athletes today are scared to make Muhammad Ali statements
Whats up with your motto?
Will you lead? Will you follow?
Improve your values
Education is real power
I reach em like Bono
So get rid of your self sorrow
Add some bravado
Get wealthy likes Wells Fargo
Its truth, that I am you
And I am proof
Surviving through
We do what we gotta do
Yo we could break the cycle let nobody lie to you
Then maybe put our sons and our daughters in private school
Cause there's a mission we gotta finish before we leave
This generation is destined to do historic deeds.

[Chorus - Joss Stone & singers]

[Verse 2 - Lil wayne]
uhh if you weather that storm
Then that rain bring sun
Been a long time comin
I know change gone come
Man I gotta keep it movin to the beat of my drum
Last night I set the future at the feet of my son
But they thinkin that my generation gotta die young
If we all come together then they cant divide one
Don't worry bout it just be about it
Got a message from god heaven too crowded
But I say hey young world you've never looked betta
And I heard change started with man in the mirror ughh
This generation
I'mma represent
A generation led by a black president
Now hows that for change
Who knew that could change
I don't even look at the flag the same hey ughhh
So when you finish readin revelations
Thank god for my generation

[Chorus - Joss Stone & singers]

Africa Must Wake Up lyrics - Nas (feat. K'naan) (with Damian Marley)

[Jr. Gong:]
Morning to you man
Morning to you love
Hey, I say I say

[Damian Marley x2:]
Africa must wake up, the sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring, may a better day come
Yesterday we were kings, can you tell me young ones
Who are we today? yeah, now

[Nas and Damian Marley:]
The black oasis, Ancient Africa the sacred
Awaking, the sleeping giant, science, art is your creation
I dreamed that we could visit old Kemet
Your history is too complex and rigid for some Western critics
They want the whole subject diminished
But Africa's the origin of all the world's religions
We praise bridges that carried us over
The battle fronts of Sudanic soldiers
The task put before us, do you hear me now?

[Damian Marley:]
Africa must wake up, the sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring, may a better day come
Yesterday we were kings, can you tell me young ones
Who are we today? yeah, now
Africa must wake up, the sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring, may a better day come
Yesterday we were kings, can you tell me young ones
Who are we today?

[Nas:]
Who are we today? The slums, diseases, AIDS
We need that all to fade, we cannot be afraid
So who are we today?
We are the morning after, the makeshift youth
The slave ship captured, our diaspora is the final chapter
The ancestral lineage built pyramids
America's first immigrants
The kings, sons and daughters from Nile waters
The first architect, the first philosophers
Astronomers, the first prophets and the doctors were us, us

[Damian Marley:]
Now can we all pray?
Each in his own way
Teaching and learning
We can work it out
We'll have a warm bed
We'll have some warm bread
Shelter from the storm dread
And we can work it out
Mother nature feeds all
In famine and drought
Tell those selfish in ways, not to share us out
What's a tree without root?
Lion without tooth?
A lie without truth?
You hear me out!

[Damian Marley:]
Africa must wake up, the sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring, may a better day come
Yesterday we were kings, can you tell me young ones
Who are we today? yeah, Lord
Africa must wake up the sleeping sons of Jacob
What tomorrow may bring. may some more love come
Yesterday we were kings, I tell ya young bloods
The world is yours today...

[K'naan x2:]
Dadyahow daali waayey, nabada diideen
Oo ninkii doortay dinta, waadinka dillee
Oo dal markii ladhiso, waadinka dunshee
Oo daacad ninkii damcay, waadinka dooxee
[Translation]
Oh ye people restless in the refusal of peace
And when a man chooses religion, aren't you the ones to kill him?
And when a country is built, aren't you the one's to tear it down?
And when one attempts to tell the truth, aren't you the one's to cut him down?

[Instrumental break]

[Nas:]
We want to thank y'all, everybody out there
This is Nas, Damian Marley
Distant Relatives
We're all distant relatives, no matter where you from, where you live
How near or far
Africa, China, Japan, Afghanistan, Israel
We're all fam, we're all distant relatives
So that's why we came together - one of the reasons
Why myself and Damian came together
Cause we all come from one place, and that's Africa
That's right, you too. And you
The whole world!
We're all family, we're just spread out all over the place
So to all my distant relatives, let's take it back home!

[Damian Marley:]
I say! Africa must wake up, the sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring, may a better day come
Yesterday we were kings, can you tell me young ones
Who are we today? yeah, now
Africa must wake up, the sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring, may a better day come
Yesterday we were kings, can you tell me young ones
Who are we today? Who are we today?

[Damian Marley:]
Morning to ya! Morning to ya man!
Morning to ya love!


Ancient People lyrics - Nas (with Damian Marley) (feat. Junior Reid)

These ancient thoughts
This ancient look
These ancient hearts
This ancient soul
These ancient songs
These ancient people

These ancient thoughts
This ancient look
These ancient hearts
This ancient soul
These ancient hopes
These ancient people

Like a bird, in the sky
And the sea, and the birds
And the trees, and the sun
Melody

Like a mountain, like a valley
Like the river, like the lake
Like the earth, when it quake
Space and sea

This is rock and roll meets aristotle
I fly those g5's through the skies to cabbo
Martial arts more ancient than tabbo
Schwartzman, more ancient than zorro
Ancient like the pharohs or priests of yoruba
Maher rabah-nasr is the best
Them paths like climbing mount kiliminjaro
Ancient men traded cattle
Before columbus was lost in travel, ancient canoes got paddeled
Before the horse saddle there was camel
Spears before arrow, arrow before ammo
Tribal paint before camoflage
Chief before sarge, our lieutenant
Village elders before senates
Used to sail the seas before the compass was invented
Ancient people spoke free, they didn't need a 1st amendment
In the beginning, the drum was the tech cendent
There was moons before months, and time before minutes

These ancient thoughts
This ancient look
These ancient hearts
This ancient soul
These ancient songs
These ancient people

These ancient thoughts
This ancient look
These ancient hearts
This ancient soul
These ancient hopes
These ancient people

[Damian Marley:]
From love, onto language, onto heiroglyphist
De Invention of the wheel, onto mathematics
De almanac, de calender, onto geographics
Herbal medicine, to anti-biotic Ginseng to acetonic
Water pump, water pump, to onto hydrolics
Moonlight, candle light, onto electronics
Instinct to knowledge, classroom to college
Eyyy, all of These ancient thoughts

These ancient thoughts
This ancient look
These ancient hearts
This ancient soul
These ancient songs
These ancient people

These ancient thoughts
This ancient look
These ancient hearts
This ancient soul
These ancient hopes
These ancient people

Junior Reid:
Man ah Buss de earth, man ah Buss de sky
Junior Gong, and Junior Reid we meditation it so high
Man ah trod de gravel, it dutty and it dry
Oh oi, dem nuh see nuh wings, but man ah fly
Babylon fi splurt, dem nuh know what life is worth
Oh Oi, tell dem stop polluting mother earth
Man ah mek ah trot, me robe, me sandles and me rod
Dem shouldve known, hear seh man this man ah God

Ancient thoughts
Ancient look
Ancient hearts
Ancient soul
Ancient songs
Ancient people

Ancient thoughts
Ancient look
Ancient hearts
Ancient soul
Ancient songs
Ancient people



album: "Untitled" (2008)

Queens Get The Money lyrics - Nas

Eh yo
Queens get the money
Niggas still screaming
Paper chasing
Where presidential candidates is planning wars with other nations
Over steak with Masons
Pregnant teens give birth to intelligent gangsters
Their daddy's faceless
Play this, by your stomach
Let my words massage it and rub it
I'll be his daddy if there's nobody there to love it
Tell him his name's Nasir
Tell him how he got here
Mama was just having fun with someone above her years
Niggas is still hating
Talking that Nas done fell off with rhyming
He'd rather floss with diamonds
They pray "please God let him spit that Uzi in the army linen
That shorty doo-wop rolling oo-wop in the park reclining"
Take 27 emcee's put them in a line and they're out of alignment
my assignment since he said retirement
hiding behind 8 Mile and The Chronic
Gets rich but dies rhyming
This is hot science
Now add 23 more from Queens to B-more
I've over their heads
Like a bulimic on a seesaw
Now that's 50 porch monkeys ate up at the same time
Nasty Nasdaq
Y'all going to bow holmes, it's Dow Jones
.80 cal chrome
Needed time alone to zone
The mack left his iPhone and his 9 at home
My queen used the milkshake to bring y'all to my slaughter houses
I do this for the group home kids in boarding houses
This is that nigga shit that's on the album
For the niggas inside the chalk line in 40 houses
Bring back Arsenio
Hip-hop was aborted
So Nas breathes life, back into the embryo
Let us make man in our image
Spit it, I'm Huey P in Louis V throwing Molotov for Emmit
You aint as hot as I is
All of these fake prophets are not messiahs
You don't know how high the sky is
The square milage of Earth, or what pi is
I'm the shaky hand that touched Geogre Foreman in Zaire
The same hand that punched down devils that brought down the towers

You Can't Stop Us Now lyrics - Nas (feat. Eban Thomas of The Stylistics & The Last Poets)

[Nas]
From Willie Lynch to Willie Hutch, right on, we (Superfly)
Made Gucci the shit - Louie too, suits and ties
Player trophies, pray to Goldie
Picture wax museums full of Black Panth's and triple OGs'
Aunt Jemina hoes, historic horse shit
Girls from long time ago, stagecoach with the horse, kid
Witchdoctors, good ol' pickpockets
Sip Moonshine, so-called coons, shines, and darkies
I love y'all; pyramids to cotton fields
to Wrigley Fields, forgetten men who DID get killed
Crispus Attucks, the first blasted
Peace to the rich lady, purse snatcher shot in the back
I know your hunger kid, I know they hung your dad
Burnt ya mama crib, I know that hurt you bad
Minstrel shows; from gold to shackles and back to gold
We act like we home, matter of fact - we are home
Bad attitudes, octoroon skin tones
Slave food turned to soul food, collards to neck bones
Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag
Bet she had a nigga with her to help her old ass!

