If you was born in New york City let me hear say "You know that"!
 YOU KNOW THAT

 Aiyyo  once upon a rhyme where the scenery sets  you see stress
 Streets a matter of life and death  no regrets
 Life's a test  strife  wit special effects
 Neighbourhood's full of reps  cities are projects
 Where the young cadets get stripes from the vets
 And comrades quest to be the next, to finess
 Collect debts and select bets with death threats
 Object - Chedder, better your total net
 Where trends are set from ways to express the outfits
 Friends get wet tryin' to make ends connect
 Avenues to check, boulevards to sweat
 The smell of gunsmoke more common than cigarettes
 WE GOT clicks for wreck
 WE LIKE Pits for pets
 WE GOT Giants and Jets, the Knicks, Yanks and Mets
 WE LIKE much respect and sex extra wet
 And High-Tech dialect you ain't catch yet

 (The Bronx
 Ya out there?
 No doubt
 Brooklyn
 ya out there)

 [Rakim]
 Aiyyo, we got blocks and glocks with
 big shots with big knots and big props
 yo this is where the bullshit stops
 where herbs get got
 if you snitch you get shot
 we get down and leave the town in a state of shock
 WE GOT dangerous hang out spots and slick cops
 place called Riker's Island where kids get locked
 a lotta gear to rock with blocks of clothes shops
 styles are top notch, this is the place to buy
 so bust the box the radio station is hot
 ease your mind staring at skylines from rooftops
 flip scripts for chips
 and new Whips of the lot
 quick to call a shot, pollitic with thick plots
 And the Garden of Eden against the sea that we got
 to make sure the core of the big apple don't rot
 where seeings believing we be achieving a lot
 since disc jocks created hip hop, check it out!

 (Queens
 ya out there?
 no doubt
 Manhatten
 no doubt
 New York city
 Staten Island
 New york new york
 long Island
 New york
 ya out there)

 [Rakim]
 Aiyo, we got five bouroughs of ghettos
 with amny places to meet, you get lost in city streets
 the city that never sleeps
 Mecca ? Medina the population increase
 the desert and the oasis, New York, the far east
 with gods and Sheiks
 pretty amazons for weeks
 player dons that fleece the family's black sheep
 icons that teach that we all act unique
 we got stats to reach so we all have to eat
 a mass of peeps, with they own masterpiece
 the crafts elite, we going past the beat
 the latest technique no other place get as deep
 who parks release some of the worlds greatest athletes
 DJs and MCs and graffiti artistes
 who use walls and subway trains for marquees
 we go back to b-boys, breakdancing, breakbeats
 and it'll never cease and on that note
 we say peace