Nas - N.Y. State of Mind lyrics
Nas [Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones] Brooklyn, NYC, U.S. 🇺🇸
[Nas - N.Y. State of Mind lyrics]
Yeah, yeah ayo, Black it's time, word
(Word, it's time, man)
It's time, man (Aight, man, begin)
Yeah straight out the fuckin' dungeons of rap
Where fake niggas don't make it back
I don't know how to start this shit, yo now
Rappers I monkey flip 'em
With the funky rhythm
I be kickin', musician inflictin' composition
Of pain, I'm like Scarface sniffin' cocaine
Holdin' an M16, see, with the pen I'm extreme
Now, bullet holes left in my peepholes
I'm suited up with street clothes
Hand me a 9 and I'll defeat foes
Y'all know my steelo
With or without the airplay i keep some E&J
Sittin' bent up in the stairway
Or either on the corner bettin'
Grants with the cee-lo champs
Laughin' at base heads
Tryna sell some broken amps
G packs get off quick
Forever niggas talk shit
Reminiscin' about the last time
The task force flipped
Niggas be runnin' through the block shootin'
Time to start the revolution, catch a body
Head for Houston
Once they caught us off-guard, the
MAC-10 was in the grass, and
I ran like a cheetah
With thoughts of an assassin
Picked the MAC up
Told brothers "Back up!" the MAC spit
Lead was hittin' niggas, one ran
I made him back-flip
Heard a few chicks scream, my arm shook
Couldn't look
Gave another squeeze, heard it click, "Yo
My shit is stuck!"
Tried to cock it, it wouldn't shoot
Now I'm in danger
Finally pulled it back and saw three
Bullets caught up in the chamber
So, now I'm jettin' to the buildin' lobby
And it was full of children
Prob'ly couldn't see as high as I be
(So, what you sayin'?) It's like
The game ain't the same
Got younger niggas pullin' the triggers
Bringin' fame to their name
And claim some corners
Crews without guns are goners
In broad daylight, stick-up kids
They run up on us
45’s and gauges, MAC's in fact
Same niggas will catch you back-to back
Snatchin' your cracks in black
There was a snitch on the
Block gettin' niggas knocked
So hold your stash 'til the coke price drop
I know this crackhead who said
She gotta smoke nice rock and if it's good
She'll bring you customers and measuring pots
But yo, you gotta slide on a vacation
Inside information keeps large niggas erasin'
And their wives basin'
It drops deep as it does in my breath
I never sleep
'cause sleep is the cousin of death
Beyond the walls of intelligence
Life is defined i think of crime when I'm in
A New York State of Mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
Be havin' dreams that I'm
A gangsta, drinkin' Moëts, holdin' TEC's
Makin' sure the cash came correct
Then I stepped investments in stocks
Sewin' up the blocks to sell rocks
Winnin' gunfights with mega-cops
But just a nigga walkin' with
His finger on the trigger
Make enough figures until my
Pockets get bigger
I ain't the type of brother made
For you to start testin'
Give me a Smith & Wesson
I'll have niggas undressin'
Thinkin' of cash flow, Buddha and shelter
Whenever frustrated, I'ma hijack Delta
In the PJ's, my blend tape plays
Bullets are strays young bitches is grazed
Each block is like a maze
Full of black rats trapped
Plus the Island is packed
From what I hear in all the
Stories when my peoples come back
Black, I'm livin' where the
Nights is jet-black
The fiends fight to get crack, I just max
I dream I can sit back
And lamp like Capone, with drug scripts sewn
Or the legal luxury life
Rings flooded with stones, homes
I got so many rhymes
I don't think I'm too sane
Life is parallel to Hell, but I must maintain
And be prosperous, though we live dangerous
Cops could just arrest me
Blamin' us we're held like hostages
It's only right that I was born to use mics
And the stuff that I write
Is even tougher than dykes
I'm takin' rappers to a new plateau
Through rap slow my rhymin' is a vitamin
Held without a capsule
The smooth criminal on beat breaks
Never put me in your box
If your shit eats tapes
The city never sleeps
Full of villains and creeps
That's where I learned to do my hustle
Had to scuffle with freaks
I'm a addict for sneakers
20's of Buddha and bitches with beepers
In the streets I can greet ya
About blunts I teach ya
Inhale deep like the words of my breath
I never sleep
'cause sleep is the cousin of death
I lay puzzled as I backtrack to earlier times
Nothing's equivalent to the New
