Nas - N.Y. State Of Mind

Yeah yeah aiyyo black it's time
Word it's time nigga
Yeah straight out the
fuckin dungeons of rap
Where fake niggaz
don't make it back

Rappers I monkey flip em
with the funky rhythm I be kickin
Musician inflictin composition
of pain I'm like
Scarface sniffin cocaine
Holdin a M 16 see with the pen
I'm extreme now
Bulletholes left in my peepholes
I'm suited up in street clothes
Hand me a nine
and I'll defeat foes
Y'all know my steelo
with or without the airplay
I keep some E&J sittin bent up
in the stairway
Or either on the corner bettin
Grants with the celo champs
Laughin at baseheads
tryin to sell some broken amps
G Packs get off quick
forever niggaz talk shit
Remeniscing about the last time
the Task Force flipped
Niggaz be runnin
through the block shootin
Time to start the revolution
catch a body head for Houston
Once they caught us off guard
the Mac 10 was in the grass and
I ran like a cheetah
with thoughts of an assassin
Pick the Mac up told brothers
Back up the Mac spit
Lead was hittin niggaz one ran
I made him backflip
Heard a few chicks scream
my arm shook couldn't look
Gave another squeeze heard it
click yo my shit is stuck
Try to cock it
it wouldn't shoot now
I'm in danger
Finally pulled it back
and saw three bullets caught up
in the chamber
So now I'm jetting
to the building lobby
and it was filled
with children probably couldn't
see as high as I be
So whatchu sayin
It's like the game ain't the same
Got younger niggaz pullin the
triggers bringing fame to they name
and claim some corners
crews without guns are goners
In broad daylight stickup kids
they run up on us
Fo' fives and gauges Macs in fact
Same niggaz'll catch a back to back
snatchin yo' cracks in black
There was a snitch on the block
gettin niggaz knocked
So hold your stash
until the coke price drop
I know this crackhead
who said she gotta smoke nice rock
And if it's good
she'll bring ya customers
in measuring pots but yo
You gotta slide on a vacation
Inside information keeps
large niggaz erasin
and they wives basin
It drops deep as it does
in my breath
I never sleep cause sleep is the
cousin of death
Beyond the walls of intelligence
life is defined
I think of crime
when I'm in a New York state of mind

Be havin dreams that I'ma gangster
drinkin Moets holdin Tecs
Makin sure the cash came correct
then I stepped
Investments in stocks
sewein up the blocks
to sell rocks
winnin gunfights with mega cops
But just a nigga
walking with his finger
on the trigger
Make enough figures until
my pockets get bigger
I ain't the type of brother made
for you to start testin
Give me a Smith and Wessun
I'll have niggaz undressin
Thinkin of cash flow
buddah and shelter
Whenever frustrated
I'ma hijack Delta
In the PJ's my blend tape plays
bullets are strays
Young bitches is grazed
each block is like a maze
full of black rats trapped
plus the Island is packed
From what I hear in all the stories
when my peoples come back black
I'm livin where the nights
is jet black
The fiends fight to get crack
I just max I dream I can sit back
and lamp like Capone
with drug scripts sewn
Or the legal luxury life
rings flooded with stones homes
I got so many rhymes
I don't think I'm too sane
Life is parallel to Hell
but I must maintain
and be prosperous
though we live dangerous
cops could just arrest me
blamin us we're held like hostages
It's only right
that I was born to use mics
and the stuff that I write
is even tougher than dice
I'm takin rappers to a new plateau
through rap slow
My rhymin is a vitamin
Hell without a capsule
The smooth criminal on beat breaks
Never put me in your box
if your shit eats tapes
The city never sleeps
full of villians and creeps
That's where I learned to do
my hustle had to
scuffle with freaks
I'ma addict for sneakers
twenties of buddah
and bitches with beepers
In the streets I can greet ya
about blunts I teach ya
Inhale deep like the words
of my breath
I never sleep
cause sleep is the cousin of death
I lay puzzle as I backtrack
to earlier times
Nothing's equivalent
to the new york state of mind