Iron Solomon, Talib Kweli - The Empire lyrics

I'm from the home of the hustler
Born with a mean mug
Talk fast and we walk fast, keep up
Step with a different rhythm
Try to make the most of
What little we've been given
By the city that we live in
"Where the Wall Street intellect
And street smarts intersect
And dog eat dog's feet the
Law that’s in effect
Trying to get even for the
Odds that we overcoming
So we can hear the sirens from
The coppers but no one's running
No matter what we facing we
Don't turn the cheek
The highest currency is courage
In these urban streets
We're in-a-gadda da-vita where people
Popping they heaters
We never follow our leaders, for preachers
Prophets and teachers
With lady liberty's living but we
Ain't gotten to see her
I swear the cab's will run you
Over without stopping the meter
B-b-but you can never count us out
Even when we down and out
Nothing to be proud about
Still the people shouting out

My city, my home, my city, my
Home, my city, my home, new York city
My city, my home, my city, my
Home, my city, my home, new York city

I'm from the home of the stick-up kid
We always show the streets love
Talk fast, plus we walk fast, keep up
I step over Gutter Rainbows
Wish I could give away millions
Like I was Maino
You know how the gutter slang go
If you listen to Big L
"Ebonics" was the meanest
The bombers made it tragic but we
Rose up from the ashes
Like the promise of the phoenix
I promise you we eatin'
Won't you stop being greedy
We too hot for TV, Panasonic or the Zenith
I roll with Brooklyn vegans
Just for lookin', leave ya leakin'
Central bookin' at the precinct
Since a youth, I grew up in New York
I draw the parallels
Detention that was jail snitches
Is the tattle tails epitaphs was racial
Fuck how niggas and the crackers feel
It's tragic how our whips got
More gadgets than the Batmobile
The inspiration for Gotham
The metropolitan's rotten
Stay on top of the problems
Cause we're coming from the bottom got em

My city, my home, my city, my
Home, my city, my home, new York city
My city, my home, my city, my
Home, my city, my home, new York city
New York, New York, my city, my home
My city, my home

As a teen I sold 20's spending my own money
Stepping out my parents' house the
City was home to me
Riverside Park, we would kick it after dark
By the pier with some beers
And a piff that we would spark
And run up in house parties and
Turn them to our parties
And neighbors would call cops
Cause we would get wild rowdy another night
Another page written in life's journal
9 million stories in a city with 5 boroughs
Different backgrounds
But we came through the same struggle
Dreaming of fame
We wrote our names on the train tunnels
Running round the city like
Rats in crawlspaces
Catching court cases for jacking North Faces
Chasing the fast life
We know that it's too short
Breathing the air here it's
Like smoking a Newport
My home is in New York
Like Biggie in Bed-Stuy
We live and we let die the city of NY

My city, my home, my city, my
Home, my city, my home, new York city
My city, my home, my city, my
Home, my city, my home, new York city
New York, New York, my city, my home
My city, my home