[Eban Thomas]
As James Baldwin says,"You can only be destroyed
by believing that you really are
what the white world considers - a nigger" [echoes]

[Chorus: sung w/ ad-libs]
No matter how, hard you try, you can't stop, us nooooow...
No matter how, hard you try, you can't stop, us nooooow...

[Nas]
Can't be stopped..
Yo, on Dateline, the other night they showed hate crimes
Gave a blood time 'cause he fought with his canine
Bestiality, Humane Society
Go to China, see how they dine, see what they eat
Better yet ask PETA, whoever; which animal makes suede?
If not for suede, would you have survived the Dark Ages?
Cannibal ways of the ancient Caucasians
Stare you like you're steak tartar, pinot noir
David Star on the chain of Sammy Davis
He helped pave the way for Southern Crankers and them Harlem Shakers
Now we gettin our papers, they try to censor the words
and stop our money comin, but you can't escape us - haters

[Chorus]


Breathe lyrics - Nas

[Chorus]
In America you'll never be free
Middle fingers up, fuck the police
Damn, can't a nigga just breathe?

Braveheart, still QB's Finest
Grinding, enough diamonds to change the climate
Not only do you see a nigga shining, you can see a nigga breathe

Jewels enchanted like they was new from Atlantis
Cruise with the hammer, jealous heart, they can't stand him
Haters are scandalous, damn, can't a nigga just breathe?

To all my niggas getting money in the streets
Middle fingers up, fuck the police
Light up my trees, and I just breathe

[Verse 1]
I twist 'em, baby mama beef victim
Chronic leaf hittin', all kinds of heat with him, wisdom
From pot to piss in to high position
Intense hustle, it's pain like a pinched muscle
'Til it rains and my Timbs stain my socks
'Til I dodge enough shots, and the presiding judge slams a mallet
And says life I'ma guap, then I cop
Then I yacht, Then I dock
Island hopping away from nightmare holders
Or cowboy slingers who shoot up any club
That see they names ring loud on some FBI poster
Must be on Ex or he coked up, suggesting I post a
Bail, I'm like yes, 'cause we soldiers
We just getting older, in time, we still in our prime
I can't afford a new arrest on my folder
Nigga breathe

[Chorus]

[Verse 2]
I'm fresh out of city housing, and have too many options
Pennies on a pension or penitentiary bounded
Plenty henna in me, envy was simply they trend, see
My enemy was every hater that was bigger than me
The high life, the fly life
Pierre Hardy, imitation of Christ
Ice-wear gaudy, since '94 flossy
The Lex was an excellent choice, now fast forward me
The pestilence of the ghetto informed me
As a shorty, to push nothin' less than a 740
With fresh linens, sip Pellegrinos with Airs on
They sick, mixing they water with airborne

[Outro]
Oh, they so sick!
Look how I got 'em going crazy, look at that!
You gotta let it out, stress...ain't good man
You gotta breathe

Breathe...
America, we gotta be free

Breathe... [x4]



Make The World Go Round lyrics - Nas

Lace the nations don't have it
A hatred addict
I need faces mad with frowns
When I'm around
Or I'm wasting the fabric
I don't feel greater
To my plush pieces
'Cause you to suck your teeth
So mean-mugging on my clean-thugging
Mean nothing
Women dream I'm your husband
I'm Alex Pushkin
The black poetry-writing Russian
Ice disgusting
I started bling
How could you question my direction
Or my time for collection
Gangstas two-steppin'
You hate me
Should thank me
But lately I burned so much trees
I keep environmentalists angry
I'm a rare dude, I'm a wonder
Your best success is my worst blunder
Y'all living trendy on pennies
I cop plenty Fendi
Vivienne Westwood, I'm good
Get the whole Trump Tower top floor for the hood
Dre & Cool, we riding heavy
NY to Miami 'Cause . . .
(We make the world go round)
Now let's toast to the hustlers
(We make the world go round)
Tell the hustlers, toast to the gangstas.
(We make the world go round)
Tell the gangstas, toast to the ballers
(We make the world go round)
And tell the ballers pour glass for all us.
(We make the world go round)
I see THE haters on the floor jockin my swag
I'm popping Ralph Lauren tags
I'm pouring champagne inside a polo glass
Model b'tches rollin grass
Escabon folding cash
toasting wit my entourage
went for Robin Armitage to all my stars
red carpet to the Larmitage
We throwin red dice at the Mirage
I pull that red Lamborghini
or twenties out my garage
instead of shopping South Beach like Khaled and Terror Squad
We the Best! big pippin
Top down chrome spinnin
Top Gun Tom Cruise
Tucked inside my Gucci linen
No Jess Romo you tryin' a shine
up on with the nine
on your jersey for promo
Jessica Simpson that's so-so
Nick want his baby back but thats lo so.
Devil white
5-0 they catch me at the pro bowl on the field diamonds
choking the jockey on my polo
CB let em know though
(We make the world go round)
Tell the hustlers, toast to the gangstas.
(We make the world go round)
Tell the gangstas, toast to the ballers
(We make the world go round)
And tell the ballers pour glass for all us.
(We make the world go round)
We make the world go round From my town to your town
We on top no stopping us now
We got patron to ballers two steppin
Ladies on the float and all in two steppin
From Malay to Harlem two stepping [echo]
So I' stop cause we made it where the ladies are
We start with Bellini's and end with Patron shots
H. Lorenzo belt buckle from Chrome Heart
A-life tag popper
It'd be sad not to walk out the store with bags
Worth a 100 cash, shopping
Balance only would hafta
Hafta to swell you up
before a pea snaps as you wet a vanilla dutch
Mets cap, that's Queens, I'm a vet
Bet that, 300 carats the average up on the neck, black
Paid the cost, be the boss, Black Caesar floss
Weekends at the Venetian, pull up in that black Porsche
Top down, new fashion
Seeing me is like seeing through the lens of Helmut Newton's camera
Light flashing, and I'm laughin'
My plaque's from album sales
Y'all is ringtone platinum
But .99 cents adds up
I don't hate 'em, I congratulate 'em
The new young Prince with young Mike Jackson on the same track, what!
Now let's toast to the hustlers
(We make the world go round)
Tell the hustlers, toast to the gangstas.
(We make the world go round)
Tell them gangstas, toast to the ballers
(We make the world go round)
And tell the ballers pour glass for all us.
(We make the world go round)


Hero lyrics - Nas (feat. Keri Hilson)

[Chorus - Nas & Keri Hilson]
Chain gleaming
Switching lanes
Two-seating
Hate him or love him
For the same reason
Can't leave it
The games needs him
Plus the people need someone to believe in
So in God's Son we trust
'Cause they know I'm gonna give 'em what they want
They looking for... a hero
I guess that makes me... a hero

[Verse 1]
Another chapter of the cleanest rapper
Distinguished gentlemen
Crooks and castle on his back
Maybach-er, exotic lady eye-catcher
Holla at'cha, call me the chiropractor
Working like Muay Thai class
Get perspire out ya
And of course I've been the boss since back when
Rocking D Boy, Fila, velour in 190 black Benz
Now they shut down the stores when I'm shopping
Used to be train robbing, face covered in stocking
I'm him

[Chorus - Nas & Keri Hilson]

[Verse 2]
Rubber-grip-holder, reloader
Come at me I'ma rip your soliders in half
Silverback ape, nickle-plated mag
Young, rich, and flashy
Young, b! tch, I'm nasty
All black clothes til ice lay on me so classy
And every time I close my lids
I can still see the borough, I can still see the Bridge
I can still see the dreams that my niqqas ain't never lived to see
Tell them angels open the door for me
From nine berettas and moving raw
To chilling in wine cellars
Sticks and humidors
That's what I call mature
That's what I call a g
That's what I call a pimp
That's what I call a gangsta
To the fullest, sh! t
I try to make more cream
By every September 14th, that's my dream
So I can be more clean, as I grow yearly
I can see things more clearly
That's why they fear me

[Chorus - Nas & Keri Hilson]

[Verse 3]
This universal apartheid
I'm hog-tied, the corporate side
Blocking y'all from going to stores and buying it
First L.A. and Doug Morris was riding wit it
But Newsweek article startled big wigs
They said, Nas, why is he trying it?
My lawyers only see the Billboard charts as winning
Forgetting - Nas the only true rebel since the beginning
Still in musical prison, in jail for the flow
Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel
They can't sing what's in their soul
So untitled it is
I never change nothin'
But people remember this
If Nas can't say it, think about these talented kids
With new ideas being told what they can and can't spit
I can't sit and watch it
So, sh! t, I'ma drop it
Like it or not
You ain't gotta cop it
I'm a hustler in the studio
Cups of Don Julio
No matter what the CD called
I'm unbeatable, y'all


America Nas

[Intro (Nas talking)]
Yo, it's like waking up from a bad dream (Americaaa)
just to figure out you wasn't dreaming in the first place (Nooo...)