York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
"Nasty Nas
(Word, it's time, man)
It's time, man (Aight, man, begin)
Yeah straight out the fuckin' dungeons of rap
Where fake niggas don't make it back
I don't know how to start this shit, yo now
Rappers I monkey flip 'em
With the funky rhythm
I be kickin', musician inflictin' composition
Of pain, I'm like Scarface sniffin' cocaine
Holdin' an M16, see, with the pen I'm extreme
Now, bullet holes left in my peepholes
I'm suited up with street clothes
Hand me a 9 and I'll defeat foes
Y'all know my steelo
With or without the airplay i keep some E&J
Sittin' bent up in the stairway
Or either on the corner bettin'
Grants with the cee-lo champs
Laughin' at base heads
Tryna sell some broken amps
G packs get off quick
Forever niggas talk shit
Reminiscin' about the last time
The task force flipped
Niggas be runnin' through the block shootin'
Time to start the revolution, catch a body
Head for Houston
Once they caught us off-guard, the
MAC-10 was in the grass, and
I ran like a cheetah
With thoughts of an assassin
Picked the MAC up
Told brothers "Back up!" the MAC spit
Lead was hittin' niggas, one ran
I made him back-flip
Heard a few chicks scream, my arm shook
Couldn't look
Gave another squeeze, heard it click, "Yo
My shit is stuck!"
Tried to cock it, it wouldn't shoot
Now I'm in danger
Finally pulled it back and saw three
Bullets caught up in the chamber
So, now I'm jettin' to the buildin' lobby
And it was full of children
Prob'ly couldn't see as high as I be
(So, what you sayin'?) It's like
The game ain't the same
Got younger niggas pullin' the triggers
Bringin' fame to their name
And claim some corners
Crews without guns are goners
In broad daylight, stick-up kids
They run up on us
45’s and gauges, MAC's in fact
Same niggas will catch you back-to back
Snatchin' your cracks in black
There was a snitch on the
Block gettin' niggas knocked
So hold your stash 'til the coke price drop
I know this crackhead who said
She gotta smoke nice rock and if it's good
She'll bring you customers and measuring pots
But yo, you gotta slide on a vacation
Inside information keeps large niggas erasin'
And their wives basin'
It drops deep as it does in my breath
I never sleep
'cause sleep is the cousin of death
Beyond the walls of intelligence
Life is defined i think of crime when I'm in
A New York State of Mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
Be havin' dreams that I'm
A gangsta, drinkin' Moëts, holdin' TEC's
Makin' sure the cash came correct
Then I stepped investments in stocks
Sewin' up the blocks to sell rocks
Winnin' gunfights with mega-cops
But just a nigga walkin' with
His finger on the trigger
Make enough figures until my
Pockets get bigger
I ain't the type of brother made
For you to start testin'
Give me a Smith & Wesson
I'll have niggas undressin'
Thinkin' of cash flow, Buddha and shelter
Whenever frustrated, I'ma hijack Delta
In the PJ's, my blend tape plays
Bullets are strays young bitches is grazed
Each block is like a maze
Full of black rats trapped
Plus the Island is packed
From what I hear in all the
Stories when my peoples come back
Black, I'm livin' where the
Nights is jet-black
The fiends fight to get crack, I just max
I dream I can sit back
And lamp like Capone, with drug scripts sewn
Or the legal luxury life
Rings flooded with stones, homes
I got so many rhymes
I don't think I'm too sane
Life is parallel to Hell, but I must maintain
And be prosperous, though we live dangerous
Cops could just arrest me
Blamin' us we're held like hostages
It's only right that I was born to use mics
And the stuff that I write
Is even tougher than dykes
I'm takin' rappers to a new plateau
Through rap slow my rhymin' is a vitamin
Held without a capsule
The smooth criminal on beat breaks
Never put me in your box
If your shit eats tapes
The city never sleeps
Full of villains and creeps
That's where I learned to do my hustle
Had to scuffle with freaks
I'm a addict for sneakers
20's of Buddha and bitches with beepers
In the streets I can greet ya
About blunts I teach ya
Inhale deep like the words of my breath
I never sleep
'cause sleep is the cousin of death
I lay puzzled as I backtrack to earlier times
Nothing's equivalent to the New
York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
New York state of mind
"Nasty Nas