I watch it go by

Hella planes and copters fly round

As I ride these roads

With the know-how to negotiate

Shi'ites, Jews for Jesus, Hindu and what have you

Toast with some slang that will grab you

Talkin' Œbout the space between buses

Middle of 5th, riding the line

Dotted type of hustle

I used to Motorola flex muscle

Sack full of chronic green on the payphone cussin'





Spanish Harlem bred and born

Ahead of the form

I'm deadin' the norm

Love the city Œtil I'm dead and gone, torn

Between parks and rivers and rap songs

Latch on to that New York shit and buckle your straps on

Yankee caps on

We like the Mets too

But watch out for them jersey-rocking cats

They might arrest you

We get the stress too

That's just the daily

Fuckin' with them suckas that's treating you unfairly, really

David Dinkins never rocked fishnets

What up with rowdy red-nosed reindeer with wristlets

Disguised handcuffs

Bob said get up, stand up

And if you from New York then throw your hands up (come on)

You can't duck the city that don't sleep

Big, bad wolf style

Even little Bo Peeps hold heat

Hold seats for the last car tenants

You can count sheep after we reach the city limits





Much more than amazing

A constant state of rehabilitation

Build it, tear it down

Build it up back again

Higher and harder

Flyer and smarter

People sleep in the park

While those with ends make their periodic silent departures

And their kids train corporate in tunnels of shark convents

While the less fortunate trip over tales of the dark marksman

It ain't their fault, they only know what they're shown

Ignorance is a disease and the pandemic is full-blown

The school of hard knocks is academic

Those that graduate hard rocks and get up in it

Time to time end up winning

It's justifiable

When survival's minute-by-minute

In the back of their minds

Killin' their brothers must feel like sinning though

But does it really

When the only reason that guns is bustin'

Feeds a family of four

And reads, "In God we trust"

To see this, you don't need a ticket

The feature presentation is life locked within the city limits





I find the footholds in the firmament

Gravel and granite

Watch the war waged on the front page

Pulse of panic

I talk to the towers to test your tympanic

Outweigh the nay-sayers in this melee of manics

Muster up my madness and attack it

Street teams ain't the place for players

Who can't hack it

I was young when I stole the code I had to crack it

With no regards for what the limits were

So now I sound from the center as I pound the perimeter