[Verse 1]
If all I saw was gangsters
Coming up as a youngster
Pussy and money the only language I clung to
Claim to, unrolled myself up to become one
Ain't ya happy I chose rap? I'm amongst the
Streets deceiving
Can't believe my achievements
Cultural strata
Persona's that of a non-needer
Because I don't need nada except for Prada beaver
For cold winters, tattoos got my summer's sleeveless
To my G's on the flee from the coppers (coppers)
Stiff bodies on freeze in funeral parlors (parlors)
From the slums I come up a phoenix
Caked up, tryin' to take what I'm eating
Came up a dismissive kid (kid)
You lucky if you allowed to witness this
Savvy mouth
While hardly a man's man
Who woulda knew the beach houses and wild parties
Jezebel's and Stella McCartney's?
For years, all that
How could I not be dead?
This old German
Said I was a thug with a knotty head
Looked at my Benz and called that a Nazi sled
With a face like he wonder where I got my bread
Probably all these stones he see
From my shows overseas
From crime to rhyme
My story is I'm from the home of the thieves

[Chorus 1]
America (America), pay attention
Wake up (America)
This is not what you think it is
America (America), pay attention
Wake up (America)
This is not what you think it is

[Verse 2:]
Blessed
The lord is a G, he gotta be
Who's the God of suckers and snitches?
The economy
Lipstick from Marilyn Monroe
Blew a death kiss to Fidel Castro
He'd want me to spit this
Only the strong survive
Nas bear witness
The hypocrisy is all I can see
White cop acquitted for murder
Black cop cop a plea
That type of shit make me stop and think
We in chronic need of a second look of the law books
And the whole race dichotomy
Too many rappers, athletes, and actors
But not enough niggas in NASA
Who give you the latest dances, trends, and fashion?
But when it comes to residuals, they look past us
Woven into the fabric, they can't stand us
Even in white tee's, blue jeans, and red bandannas

[Chorus 2]
America (America) pay attention
Wake up (America)
This is not what you think it is
America (America)
Pay attention (America)
This is not what you think it is
America (America)
(This is not what you think it is)

[Verse 3:]
Assassinations
Diplomatic relations
Killed indigenous people
Built a new nation
Involuntary labor
Took a knife split a woman naval
Took her premature baby
Let her man see you rape her
If I could travel to the 1700's
I'd push a wheelbarrow full of dynamite
Through your covenant
Love to sit in on the Senate
And tell the whole government
Y'all don't treat women fair
She read about herself in the bible
Believing she the reason sin is here
You played her, with an apron
Like, "Bring me my dinner, dear."
She the nigger here
Ain't we in the free world?
Death penalty in Texas kill young boys and girls
Barbarity, I'm in the double-R casualty
Bugging how I made it out the hood, dazzle me
How far we really from third world savagery
When the empire fall, imagine how crazy that'll be

[Chorus 3]
America (America, America)
America (America)
(This is not what you think it is)
America (America ohhh)
This is not what you think it is
America


Sly Fox lyrics - Nas

[Audio sample]

[Nas]
It's sly Fox, cyclops
We locked in an idiot box
The video slots broadcasting Waco Dividian plots
They own YouTube, MySpace
When this ignorant shit going to stop?
They monopolize and lose your views
And the channel you choose
Propaganda, visual cancer
The eye in the sky, number 5 on the down
Secret agenda, frequency antenna
Dr. Mindbender
Remote control so controlling your brain holder
Slave culture, game's over
What's a fox characteristic?
Slick shit, sins in, misinformation
Pimp the station, over-stimulation
Reception, deception
Comcast digital Satan
The Fox has a bushy tale
And Bush tells lies and foxtrots
So, I don't know what's real (what's real)

[Chorus]
Watch what you're watching
Fox keeps feeding us toxins
Stop sleeping
Start thinking outside of the box
And unplugged from the Matrix stopped you
But watch what you say, Big Brother is watching

Watch what you're watching
Fox keeps feeding us toxins
Stop sleeping
Start thinking outside of the box
And unplugged from the Matrix stopped you
But watch what you say, Fox Fire is watching

[Nas]
The Fifth Act that got you all riled up
O'Reilly? Oh really? No rally needed, I'll tie you up
Network for child predators, setting them up
MySpace, pimps, hoes and sluts
Y'all exploit rap culture, then y'all flip on us
And you own the Post, and y'all shit on us
What is their net worth?
They're going to try to censor my next verse
Throw them off the roof neck first
While I'm clicking my cursor
Reading blogs about pressure they put on Universal
It gets worse
While I'm clicking my mouse
While they kick in my house
They figured us out
Why a nigger go south?
It's either he caught a body
Don't sleep, they're watching
I watch CBS, and I see BS
Trying to track us down with GPS
Make a nigger want to invest in PBS (see BS)

[Chorus]

[Nas]
They say I'm all about murder murder and kill kill
But what about Grindhouse and Kill Bill?
What about Cheney and Halliburton?
The back door deals on oil fields?
How is Nas the most violent person?
Y'all wouldn't know talent if it hit you
Bringing up my criminal possession charges with a pistol
I use Viacom as my firearm
Then let the living split you, who do you rely upon?
Then shoot shells at Leviath-o-n
I'm dealing with the higher form
Fuck if you care of how I write a poem
Only fox that I loved was the red one
Only black man that Fox love is in jail or a dead one
Red rum, political bedlam
Don't let the hype into your eyes and ear drum
Murder our own fox
Not A-Team with Baracus
And he hates Barack because he march with the marches

[Deep voice outro]
I pledge allegiance to the fair and balanced truth
Not the biased truth
Not the liest truth
But the highest truth

I will not be deceived
Nor will I believe in the propaganda
I will not fall for the oke-doke
I am tuned in...

[Nas]
Watch because they're watching
Watch what you're watching

Better watch because they're watching
Watch what you're watching

M-m-media, misleading you
Watch what you're watching

Testify lyrics - Nas

[Intro]
[Nas talking]
I want to dedicate this song right here
To Jonathan Jackson and George Jackson
Peace to those brothers

I want to shout out my man Sherm the Worm
Eighty years
Come home nigga
Come home, niggers

Ugh

[Verse 1]
I just burnt my American flag
and sent three cracker nazis to hell and I'm sad
Ugh, I'm loading tips in my mag
to send these redneck biggots to some death in a bag
Choke him out with his confederate flag
I know these devils are mad
Little rap fans who live way out in safe suburbia
Would you stand with me, a United States murdurer?

[Chorus:]
[sings] (Testifyyyyy for me)
Huh? Would you Testify?
You buy my songs
You buy my songs
but will you ride with me?
[sings] (Testifyyyyy for me)
You understand my struggle
That's what you claim right?
[sings] (Testifyyyyy for me)
Then get your aim right
And get your game tight

[Verse 2]
Don't buy my songs, y'all don't roll with it
Coming to concerts singing hoe'ing shit
Fuck y'all lil' lil' hoe bitches
I don't need y'all, I'll go gold with it
I heard y'all was downloading it (heh)
like I'm y'all man who be exposing shit (heh)
like uhh, William Cooper
who told you the (Pale Horse) is the future

[Chorus:]
[sings] (Testifyyyyy for me)
Would you testify on some realness like that?
I think you scared (heh)
I don't think you prepared
Yeah
[sings] (Testifyyyyy for me)
You know what I'm asking you?
[sings] (Testifyyyyy for me)
Do you know what I'm asking you? [laughs]
Wow...
[sings] (Testifyyyyy for me)
Wow...
[sings] (Testifyyyyy for me)
[sings] (Testifyyyyy for me)


N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave And The Master) lyrics - Nas

[Chorus]
They say we N-I double G-E-R, we are
Much more, still we choose to ignore
The obvious, man this history don't acknowledge us
We were scholars long before colleges
They say we N-I double G-E-R, we are
Much more, but still we choose to ignore
The obvious, we are the slave and the master
What you lookin for? You the question and the answer

