Illmatic

What up kid? I know shit is rough doing your bid

When the cops came, you shoulda slid to my crib

Fuck it, black, no time for looking back it's done

Plus congratulations, you know you got a son

I heard he looks like you, why don't your lady write you?

Told her she should visit, that's when she got hyper

Flippin', talk about he acts too rough

He didn't listen, he be riffin' while I'm tellin' him stuff

I was like, "Yeah", shorty don't care, she a snake too

Fuckin' with the niggas from that fake crew that hate you

But yo', guess who got shot in the dome-piece

Jerome's niece, on her way home from Jones beach, it's bugged

Plus little Rob is selling drugs on the dime

Hangin' out with young thugs that all carry 9's

And night time is more trife than ever

What up with Cormega? Did you see him? Are y'all together?

If so, then hold the fort down, represent to the fullest

Say what's up to Herb, Ice and Bullet

I left a half a hundred in your commissary

You was my nigga when push came to shove

(One what?) One love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

Dear Born, you'll be out soon, stay strong

Out in New York, the same shit is goin' on

The crack-heads stalkin', loud-mouths is talkin'

Hold, check out the story yesterday, when I was walkin'

The nigga you shot last year tried to appear like he hurtin' somethin'

Word to mother, I heard him frontin'

And he be pumpin' on your block

Your man gave him your Glock

And now they run together, what up son? Whatever

Since I'm on the streets, I'ma put it to a cease

But I heard you blew a nigga with a ox for the phone piece

Wilin' on the island, but now in Elmira

Better chill, 'cause them niggas will put that ass on fire

Last time you wrote you said, they tried you in the showers

But maintain when you come home, the corner's ours

On the reals, all these crab niggas know the deal

When we start the revolution all they probably do is squeal

But chill, see you on the next V-I

I gave your mom dukes loot for kicks, plus sent ya flicks

Your brother's buck wilin' in four Maine, he wrote me

He might beat his case, 'til he come home I'll play it low key

So stay civilised, time flies

Though incarcerated, your mind dies

I hate it when your moms cries

It kinda wants to make me murder, for reala

I even got a mask and gloves to bust slugs, but one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

Sometimes I sit back with a Buddha sack

Mind's in another world thinkin'

"How can we exist through the facts?"

Written in school text books, Bibles, etcetera

Fuck a school lecture, the lies get me vexed

So I be ghost for my projects

I take my pen and pad for the weekend

Hittin' Ls while I'm sleepin'

A two-day stay, you may say I need the time alone

To relax my dome, no phone, left the 9 at home

You see the streets have me stressed somethin' terrible

Fuckin' with the corners have a nigga up in Bellevue

Or HDM, hit with numbers from eight to ten

A future in a maximum state pen is grim

So I comes back home, nobody's out but Shorty Doo-Wop

Rollin' two phillies together, in the Bridge we call 'em "oo-wops"

He said, "Nas, niggas cold be bustin' off the roof

So I wear a bulletproof and pack a black tres-deuce"

He inhaled so deep, shut his eyes like he was sleep

Started coughin', one eye peeked to watch me speak

I sat back like the mack, my army suit was black

We was chillin' on these benches where he pumped his loose cracks

I took the L when he passed it, this little bastard

Keeps me blasted, he starts talkin' mad shit

I had to school him, told him don't let niggas fool him

'Cause when the pistol blows the one that's murdered be the cool one

Tough luck when niggas are struck, families fucked up

Could've caught your man, but didn't look when you bucked up

Mistakes happen, so take heed, never bust up

At the crowd, catch him solo, make the right man bleed

Shorty's laugh was cold blooded as he spoke so foul

Only 12 trying to tell me that he liked my style

Then I rose, wipin' the blunts ash from my clothes

Then froze only to blow the herb smoke through my nose

And told my little man I'ma ghost, I broze

Left some jewels in his skull that he can sell if he chose

Words of wisdom from Nas, try to rise up above

Keep an eye out for Jake, Shorty Wop, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love, one love, one love, one love

One love

Yeah, it's Illmatic (yeah)

It's Illmatic (yeah!)

It's Illmatic, huh

(Yeah kick that shit)

One time 4 your mind, one time

Yeah whatever

One time 4 your mind, one time

Yo whatever

One time 4 your mind, one time

Aiyyo Nas (whattup Paul) kick that fuckin rhyme

Check it out

When I'm chillin, I grab the buddha, get my crew to buy beers

And watch a flick, illin and root for the villian, huh

Plus every morning, I go out and love it sort of chilly

Then I send a shorty from my block to the store for Phillies

After being blessed by the herb's essence

I'm back to my rest, ten minutes some odd seconds

That's where I got the honey at, spends the night for sexing

Cheap lubrication, Lifestyle protection

Picking up my stereo's remote control quickly

Ron G's in the cassette deck, rockin the shit, G

I try to stay mellow, rock, well acapella rhymes'll

Make me richer than a slipper made Cinderella fella

Go get your crew, Hobbes, I'm prepared to bomb troops

Got niggaz who's born, I shot my way out my Mom Dukes

When I was ten, I was a hip-hoppin shorty wop

Known for rocking microphones and twisting off a 40 top, yeah

One time 4 your mind, one time

Yeah whatever

One time 4 your mind, one time

It sound clever

Hey yo Nas, fuck that, man that shit was fat

But kick that for them gangstas man, fuck all that

Right, right, what up niggaz, how y'all, it's Nasty the villian

I'm still writin rhymes but besides that I'm chillin

I'm trying to get this money, God, you know the hard times, kid

Shit, cold be starvin make you wanna do crimes kid

But I'ma lamp, cuz a crime couldn't beat a rhyme

Niggaz catching 3 to 9's, Muslims yelling free the mind

And I'm from Queensbridge, been to many places

As a kid when I would say that out of town, niggaz chased us

But now I know the time, got a older mind

Plus control a nine, fine, see now I represent mine

I'm new on the rap scene, brothers never heard of me

Yet I'm a meance, yo, police wanna murder me

Heine(ken) Dark drinker, represent the thinker

My pen rides the paper, it even has blinkers

Think I'll dim the lights then inhale, it stimulates

Floating like I'm on the North 95 Interstate

Never plan to stop, when I write my hand is hot

And expand alot from the Wiz to Camelot

The parlayer, I'll make ya heads bop Pah

I shine a light on perpetrators like a cop's car

From day to night, I play the mic and you'll thank God

I wreck shit so much, the microphone'll need a paint job

My brain is incarcerated

Live at any jam, I couldn't count all the parks I raided

I hold a Mac-11, and attack the Reverand

I contact 11 L's and max in heaven

One time 4 your mind, one time

It sound clever

One time 4 your mind, one time

Yeah whatever

One time 4 your mind, one time

Yo, from ninety-two to ninety-nine

Yeah that shit was greasy fat Paul, kno what I'm sayin?

But check it, you gotta another verse for me

I want you to kick it, you know what I'msayin?

Kick that shit for the projects