To my niggaz.. huh..
 We all we got..
 Let's hold it down though  y'know?
 However it's gon' go down
 This what we gotta deal with  y'know?
 Yo..

 Chorus: Nas

 It's the life we chose  where friends become foes
 and the dough'll get you killed quicker than you know
 This is the life we chose  bring fake snakes and hoes
 and the only way out  is death or goin broke
 This the life we chose  ain't too many happy endings
 That's why there ain't too many happy niggaz in it
 And I'll admit it, this life is fucked up but yo..
 (but yo..) this life is the only life I know {*echoes}

 [Nas]
 Uhh, uhh, uhh
 Gold bathtubs, makin love to my Queen
 Get my back rubbed, Chardonnay, rollin up green
 Statues, marble floors, rare paintings on my wall
 My lifestyle's like the Forbes Magazine
 Closets, full of rockets and submachines
 Take this nigga out the projects, and his thug team
 Yo we cruise past street lights, ill rides
 Mr. Child both coasts with the most loud toast
 Calicos roast y'all folks, keep y'all dyin
 Cause it's hard to fuck around when we dealin with science
 My enemies got money, so y'all should watch how I play it
 They never know we enemies until they hear me say it
 Til they kid's on the phone sayin, "Please daddy pay it"
 Til they brain's on the floor, mixed on the pavement
 High-class elegance, you respect or you hiss
 You go against you'd rather piss on an electrical fence
 It's strategic, how these niggaz want you to think
 You'd be surprised, who'd be the one to put you to sleep
 Why you stink? Yo these streets don't allow you to blink
 You get showered by lead, comin out with your mink
 Bow ties and tuxedos, bust Eagles
 Dump drugs and acid, then they rush with the Rico
 It's hard fuckin with niggaz you hope you can trust
 You a fool if your main bitch is easy to fuck
 And you've got money - is these hoes greedy or what?
 Shit is devious, ex-friends wantin you stuck

 Chorus

 [Nas]
 Uhh, what's love when you don't give your man enough dough?
 He wanna stick you
 What's love, you got beef?
 Nobody rollin wit you
 What's love, you locked up, and your family don't care
 Is love a four-letter word, that deceives the air?
 What's real, when you know your man's girl is a hoe
 And you don't even let him know, cause you fucked her befo'
 What's real, when you talk behind a man's back
 then you see him and give him dap, now explain that?
 What's trust, when they seperate your case
 When you at your court date, your co-de', can't look in your face
 What's trust, when you keep your wife away from your man?
 And he never crossed you, but you claimin he's fam'?
 What's trust, when you get bust, your niggaz don't retaliate?
 They blaze purple haze with em the next day?
 God forbid one of my niggaz get hit, I'ma go haywire
 Won't hesitate, I'ma spray fire
 But everybody's different, you won't know how you react
 til you in that position, and that's an actual fact
 The hearts of men change as time goes on, who's wrong?
 You was hungry when you stuck Duke, he came back to buck you
 Who's wrong? Foul all your life, now you 90
 On your deathbed you regret bein grimy
 What's lust, a bust nut? What's a thug?
 A ghetto child raised around drugs, til he's old enough to bust slugs?
 Then what's jail, to rehabilitate, or to make a nigga worse
 when he come home to catch another case?
 Life's about decisions, you choose it, you gotta live it
 You did it, heaven or hell or prison
 Who knows when your clock'll stop tickin, get your weight up
 Save up before it's over neighbor, I told ya
 You gettin older player, look at those who gave up

 Chorus