[Verse 1]
We trust no black leaders, use the stove to heat us
Powdered eggs and government cheeses
The calendars with Martin, JFK and Jesus
Gotta be fresh to go to school with fly sneakers
Schools with outdated books, we are the forgotten
Summers, coolin off by the fire hydrant
Yeah I'm from the ghetto
Where old black women talk about their sugar level - it's not unusual
To see photos of dead homie's funerals
Aluminium foil on TV antennas
Little TV sit on top the big TV, eating TV dinners
Girls die their hair with Kool-Aid
They gave us lemons, we made lemonade
But this nigger's payed, ancestral slaves
Descendant of kings, it's necessary I - bling
Put rims on everything, where tims on every scene

[Chorus]

[Verse 2]
Do I mean it like a slave master, nigger?
No I'm gangsta, gotta eat rappers
My abbreviation was young when I caught the cases
That should mean the court could see my changes, take off the bracelets
Savers went broke, smokes, our diesel, need no Bowflex
My chest still cut up like a bag of dope
Bought patterns consist of boss matters
Spit Moses' lost commandments like a growth sandwich out my mouth
Toast to government cameras peepin us, every week I must
Have my cars, homes and phones squeaked for bugs
But this is what I was dreamin of
Between cuttin hard coke with new razors slicin my fingers up
They used to string us up, we wanted everything
But the one bringin us cake be the snakes like the
Like the New Jack City wedding scene
No time for mistake, tryna get it like metering

[Chorus]

[Verse 3 {Over Chorus}]
{My nig', what up my nig'? Yep!}
People afraid of criticism
But I always put myself in a sacrificial position
They been know I ain't just rappin for fame
I got my old homie hasslin to father askin for chains
Yep, I get it cash up, this paper don't matter
They see me from skinny to fatter, when I rap about war
They got a tendency to scatter, they ain't my backup no more
So now my enemies are at my front door
Cause anytime we mention our condition, our history or existence
They callin it reverse racism
Still to this day the streets torn - my brother Jung'
I'll always have a seat for him - not behind me, beside me
You'll always know where to find me
They say the close ones will hurt you
So let's keep a small circle
On the road to riches and diamond rings
In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is the king

[Chorus]


Untitled lyrics - Nas

[Sample]
"They did not have the power to stop Louis Farrakhan
They were trying to touch on and feed envy within the leadership
But as a general and a man that rose through the ranks through discipline
His presence inspired those men with the discipline he imposed on his own life
Louis Farrakhan"

[Nas]
No revolutionary gets old or so I'm told
Your left full of bullet holes when you tell the people go free
Oh, it's a matter of days before they try to take me
I heard gun shots rang; his bullet's got my name
I ain't see 'em take aim, I dreamt this day came
'Cause I stood in the face of damnation
Satan spat at 'em, flat out disgraced 'em
He want my blood, why me?
Why not the fake who deserve death man?
Fuck it, I'll take one
'Cause stop me but can't stop a whole nation of millions who feel you deceived them
They believe in reparation makes it even
So I'm deadly now because of one reason, they listening
In Budapest, Japan, China, and Switzerland
We getting it in son, another bullet pass by, miss me
Wondering who plotting to get me?
Alphabet boys still plotting against me
To hush me and stuff me in the pockets of history
You won't remember why they came to clip me
When time go by you'll soon forget me
They say he was the king of bling, jewels, and Bentley's
Then I use one of my lines just to prove I'm guilty
Don't let' em kill me...

[Sample]
"They did not have the power to stop Louis Farrakhan."
"They did not have the power to stop Louis Farrakhan."
"They did not have the power to stop Louis Farrakhan."
"They did not have the power to stop Louis Farrakhan."

[Nas]
Some revolutionaries do live long
Am I one of them? Guess we'll know in due time
Everybody has rights, can I use mine?
Can I rock shine? Can I have a girl that's too fine?
Got a swell life, tell me will I lose mine?
Every time I turn around somebody new dying
Let's start living, alecart, Escargo, Escobar invest my millions
Mansion for the wife the rest for the children
Knowing that they coming anytime
But until then I'm gonna in lost till they shoot me
Million dollar stones in my camouflaged Gucci
Giving you this crack like Pookie
To question the system, be the resistance
No matter what color you are everybody niggas
Or you can stand by or watch or you can march on with us

[Chorus - Nas 2x]
Some revolutionaries get old although I'm told
You'll get a left full of bullet holes when you tell the people go free
Oh, it's a matter of days before they try to take me



Fried Chicken lyrics - Nas (feat. Busta Rhymes)

What I'm gonna do? Shit is all true

[Nas]
Hmm... Fried chicken, fly vixen
Give me heart disease but need you in my kitchen
You a bird but you ain't a ki'
Got wings but you can't fly away from me
Driving in your bucket seats
All the way from Kentucky to fuck with me
Look what you done to me, was number one to me
After you shower, you and your gold metal flour
Then you rub your hot oil for about a half an hour
You in your hot tub I'm looking at you salivating
Dry you off I got your paper towel waiting
Lay you down cause you're red hot
Louisiana style you make my head rot
Then I flock to the bed then plop
When we done I need rest
Don't know what part of you I love best
Your legs or your breast
Mrs. Fried Chicken, you gonna be a nigga death
Created by southern black women to serve massa' guest
You gonna be a nigga death
Mrs. Fried Chicken you was my addiction
Dripping with hot cholest-
Like Greeks with his falafel, Italian with his to-mato pasta
What roti is to a rasta
Trapping me; You and your friend mac' and cheese
Candy yams collard greens but you knocking me to my knees
It's killing me when I'm this high
Nothing I need more than a fish fry

[Busta Rhymes]
Shit it taste good I can't lie
It's like you're walking out the tanning saloon
When I pull you out the oven from baking I got you on my mind
Rubbing that sun tan lotion all up over your body
So amazing how you sparkle when I glaze you swine
Hey my pretty hand hot
It's so feminine the way you submitted and how you gave me power
To massaging me to shower you with lemon water
Marinate you with seasoning and dipping you in chowder
Baby it's like you at the spa the way you gently lay in the pan
While enjoying your butter milk treatment
I sit and watch the grease sizzle bubbling on your skin
Despite the funny fragrance still I lick my finger frequent
In any event, I'm reflecting on all the signs
That I got saying that I shouldn't fuck with you
But the way you that you would taste made you hard to resist
When I put my mouth on you but that's another issue
Butterflies up in my stomach, when I laid eyes on you
Or was it infection manifesting
Confused over the feeling, impatiently eating you
Trichina worm chewing on the wall of my intestine
I'm a eat you until there's nothing left
Until my very last breath, you gonna be a nigga death
Despite I prepare it the best specialize in cooking swine as a chef
You gonna be a nigga death
Who cares if the swine is mixed with rat, cat and dog combined
Yes, I'm a eat the shit to death

Ain't that some shit
I'm a eat some shit until what I'm eating kills me
And I choose to do that, why?
'Cause that's just what niggas do



Project Roach lyrics - Nas (feat. Eban Thomas (The Last Poets))

[Eban Thomas]
It is absolutely silly, and unproductive
to have a funeral for the word "nigger"
When the actions continue..
We need to have a movement to resurrect brothers, and sisters
Not a funeral for niggers
'cause niggers - DON'T DIE [echoes]

[Nas]
Uh, yeah..
Yo, I'm creepy and crawlin, in your sink and your toilet
I be drinkin from your spit, anything 'cause I'm all less
An insect with four legs; people come in, I fake dead
Correction: I got eight legs, climbin on top yo' plate, bed
Wherever I smell food, it could be even jail food
Stale food that's molded, a roach is what I am, fool
The ghetto is my land, fool, I'ma never be able to
fly like a bumblebee, try not, to be underneath
your sneaker, pitiful creature, I'm not afraid of
your pesticide or RAID 'cause, in heaven's my Creator
I love it when the light's off, eatin from same knives, forks
from, ANY man's dinner, see my antennas
You can't win, you can't stand the crunchy sound I make
if you squash me, learn to live with me
How much your Ross Motel costin? Yo, we in the city
But yo, we everywhere! Check your house good, I bet we there!
LOOK HEED!

