Nas - Hope (Acapella Version) lyrics

Hip Hop it will never die
Hip Hop it will never, never die

Ghetto nigga strutting
With nothing but dreams in Queens broke
Mac-10s, you can smell the PCP smoke
Melle Mel told it real, in the music he wrote
Those were the days I remember
We used to be close
Then I was nine, coldest winter I remember
Was slipping in December, two feet of snow
Yeah, that's the East Coast, that black ice
Symbolize the rap life
It was slick and smooth
I understood I had to come from the hood
Doing the Pee Wee Herman, the Smurf
Before them phones chirped
The block's drugs flowing
Didn't have your own work
You had to have somebody else's
A small chrome on your pelvis
Starter jacket
Blue Georgetown or Green Celtic
Your girl's too expensive, she want shellfish
Red Lobster was popping
Standing on that line forever
I wish somebody would step
On my Bally leathers now it's whatever
Hip Hop's forever kept my radio on 98 or BLS
Had a pre-pubescent lyric gift
But niggas never hear me spit
My little brother tried to warn them
I was a tornado coming
He knew from inside like the eye of a storm
And told my pops about it
He gave us tickets to that Wild Style flick
Double Trouble retarded, we was the proudest
I never had a summer job
Sweeping leaves, socks to my knees
Home made shorts, cut off Lee's
I ain't work a day in my life
Wiping away eraser off the paper, man
I'm just trying to say it right
Big radio, tape's slowing down
Lower the lights go, battery dead
I got to freeze them 'till they're ice cold
In the freezer later
I'm staring at the speaker
Sunk in them 808s deeper
Cleaning my sneakers
With the bristles of a toothbrush
Soap and water
I let the shoestrings soak in water

(Live Hip Hop
Live) Ain't got nothing to do with Old School
(Live Hip Hop, Live) New School, Dirty South
(Give Hip Hop, Give) West Coast, East Coast
This about us
(Give Hip Hop, Give) This our thing
You know what I'm saying
(Stay Hip Hop, Stay) This came from the gut
From the blood (Stay Hip Hop, Stay) From
The soul, right here, man
(I Pray Hip Hop, Pray) This is our thing, man
(I Pray Hip Hop
Stays) You know? so I say what I say

(Live Hip Hop, Live) And I say what I say
And I mean it (Live Hip Hop
Live) Y'all take it how you want to take it
(Give Hip Hop
Give) Because if you asking: "Why
Is Hip Hop dead?"
(Give Hip Hop, Give) It's a pretty good
Chance, you the reason it died, man
(Stay Hip Hop, Stay) It's a pretty
Good, chance your lame ass, corny ass
(Stay Hip Hop, Stay) Is the reason it died
Man (I Pray Hip Hop, Pray) You don't
Give a fuck about it
You don't know nothing about it
(I Pray Hip Hop, Stays) You want this paper
Be a hustler (Live Hip Hop, Live) You a
Hustler, you ain't a rapper
Get your paper man (Live Hip Hop, Live) You
Know what I'm saying
But this rap shit is real
(Give Hip Hop, Give) Bitch
This shit is real: bitch
(Give Hip Hop, Give) laughs
(Stay Hip Hop, Stay, Live)
(Stay Hip Hop, Stay, Live)
(I Pray Hip Hop, Pray, Give)
(I Pray Hip Hop, Stays, Live Hip Hop, Live)
(Stay, Live Hip Hop, Live)
(Give Hip Hop, Give, Give Hip Hop, Give)
(Stay Hip Hop, Stay, Stay Hip Hop, Stay)
(I Pray Hip Hop, Pray)
(I Pray Hip Hop, Stays)