Nas - Back When lyrics

"Warning Warning Warning Warning
New York-New York-New York-New York
The sound The sound The sound
You about to hear-to hear-to hear-to
Hear-to hear-to hear-to hear"

"You love to hear the story
How it all, how it all, got started
Got started" (start it off)
"You love to hear the story
How it all, how it all
Got started, got started, ah yeah!"
"You love to hear the story
How it all got started"
(Start it off, start it off, start it off
Start it off)
"Back when back when back when back when
Back when back when back when back when"

Yeah, yeah the ill reminisce and think
About the fly days
Nothing like them 80s summer NY days
Hop on the MB5 days
Mopeds, Pro Keds, city split five ways
How it all started, fifth floor apartment
A jigsaw puzzle aerial view of the projects
A kid saw struggle
Buried a few of his partners
Now I chill in resorts, enjoying massages
Check out the oracle bred from city housing
Nas, I arise the dead by thousands
I remember seeing Shan chilling near his Audi
(near his Audi)
Hollis had Run and them but I proudly
Put a poster up of Shan and Marley
That was art kid
You love to hear the story how it started
The bubbly I'm pouring wasn't popped yet
Before there was an audience to watch us
I assure you there was a process, yeah

"You love to hear the story
How it all, how it all, got started
Got started" (How it all got started, yeah)
"You love to hear the story
How it all, how it all, got started
Got started"
(How it, how it all got started) ah yeah!
"You love to hear the story
How it all got started, got started"
(Hear the story, how it all, start it off
Start it off, start it off, start it off
How it all got started)
"Back when back when back when back when
(back when) back when
(back when) , back when back when back when"

To call them fake today is hate
Real niggas extinct pac left me inside a rap
World with niggas that wink
At other rappers
Undercover niggas spit every way
Won't be surprised if all their
Rides have federal plates
Let alone their wardrobes and Studio 4 flow
It was real when I appeared
It would've been some jaws broke
Nas, my real name, stage name, same thing
How could you let these lames
Claim king, I'm so ashamed, man
I light a L for Vernon for niggas
Who would burn in Hell for Vernon
10th Street, 12th Street
Nightmare on Elm Street
Pimps creep, delve deep inside the editorials
Of the ghetto queens, kings, stories true
Who possesses the testicular fortitude
To blow away myths that's a
Hindrance to all of you
You blame your own shortcomings
On sex and race
The mafia, homosexuals and all the Jews
It's hogwash point of views, stereotypical
Anti-Semitic like the foul
Words Gibson spewed and it's pathetic
I don't get the credit I deserve
That's why I hate doing interviews
But I don't sweat it, study long, study raw
My man Dion said Nas over-think
The songs he writing
I'm not a wack performer standing
Near a corny hype man
I got the Donism in me, I'm here to enlighten

"You love to hear the story
How it all, how it all, got started
Got started"
(yeah, how it all got started, yeah)
"You love to hear the story
How it all, how it all, got started
Got started"
(How it, how it all got started)
"You love to hear the story
How it all got started, got started"
(Hear the story, how it all, start it off
Start it off, start it off, start it off
How it all got started)
"Back when back when back when back when
(back when)
Back when (back when) , back when
Back when (back when) back when"