[Eban Thomas]
Niggers are like roaches - they're never gonna go away
Learn from them what we should not become
'cause niggers - DON'T DIE [echoes]

Y'all My Niggas lyrics - Nas

[Intro Sample]
We use the word everyday
Now we don't know the capacity of this word
Are we headed for conflict or not? (Yes sir)
Because we did not break down the capacity
Of the same what (The same word)
Brothers and sisters, this is why we hung up the consciousness
We've been taught wrong

[Verse 1]
Find a room to lock yourself in and close the door
It's some heavy concepts that we gotta explore
We gotta strip the word down rugged and raw
The rhetoric of Martin King just ain't around no more
Du Bois ain't here, James Baldwin neither, they all were leaders
But they ain't help me get this Porsche two seater
A lawyer left the hood, he never looked back
To be a Forture 500 CEO and took rap
So what if my pants sag with my hat turned back?
The same swag got our merchandise flying off the rack
Marketing companies is hiring blacks
Fresh hip-hop lingo for your campaign ads
Controversy surrounds who could say it and when
Some niggas are full time, some play and pretend
So fuck that, no apologies on the issue
If it offends you it's meant to, it's that simple

[Chorus]
Tryin' to erase me from y'all memory
Too late, I'm engraved in history (I'm here my niggas!)
Speak my name and breathe life in me
Make sure y'all never forget me ('Cause y'all give me life!)
'Cause y'all use my name so reckless
Whether to be accepted or disrespected (And I love it!)
And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public
And I'm the subject
'Cause y'all my niggas

[Verse 2]
Yo, I was thinkin' a little bit
What would it take to authenticate my nigganess?
Ball ridiculous? 26 inches when I call up the dealership?
Aww that's some nigga shit
We only out for our own benefit?
We havin' too many kids? We Claudines? Welfare recipients?
The infamous free clinics is the sickest shit
Make me think what the hell they clean they syringes with
Everybody bleeding, the cops are the demons
Courtrooms full of goons, jail buses leanin'
Handcuffs squeezed too tight on youth life
If you fight they just give in, people used to do sit ins
They got Nigeria and Niger, two different countries
Somehow Niger turned to nigger, and shit got ugly
The problem is we started thinking like the colonists
'Til Noble Drew Ali started droppin' that consciousness

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
My father was not a banker, neither was my neighbor
When it came to gettin' paper who the hell was gonna train us?
Oppresion couldn't escape us through the ages
We changed the basis of derogatory phrases
And I say it's quite amazing
The use of ghetto terms developed out own language
No matter where it came from
It's celebrated, now people are mad if they ain't one

[Outro Sample]
Every word we use, it has a capacity
And if you don't understand the words you're using
And understand the capacity of it
You are using words that is creating a destiny for you
That you don't even know, or even conscious of

[Chorus]

[Chorus without Ad-libs]


We're Not Alone lyrics - Nas (feat. Mykel)

[Chorus: Mykel]
Where there's life there is water
We depend on mama nature
there's a message for tomorrow
Everything connects to you
Some say soon it will be over
you can see it in the weather
out of tune with mama nature
what you do comes back to you

We're not alone [4x]

[Verse: Nas]
Confucius, Confucius
Sigmund Freud
And Fard Muhammad
Is it evolution or God?
Searching for the truth is a threat
Seems the closer we get to the truth
State troopers or FEDs come out to silence you
My house in Malibu probably tapped
Because living next door to Demi Moore
Plus, I'm black
Plus, I want vengeance for the poor
Who's attacked daily
Patriot Act never scared me
Jake in the Taurus
Sticky in the jar-s
Niggas I'm with got warrants
America's brown and
Twenty years from now
Every town will be brown and Latin
An African lookin Manhattan
I'ma tell you what I seen with my three eyes
Word to me, not a hoax, back in 9-9
A spacecraft in the skyline
In L.A., in daytime, ask Horse if I'm lying

[Chorus: Mykel]

Every mother, every father
Raise your sons and your daughters
With respect and with honor
From the seed comes a fruit
Its an unbroken circle
All of life is universal
And we're all in the struggle
If i know one thing is true...

We're not alone [4x]

[Verse]
Evidence remains in debate
Documents of our own Air Force base
Additional terrestrial information
Other planets with life population
My observation
Scientists study pictures of a flying disc
Right on earth, anthropologists are finding shit
Visitors, probably live with us
They can mimic us
It's sort of what we seeing in the cinemas

[Chorus]

Take a look in the mirror
And see the bigger picture
Its good to be alive
Its good to be alive
Nobody is an island
we are part of an environment
Only way we gone survive
Is if we harmonize

We're not alone [4x]

[Verse]
Reginald Lewis
The black billionaire
Before Oprah or Bob Johnson
How'd he disappear?
Conspiracy theories, UFO's in the air
I've seen it with my own two eyes
And I swear, like Warren Buffet
Real money I'm just trying to touch it
The diamond-encrusted shit, live illustrious
'Cause we was deprived of it, suffered
Now we pop to prove anything's possible
My pimp strut was invented when they whipped us
Now we diddy-bop just to show you that our strength's up
Just when niggas about to see they cut
Global warming about to burn us up
Niggas never really seen paper in this world
American blacks the teenager of this world
Give us twenty more years to grow up
Already geniuses; what I mean is this
I used to worship a certain Queens police murderer
'Til I read the words of Ivan van Sertima
He inserted something in me
That made me feel worthier
Now I spit revolution
I'm his hood interpreter

[Chorus]

Take a look in the mirror
And see the bigger picture
Its good to be alive
Its good to be alive
Nobody is an island
we are part of an environment
Only way we gone survive
Is if we harmonize

We're not alone [4x]



Black President lyrics - Nas

[Barack Obama - taken from victory speech in Iowa]
They said this day would never come... [crowd cheers loudly]
They SAID, our sights were set too high. [crowd still wooing]
This country is too divided; too disillusioned
to ever come together around a common purpose. They said..."

[Repeat 2X]
("Although it seems heaven-sent, we ain't ready, to have a black president" - [2Pac])

[singers {Barack Obama}]
Yes we can...change the world...
{CHANGE THE WORLD...}

[Chorus]
("Although it seems heaven-sent, we ain't ready, to have a black president" - [2Pac]) [repeat 2X]
Yes we can...change the world...
(The world, the world, the WORLD...)

[Nas]
They forgot us on the block, got us in the box
Solitary confinement, how violent are these cops?
They need a early retirement
How many rallies will I watch? I ain't got it in me to march
I got a Semi to spark, the game's in a drought
Public housing, projects, cookin up in the Pyrex
My set, my clique, either gettin money
or runnin from homicide trail, that's if they ain't died yet
Tryna be rich, STILL I'm pledging allegiance
A predicate felon, a ghetto leader
Lendin my poetical genius, to who-EVER may need it
I BLEED this from Queensbridge, now living with my feet up
Never defeated, so a president's needed
You know these colored folks and Negros hate to see
one of they own succeeding
America, surprise us, and let a black man guide us

[Repeat 2X]
("Although it seems heaven-sent, we ain't ready, to have a black president" - [2Pac])

[singers {Barack Obama}]
Yes we can...change the world...
{CHANGE THE WORLD...}

[Chorus]

[Nas]
What's the black pres' thinkin on election night?
Is it, "How can I protect my life? Protect my wife? Protect my rights?"
Every other president was nuttin' less than white
'cept Thomas Jefferson and mixed Indian blood and Calvin Coolidge
KKK is like, "What the fuck?!", loadin they guns up
Loadin up mines too, ready to ride
'Cause I'm ridin with my crew - he dies, we die too
Yeah, but on the positive side
I think Obama provides hope, and challenges minds
of all races and colors to erase the hate
and try to LOVE one another; so many political snakes
We in need of a break, I'm thinkin I can TRUST this brotha
...but will he keep it way real?
Every innocent nigga in jail, gets out on appeal
When he wins, will he really care still?
I feel...

[Repeat 2X]
("Although it seems heaven-sent, we ain't ready, to have a black president" - [2Pac])

[singers {Barack Obama}]
Yes we can...change the world...
{CHANGE THE WORLD...}

[Chorus]

[Nas]
Say a prayer for "Do we have to?"
You ain't right, Jeremiah Wrong pastor
in love with a slave master
Sincerely yours, USA's most brave rapper
Jesse carjacker, Uncle TOm kidnapper
Ask around, Bently Coupe off the Richter
Bitch called Life, I pimped her, WHAT?
Politics, politricks, Klan shooter
Deacon for defense, progress producer
Nothing on the stove, a survival booster
Gotta DO what we gotta DO
We ain't got no governors comin through to help!
Anything we need done, gotta do for self
New, improved JFK on the way
It ain't the 60s' again, niggas ain't hippies again
We ain't fallin for the same traps
Standin on the balconies, where they shot the King at
McCain got apoligies, ain't nobody hearin that
People need HONESTY!

[Repeat 2X]
("Although it seems heaven-sent, we ain't ready, to have a black president" - [2Pac])

[singers {Barack Obama}]
Yes we can...change the world...
{CHANGE THE WORLD...}

[Chorus]

[Governor Bill Richardson]
It is my distinct honor, and privilege to introduce
the next President of the United States - Barack Obama

[crowd cheers LOUDLY]





Like Me lyrics - Nas

[Intro]
Ay yeah, what's happenin mommy? How you doin baby?
Oh you lookin kinda good and everything, I see you with them stilettos on baby
Ay check this out, you ain't got time to talk to me?
Ay let me put the bug in your ear baby
Want you turnin them hoe shoes into some flows shoes, you dig?
Yeah, check this out, this Universe Finest, your Royal Highness
You know what baby? I can do a whole lot of thangs for you
Guess why, cause I'm a motherfuckin pimp

[Hook: singer]
(Like me...) Hustlin and grindin babe
(I be...) Stayin on that paper chase
In this life there's pimps and hoes
Tell me which one are you, you a nigga
(Like me...) Hustlin and grindin babe
(I be...) Stayin on that paper chase
In this life there's pimps and hoes
Tell me which one are you

