(Nas)
 Low profile  rap style
 slick as new now
 give the crew pounds
 every time we cover them grounds
 still surviving but there's a few down
 back in the essence
 I'm asking questions on the phone
 with jail adolescence
 crying confession  the system's supplying 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 get 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 no where
 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 plain 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
 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
 a little 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 air 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.

 Chorus