(Nas)
  Low profile, rap style
  slick as new now
  give the crew pounds
  every time we cover them grounds
  still surviving but there's a few down
  back in the essence
  I'm asking questions on the phone
  with jail adolescence
  crying confession, the system's supplying the pressure
  my mind is guessing
  Is living and dying a lesson
  but not to be obliged with the mirage
  of cars taking you off track
  from with the gods focus on hard
  Laid up smoking cigars
  motioning maids to bring me toast and eggs
  kosher, Ice chokers and wolves to smoke ya
  my wisdom culture lives in ultra madness
  devoted coach bag bitch
  broke the average nigga's hopes to get mad rich
  But what's the purpose
  only the gods can watch the Earth twist
  I'm physically trapped down on the surface
  with all the crack merchants
  snakes and serpents
  foul jakes the searches
  clowns with four pounds this ain't a circus.
  
  Chorus (R. Kelly)
  
  Street dreamer
  Oh mercy mercy me
  Ain't nothing I got for ya
  Situations get heavy
  Heavy, heavy
  Trying to be a gangster.
  
  (Nas)
  
  The black clouds over the hood
  I'm on the corner with the thugs
  late night under the moon
  as they assume I'm slanging drugs
  cause I'm hooded up
  thought a G a night wasn't good enough
  pushed my luck
  yo they had a brother put in cuffs
  Luckily, made it out of court comfortably
  judge said I need a job ain't nothing coming free
  could've got a one ot three
  I try to school these shorties under me
  but they can't see
  From life to death
  so know we back to where we never left the ghetto
  It's a damn shame
  knowing it's a man's game
  shorty thinks it's time to make ya plans change
  all that running round trying to chase
  what's already here - been there
  it's going no where
  pops told me knuckle up - no fear
  I wish some of these killings
  they could be prevented
  whatever happens it was written
  meaning God meant it
  but during ya life you put ya heart in it
  even though it seems we being targeted
  let that brother R hit it
  
  Chorus (extended)
  
  (Nas)
  
  Sort of wild, since a child
  hope was all we had
  drip the bust out past
  complaning the mental straining
  how many in my crew is into gaining
  subtract the weak links about the chaining
  rise it start raining
  Blasphemy using Nas name in vain
  some plain supreme being
  yet they lied in his name
  I tried to learn the game
  and the only thing I found incredible
  everything I tried to learn
  see, I already knew
  And it's embedded in my heart now
  so I can sit back, count a stack
  and play my part now
  I saw my life flash in front of my eyes
  he wore disguise
  put a gun to me hungry he
  went on to chastize
  That's Nas ain't it
  made it rich from entertainment
  fresh wally's painted
  as he told the kid he came with
  my first thought was how the game flip
  Yo perhaps it was somebody I smacked
  drunk in a party on yak
  or was I marked for a contract
  for some foul act
  a little while back or beyond that
  you got me laying face flat
  saying my grace black
  woke up in a cold sweat
  Yo, I hate that
  My air like I lost in the battlefield
  that's why I hit the mic with mad appeal
  grab ya shield and meet ya maker
  Queens niggas die for paper
  these the things the street dreams will take ya.
  
  Chorus