[Verse 1]
The good man in me say "Get money and stay on the path"
But the pimp shit in me say "Yo, keep lookin for ass"
But my daughter gave me a gift, somethin to hold
A little city in water, when you shake it, it snow
I told her never let a sucker nigga take off her clothes
Better wait till you grown, when he love you, you'll know
Everybody's got a dream, a hopeful wish to own a six times two
Cylinder whip, a fantasy, a bone to pick
With friends to get against who I don't know
Someone who said you won't blow, you won't eat, you won't cake
They mistake blamin me for they failures, I'm fresh, gettin tailored
Single breasted, a lip brush, it's senseless, some pimp shit
A woman hates a man and stays with him for many years
Tell him she loves him and be jealous of him
Now lame is how the ghetto judge him, cause he still with her
She'll take his cash and give it to some other real nigga

[Hook]

[Interlude]
Ay pimpin been goin on man for eons and eons man since the beginnin of time
You know me, the only thing I need to do is get on the grind and get mine
So the only thing I gotta tell you man is you know, do what you gotta do man
Bring my money back, get on that track and get on your back

[Verse 2]
I heard 'em say the NBA's a bunch of million-dollar slaves
A portea wasn't real back in the days, the point I make is
Jerry owns the Lakers, his yearly takings
Let's just say more than collectively all of his players
That's business, not really pimp shit
Maybe a titbit similar to when we rappers make big hits
and not own the masters, that's the deal
By the way, portea helps all the Denzels excel
He kept it more than real, but Hollywood can turn a girl out
I knew a girl bout, 5'9", so fine, she could result grind
She was sleek, sheek, with a classic mouth
Movie directors always fucked her on the casting couch
She came out with a blockbuster, can't knock a hustler
She not a hooker, she focused, a hopeless soul on a lonely road
I showed her all my stones and gold
I said "Bitch, life is cold, you need to roll with a nigga"

[Hook]


Proclamation lyrics - Nas

This is my openin scripture - I've been preparin this album
my whole life, might be uncomfortable for most you listeners
Satin's bombardin me with propositions, but I decline
I started in the Bridge without a pot to piss in
I overcame all the opposition
My teachers told that I'd a broken mayne on a cot in prison
Cloaked in the finest drapes, not bathe in napes
But we still filthy, Supreme Court say we still guilty
This is the Genesis, and I don't even see a worthy arch nemesis
I get loose like the Jena Six, they put a noose on 'Pac
now I'm defendin Vic, and free that nigger TIP
I'd take the grave or a bid
to let some dirty clan members run up in my crib
and plant cracks on the man that's goin to church
Plants packs on the man that's goin to work
and build cases, meanwhile they daddies and they brothers
is recruitin all my brothers and cousins to fill bases
The nerve of y'all to call Escobar racist
Nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger hatred

album: "Hip Hop Is Dead" (2006)

Money Over Bullshit lyrics - Nas

[Verse 1: Nas]
My niggaz got scarred grills
Skully hats and gats be fullys
Brrrat, cars peel, the East Coast cartel
Rats get their tails snapped and trapped
The snitches in the streets and the snitches who rap
Pure euphoria, a dose of death to all of ya
Coroner choruses sung from The Bridge to Astoria
Dreams of fallin' in the elevator, passin' floors
Suddenly stop, the doors open up to a brick wall
I can smell the haters, wishful thinkers, bad luck prayers
Picture your tarot cards and bodyguards gettin' sprayed up
Sabotagin' my makeup, my watches get laced up
Even if they indicted Jacob
Forensics, Paramedics carry cowards off
Defibrillators shock to your chest, try to cough
They die and hit Hell from an iron
I'm flyin', wire or cell, I'm paid from this shit
Got bitches high as hell, and they fuckin' like AIDS don't exist
They get sent to your hotel, a maid and shit
Put a barrel in a capo mouth, 'til his scalp come out
You a kid, you don't live what you rap about
King poetic, too many haters to count
Too much paper to count, QB BITCH!

[Hook: Nas]
Join me in war, many will live, many will mourn
(Money Over Bullshit), pistols over brawn
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength

(My own strength nigga, that's what I'm scared of, ha-ha)

Join me in war, many will live, many will mourn
(Money Over Bullshit), pistols over brawn
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength

[Verse 2: Nas]
Got seven candles lit, black wallpaper, black carpet
Thinkin' about which nigga to target
You kill a nigga today, he lives forever
So I plotted out smarter, there'll be no Martyrs
Black Tec on the table, Mag .44
Black negligee on my bitch, she's at the door
Black fish eggs, nigga, that's the caviar
You niggaz fish-made, y'all niggaz is fifth grade
Niggaz, it's fifty ways to disect the General
If I give ya the top five, you will not survive
Rule 1: cocksucker, keep my name from your tongue
Rule 2: thought ya knew don't fuck with God's Son
Rule 3: see, matter fact, I just wait
If y'all reach top five, then I'ma eat y'all alive
Each one of you guys that claim Hip-Hop is still alive
Like y'all ain't in agreement wit Nas
That shit is dead motha'fucka, it's dead bitch

[Hook: Nas]
Join me in war, many will live, many will mourn
(Money Over Bullshit), pistols over brawn
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength

(My own strength nigga, that's what I'm scared of, ha-ha)

Join me in war, many will live, many will mourn
(Money Over Bullshit), pistols over brawn
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength

[Verse 3: Nas]
From crack pushers to Lac' pushers and ambushers
And morticians to fortresses, case-dismisses
Laced in riches, cake ridiculous
From nickel and dimin; to trickin; them diamonds
Vegas, places in Switzerland
From non-blastin; to auto, I don't have to blast mine
They blast mine, black nine, you flatline
My cash climb, buy rare art
Antique pieces, Mona Lisa's, own no leases
Five-star restaurant eaters; don't forget who your peeps is
'Sposed to dine with you, sip that good wine with you
Only if they grind with you - or slang for ya
Seen niggaz live, laugh, party, and die in that very same corner
Pretty girls glance at us, status unconceivable
Private planes landed out in Teterboro, weed I twirl
Once even gave me a phobia
That I be in a spot trapped like Madame Zenobia's
With this kid eyein' my Rolly, y'all

[Hook: Nas]
Join me in war, many will live, many will mourn
(Money Over Bullshit), pistols over brawn
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength

(My own strength nigga, that's what I'm scared of, ha-ha)

Join me in war, many will live, many will mourn
(Money Over Bullshit), pistols over brawn
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength

[Outro: Nas]
There it is, QB bitch, yea, QB bitch, yea, yea, QB bitch


You Can't Kill Me lyrics - Nas

[Intro]
Yeah yeah yeah yeah y'all... New York City...
Tryna to see where I'ma go tonight...
The most famous town in the whole fuckin' world...
The other night, nigga was at Lotus...
I hit P and them I was Dom P'ed up in there, you know...
But I found this new spot we went to the other night, yo
Check it out check it out how it went

[Verse 1]
It was just cool like, smooth night wit' my jewels bright
Goons left goons right, coupe wit' blue lights
Bad girls in black pearls, gave us cat calls
Took 'em back to the crib to break they ass off
In the loft mixin' hash and 'dro
Honey spreaded that asshole like a wide mouth bass
Sippin' wine out the glass, Teddy Pendergrass blast
When the phone ring, the house lights flash
Turned down the sound, let's get down to bidness
Shit about to go down wit' some foul niggaz
What the voice said, "what up pop? Who want it?"
I put the guap up, get the boy popped
He say "son stop, it's dudes you feedin'
Who feedin' other dudes, but they really not eatin'"
Dog, why you callin' me? This our food
You, handle the mouths that it trickles down to
Niggaz want beef, I want some of that cow too
But I'm in my princely robe, simply rich
Don't bother me wit' silly shit, call Rico
He said "it IS Rico, of all people
Gave his moms furs, called up the mayor
To get his crime pardoned, his son's godfather"
Said the nigga shot up my cars
Last night he laid for me to come out my doors?

[Chorus]
Niggaz always on that bullshit
To make a nigga wanna open up a full clip
Niggaz always on that bullshit
Now ya funeral, the preacher's at the pulpit
Niggaz always on that bullshit
To make a nigga wanna open up a full clip
Niggaz always on that bullshit
Now ya funeral, the preacher's at the pulpit
You can't kill me

[Verse 2]
High, fly, send a fella loaf or glass?
Fold up cash, you ain't heard the soldier's half
You speakin' hogwash, silly shit, ??? to dash
I got the live sparked, Phillies lit, smoker's jacket on
The son of a Cap-ricorn, my dad's a don
What you think that he spawned? A slacker? Nah
Packed the nines, yo this nigga's asinine
Smack ya mom, relaxed and calm, then mack ya mom
In a casket, you'll get ya fashion on
You'll be in a suit and tie, you'll die
You'll make maggots turn to flies, fuckin' wit' Nas
Remember anyone can get it at anytime
Lames'll swear by ya name, when they lie
Get hit wit' the lone star, ripped where ya bones are
So tell me how yo' ass gon' run, from a C-Z-P-O-1?
In the midst of real steel movers, you a loser
Merk you wit'cha own shooters
All you want is a name, pissed and insane
My security system, my playspot a fireplace, listen
Then it goin' off, start spittin'
Niggaz try to bring it where I live in
Trustin' you, knew where all of the cribs at
So we waited wit' the cigs blat, blat, blat!

