[Nas] Low profile, rap style, slick as Nu Nile Give the crew pounds everytime we cover new grounds Still surviving but there's a few down, back in the essence I'm asking questions on the phone, with jail adolescents Quiet confession, the system's applying the pressure My mind is guessing, is living and dying a lesson? But not to be obliged with the mirage of cars taking you off track from with the gods focus on hard Laid up smoking cigars Motioning maids to bring me toast and eggs Kosher, ice chokers and wolves to smoke ya my wisdom culture lives in ultra madness devoted coach bag bitch broke the average nigga's hopes to get mad rich But what's the purpose Only the Gods can watch the Earth twist I'm physically trapped down on the surface with all the crack merchants snakes and serpents foul jakes the searches clowns with four pounds this ain't a circus.
[Chorus: R. Kelly] Street dreamer Oh mercy mercy me Ain't nothing I got for ya Situations gettin heavy Heavy, heavy Trying to be a gangster
[Nas] The black clouds over the hood, I'm on the corner with the thugs Late night under the moon as they assume I'm slanging drugs Cause I'm hooded up, thought a G a night wasn't good enough Pushed my luck, yo they had a brother put in cuffs Luckily, made it out of court comfortably Judge said I need a job ain't nothing coming free Could've got a one to three I try to school these shorties under me but they can't see From life to death so know we back to where we never left the ghetto It's a damn shame, knowing it's a man's game Shorty thinks it's time to make ya plans change All that running round trying to chase what's already here - been there, it's going nowhere Pops told me knuckle up - no fear I wish some of these killings they could be prevented whatever happens it was written meaning God meant it but during ya life you put ya heart in it even though it seems we being targeted let that brother R hit it
[Chorus](extended)
[Nas] Sort of wild, since a child, hope was all we had Drip the bust out past complaning the mental straining how many in my crew is into gaining subtract the weak links about the chaining rise it start raining Blasphemy using Nas name in vain Some claim supreme being yet they lied in his name I tried to learn the game and the only thing I found incredible Everything I tried to learn see, I already knew (that's right) And it's embedded in my heart now so I can sit back, count a stack and play my part now I saw my life flash in front of my eyes, he wore disguise Put a gun to me hungry he went on to chastize That's Nas ain't it, made it rich from entertainment Fresh Wally's painted, as he told the kid he came with My first thought was how the game flip Yo perhaps it was somebody I smacked drunk in a party on yak Or was I marked for a contract for some foul act I did a while back or beyond that You got me laying face flat Saying my grace black, woke up in a cold sweat Yo, I hate that My err' like I lost in the battlefield That's why I hit the mic with mad appeal Grab ya shield and meet ya maker Queens niggas die for paper These the things the street dreams will take ya