[Nas] 

Third grade, singin Star Spandled Banner 

Using proper manners, learned to handle anger

Animal behavior 

Later on my block rockin wit my jocks on 

Eating Bon Ton cheese popcorn, hummin a KISS rock song 

Socks long to my knees 

Summer breeze runnin through the leaves 

Playin freeze tag, can I stay out, please dad? 

Can I hang wit my little gang out? 

Hearin shots rang out, heard my moms call my name out 

Come upstairs, run up stairs

Take a bath, shit stained underwears 

Wipe yourself wit paper 

Bad little ass in my bed at 8:30 

Wash my plate, ate dinner up late 

Gazing at the wall, prayin basketball 

Was my future for this young one 

Hooping in the sun, proud to be where I come from 

Later shootin guns fantasizing 

Fascinated by gold rope chains 

Looking back at my hood days but things ain't change 



[Chorus x2: all Nas samples] 

"Nasty-Nasty-Nasty Nas is a rebel to America" 

"Lyrical professor, keep ya under pressure" 

"It's like that, you know it's like that" 

"Nas-Nas'll catch wreck", "You got the mad fat fluid"



[Nas] 

Bumpy Johnson style, old timers, crocodile shoes 

Pinky rings, bank robbers wit two's, boss of wild crews 

Slacks overlapsed, apple jack hats, quarter field coats 

Cadillacs wit white walls and chrome wheel spokes 

They was organizing, investing in a piece of the hood 

They had drugs, bettin numbers, police understood 

They played the Cotton Club, red carpet, hoes on they arm 

Plush minks, pimped out gangstas, civil rights wasn't won 

E'ry Christmas they was Santa Claus 

Nixon was the anti-christ 

Bitches ass was bigger than sniffin nose candy white 

Listenin to Malcom speak, talcum powder shaving cream 

Layin back, barber chair, straight razor clean 

Babies is born, big families started to blossom 

Mad people just applied for apartments and got em 

Used to be rules to this game of hustlers and dealers 

From tommy guns to mac 10's 

QB's new born killers (shit is changed) 



[Chorus x2]



[Nas] 

Yo everytime I turn around, niggas shot, niggas stabbed 

Winter nights, pregnant girls strugglin to get a cab 

Fiends lurkin, D's searchin, pat pockets

Kids quick to bed but they heads from gats poppin 

Queensbridge slingers hoppin out Benzes, don status 

Dope fiends got syringes, poppin out they arms sractchin 

I remember park jams 

Gazelles, perfect wave shell 

Adidas, smellin reefer way before purple haze 

Private stock bare, niggas wit ill walks like Mark Clare 

Hats tilted, wild niggas lickin shots in the air 

Me and Pop was there, through the years our names would switch 

Ain't nuttin changed but the names Nastradamus and Blizz 

What project is this? 

QB, Vernon and Tenth

12th Street, murderous pimps, hot as hell's heat 

What could you tell me, nigga's seen it all in this game 

When it's all said and done, just remember my name 



[Chorus x2]