[Chorus]

"You can't kill me" [to fade]


Carry On Tradition lyrics - Nas

[Intro: Nas]
Yea, niggaz want to talk about this rap shit
Niggaz want to talk about this money
About these cars, these homes, these labels
Clothes, sneakers, big money shit
Now everybody tryin' to get rich
Now get rich niggaz, fuck it

[Verse 1: Nas]
Some rap pioneers, be them crackheads
When they speak, you see missin' teeth
Silver chain with a silver piece
Niggaz your grandfather's age
They pants still hangin' down they legs talkin' about they ain't paid
And they hate you, 'cause they say, you ain't pay dues
And ..... was stealin' and robbin' them
I feel it's a problem we gotta resolve
Hip-Hop been dead, we the reason it died
Wasn't Sylvia's fault or because MC's skills are lost
It's because we can't see ourselves as the boss
Deep-rooted through slavery, self-hatred
The Jewish stick together, friends in high places
We on some low level shit
We don't want niggaz to ever win
See, everybody got a label
Everybody's a rapper but few flow fatal
It's fucked up, it all started from two turntables

[Hook: Nas]
When they crown you - and you rise up to your position
(Carry On Tradition)
When they knight you - then you go to fight, go to war, don't petition
(Carry On Tradition) - (Carry On Tradition)
Carry on, ca-carry on, (Carry On Tradition)
(Carry On Tradition), when you rep what we rep
Then (Carry On Tradition)

[Verse 2: Nas]
Now some of these new rappers got their caps flipped backwards
Wit their fingers intertwined in some gang-sign madness
I got an exam, let's see if y'all pass it
Let's see who can quote a Daddy Kane line the fastest
Some of you new rappers, I don't understand your code
You have your man shoot you, like in that Sopranos episode
Do anythin' to get in the game, mixtapes, you spit hate
Against bosses; hungry fucks are moraless
You should be tossed in a pit full of unfortunate vocalists
Niggaz, I coulda wrote your shit; I had off-time, was bored wit this
I coulda made my double-LP, just by samplin' different parts of Nautilus
Still came five on the charts with zero audience
The lane was open and y'all was droppin' that garbage shit
Y'all got awards for your bricks - it got good to ya
You started tellin' them bigger dogs to call it quits?! WHAT?

[Hook: Nas]
When they crown you - and you rise up to your position
(Carry On Tradition)
When they knight you - then you go to fight, go to war, don't petition
(Carry On Tradition) - (Carry On Tradition)
Carry on, ca-carry on, (Carry On Tradition)
(Carry On Tradition), when you rep what we rep
Then (Carry On Tradition)

[Verse 3: Nas]
Now niggaz got the studio poppin', it's mad clearer
Engineers got his earplugs and still hear us
The live-in-the-park sound, versus the studio state of art sound
We on the charts now; from British Walkers and Argyles
Look at us rap stars now, wit our black cars now
Fortune 500 listed, brunches, sip Cipriani's
Sippin', blunted, with rich white guys around me
Thick white girls around me, Chinese lined up
Because I'm what?, every dime lust
We used to be a ghetto secret; can't make my mind up
If I want that or the whole world to peep it
Now (Carry On Tradition)
Fuck a bum wack rapper makin' his career out of dissin'
Peace to the strugglin' artists and dead one's gone, we miss 'em
I promise I (Carry On Tradition)

[Hook: Nas]
When they crown you - and you rise up to your position
(Carry On Tradition)
When they knight you - then you go to fight, go to war, don't petition
(Carry On Tradition) - (Carry On Tradition)
Carry on, ca-carry on, (Carry On Tradition)
(Carry On Tradition), when you rep what we rep
Then (Carry On Tradition)



Where Are They Now lyrics - Nas

("HIT MEH!!")

[Sample of the late James Brown's "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved" plays]

[Nas]
Redhead Kingpin, Tim Dog, have you seen 'em?
Kwame, King Tee or King Sun
Super Lover Cee, Casanova Rud
Antoinette, Rob Base never showin up
You see Black Sheep, Group Home, Busy Bee?
Ask Ill and Al Skratch, (Where My Homiiies?)
Leave it to y'all, these niggaz left for dead
Last week my man swore he saw Special Ed
Rap is like a ghost town, real mystic
Like these folks never existed
They the reason that rap became addictive
Play they CD or wax and get lifted
I recommend when your kid turn ten
Let him hear Spice 1, made plenty noise
.. Positive K, Father MC, the Skinny Boys
Where are they now?

(HEY!! Where are, where are they nooooooow, huuuhhhhhooohhhh HEY!)
Where are they now?
(HEY! Hit me! Where are they nooooooow?)
("HIT MEH!!")

[Nas]
See I remember them forever
The original Spinderella
Lakim Shabazz, 9 MM
Fu-Schnickens, Buckshot, Finesse, and Sequence
..Who was a (Rappin' Duke?) Da-ha!
Silk tie and leather was cute
Body and soul was Dee from Pump It Up's group
Oaktown 357, J.J. Fad too
had pop hits and gold ropes
Where my man Young MC and Tone Loc?
Kris Kross, the BO$$, Divine Styler
Def Jef of course let's break it down ta
Mic Geronimo, Pharcyde and Coolio
I heard Craig Mack back in the studio
Have you seen these lost MC's?
Funky Four Plus One, Force M.D.'s
Miss Melody, I hope she packin' a bankroll
As well as educated rap for ice and Kangol
Shante, she from around my way yo
EPMD, K-Solo, where are they now?

(HEY!! Where are, where are they nooooooow, huuuhhhhhooohhhh HEY!)
Where are they now?
(HEY! Hit me! Where are they nooooooow?)
("HIT MEH!!")

[Nas - Outro]
QB...
First off this ain't no diss record
This for some of my homies that were misrepresented...
Legends of the game, y'know?
What up to Moe Dee the legend? Rest in peace Cowboy!
Yeah, all the rappers...male, female, DJ's, e'rybody!
Rest in peace Jam-Master Jay, the whole crew, word up...
Juice Crew All-Stars, MC Shan, Tragedy, Craig G...
Yeah nigga, yeah nigga...
Shan whaddup baby?
Where are they now?


Hip Hop Is Dead lyrics - Nas

[DJ samples]
"Hip hop" "hip hop" "is dead"
"Hip--hip hop" "hip hop" "is dead"
"Hip--hip hop" "hip--hip hop" "is dead"
"Hip--hip hop" "hip hop" "hip hop"

[Hook - 2X]
If hip hop should die before I wake
I'll put an extended clip inside of my AK
Roll to every station, murder the DJ
Roll to every station, murder the DJ

[sample]
Hip hop just died this mornin'
And she's dead, she's dead

[Verse 1]
Yeah, niggaz smoke, laugh, party, and die in the same corner
Get cash, live fast, body their man's mama
Rich ass niggaz is ridin' with three llamas
Revenge in their eyes, Hennesy and the ganja
Word to the wise with villain state of minds
Grindin', hittin' Brazilian dimes from behind
Grindin', hittin' Brazilian dimes from behind
(Grindin', hittin' Brazilian dimes from behind)
Whenever, if ever, I roll up, it's sown up
Any ghetto will tell ya Nas helped grow us up
My face once graced promotional Sony trucks
Hundred million in billin', I helped build 'em up
Gave my nigga my right, I could have gave left
So like my girl Foxy, a nigga went Def
So nigga, who's your top ten?
Is it MC Shan? Is it MC Ren?

[Hook - 2X]

[sample]
Hip hop just died this mornin'
And she's dead, she's dead

[Verse 2]
The bigger the cap, the bigger the peelin'
Come through, something ill, missin' the ceilin'
What influenced my raps? Stick ups and killings
Kidnappings, project buildings, drug dealings
Criticize that, why is that?
Cuz Nas rap is compared to legitimized crap
Cuz we love to talk on ass we gettin'
Most intellectuals will only half listen
So you can't blame jazz musicians
Or David Stern with his NBA fashion issues
Oh I they like me--in my white tee
You can't ice me, we here for life B
On my second marriage, hip hop's my first wifey
And for that we not takin' it lightly
If hip hop should die we die together
Bodies in the morgue lie together
All together now

[Hook - 2X]

[sample]
Hip hop just died this mornin'
Hip hop just died this mornin'
Hip hop just died this mornin'
And she's dead, she's dead

[crowd chanting "Hip hop!" becomes beat]

[Verse 3]
Everybody sound the same, commercialize the game
Reminiscin' when it wasn't all business
If it got where it started
So we all gather here for the dearly departed
Hip hopper since a toddler
One homeboy became a man then a mobster
If the guys let me get my last swig of Vodka
R.I.P., we'll donate your lungs to a rasta
Went from turntables to mp3s
From "Beat Street" to commercials on Mickey D's
From gold cables to Jacobs
From plain facials to Botox and face lifts
I'm lookin' over my shoulder
It's about eighty niggaz from my hood that showed up
And they came to show love
Sold out concert and the doors are closed shut


Who Killed It? lyrics - Nas

[Nas]
Look here see
Pretty Mike shanked Two-Face Al over some gal
Found the body dead in the isles
Death by strangulation
Microphone cord, a dirty broad
Guess they'll never play it again Sam
Damn that was my jam
Now she's on the lamb
She made it out with 200 grand
What a scam
While these two compete on who's the star of the show
Golden legs there makes off with the dough
I read the paper there with Joe the Butcher
He said one glance is all it took ya
She's a real looker
They say her old mans a bootlegger
Transporting in any weather
And at this rate we'll never get her
Fellas, think it's time to call it a night
All this talk of this mystery dame's gettin' me tight
Thought I saw her in my eyesight, right
Hate to spoil the party
What are you guys havin', the same?
Waiter another round for the gang
It's strange how I always felt outta place
Joe The Butcher's my ace, but in comes Freckle Face
So I said see you later
'Fore I hurt him and his two ugly thumb breakers
He met them in Louisiana wrestling gators
An idiot can tell they're involved with the caper
So I pulled the revolver on my waist up
Between the patrol car and the gray truck
Behind the street lamp was a silouhette
White gloves and a real long cigarette
What do ya know all this time she's got me in her scope
She spoke says the devil got you guys by the throat
Your conspiracy theories won't work without evidence
That's the reason why Eric B is not president

Well what do ya say

Ya see? [3x]

Look here see
I know you got soul your trying to hide it
How did you kill a man out in cypress
One Eyed Charlie
He only hangs with the criminal minded
Says you guys did it doggy style is he lyin'
She says, (Walk This Way) I'll tell you a (Children's Story)
We hit the bodega got her a few 40's
We jumped in my ride we drove and she cried
Twisted off the cap there and opened her mouth wide
Swallowed it, whole bottle's half empty
Drinks like a fish now she's past tipsy
The truth came out as we got to her suave house
(Chopped and screwed) her mouth and sat me on the couch
I said it's gettin late c'mon give it to me straight
Who's ya sponsor lady? She says Bill Gates
What are ya born 77 or 78?
She says, Nah it goes way to an earlier date
Slave times, claims the slaves said rhymes
But she fell in love with some fella named Clive
Who? Clive Campbell from Sedgwick Ave, the Bronx
Now she shows me the cash
I said who's Clive, don't play with me skirt
She said Clive Campbell
He's Kool Herc

Ah ha! Ah ha!

Listen up sweetheart
Now we gettin somewhere
As she's talkin, she starts vanishing in thin air
But before she drops the money bag on the floor and died
She said if you really love me I'll come back alive



Black Republican lyrics - Nas (feat. Jay-Z)

[Intro: Jay-Z & (Nas)]
I know you can feel the magic baby
Turn the motherfucking lights down
Esco what's up? (What's up homey)
I mean.. it's what you expected ain't it?
Let's go... uh, uh, uh, uh, uh
Turn the music up and the headphones
uh, Yea, that's perfect (Yea, right)
Uh, we got to take and make a nigga wait on this motherfucker
(ha ha!) Make niggas mad and shit like..
Niggas usually start rappin' after 4-bars, nigga go in
Start dancin' in this motherfucker
Yea, (Yea) niggas come outta nowhere

[Hook: Jay-Z]
I feel like a Black Republican, money I got comin' in
Can't turn my back on the hood, I got love for them
Can't clean my act up for good, too much thug in 'em
Probably in the back of the hood, I'm like "Fuck it then"

[Verse 1: Jay-Z]
Huddlin' over the oven, we was like brothers then (What?)
Though you was nothin' other than a son of my mother's friend
We had governin', who would of thought the love would end
Like ice cold album, all good things
Neva thought we sing the same song that all hood sang
Thought it was all wood-grain, all good brain
You wouldn't bicker like the other fools talk good game
Neva imagine all the disasters that one could reign
Could bring!, should bling, the game, and I could
It's kill or be killed, how could I refrain?
And forever be in debt, that's never a good thing
To the pressure for success can put a good strain
On a friend you call best, and yes it could bring
Out the worst in every person, even the good's insane
Though we rehearsed, it's just ain't the same
When you put in the game at age sixteen
Then you mix things: like cars, jewelry, and miss things
Jealousy, ego, and pride, and this brings
It all to a head like coin, cha-ching
The rule of evil strikes again, this could sting
Now the team got beef between the Post and the Point
This puts the ring in jeopardy - indefinitely

[Hook: Jay-Z]

[Hook: Nas]
I feel like a black militant takin' over the government
Can't turn my back on the hood, too much love for them
Can't clean my act up for good, too much thug in 'em
Probably in up back in the hood, I'm like, "fuck it then"

[Verse 2: Nas]
I'm back in the hood, they like, "Hey Nas" (Uh)
Blowin' on purp', reflectin' on they lives
Couple of fat cats, couple of A.I.'s
Dreamin' of fly shit instead of them gray skies
Gray 5's, hate guys wishin' our reign dies
Pitch, sling pies, and niggas they sing, "why"?
Guess they ain't strong enough to handle their jail time
Weak minds, keep tryin', follow the street signs
I'm standin' on the roof of my building
I'm feelin' - the whirlwind of beef, I inhale it
Just like an acrobat ready to hurl myself though the hoops of fire
Sippin' 80 proof, bulletproof under my attire
Could it be the forces of darkness, against hood angels of good
That forms street politics - makes a sweet honest kid
Turn illegal for commerce - to get his feet out of them Converse
That's my word

[Hook: Jay-Z]

[Hook: Nas]

Not Going Back lyrics - Nas (feat. Kelis)

[Nas]
What nigga! What bitch-ass niggaz! What! Babe, babe, start the car!

[Kelis]
Nasir, come on let's go! Get in the car now, let's go! Throw it out, let's go!

[Nas]
Aight, aight, aight, yeah. But I got 'em. But I got 'em, though.

[Kelis]
This is crazy, why didn't you just throw it out of the car?
This is so stupid, what are you doing? Why are we even out here?
Why are we out here? What's going on? This is retarded, yo we gotta..
This is crazy. Never again. You'd throw everything away, for what?

[Nas: laughs]
Yeah, my man Kool G Rap told me son do not look back
Chill up in the mansion with a fat glutious max, relax
When people act schoolin' with facts, tell 'em
At this point in my life I'm all about chillin'
Ridin' around in something sick and the dress flies
And twist, homie's hermano just died I gotta let it ride
That's what I got the public thinkin' my nigga
Just cause I ain't in the hood don't mean shit my nigga
I know who died before the body dropped
I know the guns that were used how much money the shooter got
Cause on the private yacht I'm still within earshot of it all
The top ten list of the most grimiest guys of all time
Is all we talk when we talk of New York y'all
Who to call and who to stay away from
Whose mother's address to have just to play it safe son
Women they lust up so quick to give 'em up
What cars and what trucks they drive in what towns
They spend the most time in when they grindin'
I found out most of them are cowards they hidin'
Behind reputations that's sour
Not going back

[Kelis]
The streets keep tryin' to say
Come back around this way
I've already gone that way
I won't go back today

[Nas] I'm not goin' back

[Kelis]
The streets keep tryin' to say
Come back around this way
I've already gone that way
I won't go back today

[Nas] I'm not goin' back

[Nas]
First thing that happen when you make a little paper
You think the Marriot is livin' in a skyscraper
Till you come across some ever more flyer paper
Realize that five-star 'tellies are even greater
Terry-cloth robes, elegance, movie shit
Heated-up marble floors with jacuzzis in it
First-class flights, diamonds in your crucifixes
All those things you still ain't really doin' shit kid
Cause in reality I'll earn my salary
The way I flaunted it then would now embarrass me
It kinda make me wanna hate bling it's a race thing
How they sell blacks to bootleg shit infact
Real millionaires spend 60 mil on paintings
Whores charge niggaz with raping
Cause we come out doors of Maybach cars
Watch us make bets on race tracks smokin' cigars
So they counter the laws to take what's ours
Bout 500K on a lawyer to beat the charge
So you can't stop us from making a billion dollars
Instead of goin' back I'm buying the projects
But I'm not going back
The hood's in me forever y'all
But I'm not going back

[Kelis]
The streets keep tryin' to say
Come back around this way
I've already gone that way
I won't go back today

[Nas] I'm not goin' back

[Kelis]
The streets keep tryin' to say
Come back around this way
I've already gone that way
I won't go back today

[Nas]
And of course y'all know what I'm not going back to
Those no friends of mine..
(And I'm not going back to)
Ten carat gold it shine..
(And I'm never going back to)
Sony if they don't have dough to sign..
(Not going back to)
Y'all know that I'm not going back to
Those liars who would..
(Not going back to)
Not help you if they could..
(Not going back to)
Coke on the stove in the hood..
Y'all should know that I'm not going back
The hood's in me forever y'all
But I'm not going back

[Kelis]
The streets keep tryin' to say
Come back around this way
I've already gone that way
I won't go back today

[Nas] I'm not goin' back

[Kelis]
The streets keep tryin' to say
Come back around this way
I've already gone that way
I won't go back today

[Nas] I'm not goin' back

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