Nas
The Mecca
[Intro: Radhamusprime]
Now I'm on my way to the big city
I'm going to New York
40-Year-Old Version (The Mecca)
Yo, the Bronx, it's on you
It's Harlem, what!
Let them know (The Mecca)
B.K., (The Mecca) all day, huh
Yo, Shaolin, Shaolin, huh
The Mecca, Yonkers!
Y-O (The Mecca) Queens

[Verse 1: Nas]
I write, the page starts, vision orbs white dots
Visions from all sorts of beings 'til life stop
You see in the right part, paranormal pen
The Conjuring, I'm convinced
It could be spirits in the jewelry I'm shining in
I take a hand-written card before I don a gift
A love letter, thanks to my grandmothers
Would saying they thought I was crazy
Now I see fortune favors the bold, they made me
Stay dangerously, ancestral guidance
Spiritual gangsta, you know how we slidin'
Life's a rosary beads, I know the code of the streets
But where would I be if they wasn't looking over me?
My life's been a better life since I left that life
Beyond my type quotes, my life is your life coach
Separate revenue streams, what you sayin'
Even my chain gave birth to every chain in the game
[Verse 2: Dave East]
They suffer from delusions of grandeur
Don't get caught with your pants off
Now we run hard, you got extorted cause you ran soft
Holdin' the signs, times of a DVD
I'm watching for TMZ, the law and order I saw was on TNT
Driving like it's Nascar, old school, top down, the rag off
C-town worker, I'm dropping the bags off
Every week the car switch, just left Timberlee, eating aki and swordfish
Where I'm from, it get dark quick
I know they got the packages sending like Ochoa brothers
Don't matter what you sell, like Cali, we cartel
I had visions of a mansion but were stuck in a small cell
I'm fortunate to say I know y'all well
Nas, you signed me (my n***a)
Styles, we did Beloved with no problem
Fair move, Tang and Stapleton, Ghostface co-signed me
Tony Stark, Pablo, Esco, Pinero
In a room full of weirdos, plottin' to rob 'em like DeNiro
I'm not no hero

[Hook: Styles P]
Welcome to the Mecca, home of the homeboy
Home of the homegirl, home of the mic-checker
Welcome to the Mecca, home of the king and queen
Home of the gods and home of the fly sectors
Welcome to the Mecca, the city never sleeps
And the shit is like a movie, my n***as is directors
Welcome to the Mecca
New York City where rap was invented, you love it if you was in it
[Verse 3: Remy Ma]
Where I'm from, the liquor store is next door to the church and
Couldn't use the pizza shop bathroom with no purchase
Everybody was hurting, nobody was working
Sheets in the windows, couldn't afford curtains
Bum dude cut my face, just one of my burdens
Took my own stitches out, no insurance and no surgeon
Now I take private jets on excursions
Now I got a Birkin, now I got a daughter
And she a whole person, she the whole purpose
Now I be tryna write my rhymes with no curses
Ten years from now, don't want her on the web searching
Seeing mom half-naked on the stage twerking
Nope, the views ain't worth it
I'm prepping for the day she asks, "Mommy, why they say you shot a person?"
Remy ain't perfect
But if you ain't from the streets, my life could be a little hard to interpret
Take the top layer off, right below the surface
I'm so New York, just a 40-year-old version

[Verse 4: Styles P]
You dig?
Ghost, I'm a god to your gods, so what's the king to me?
When I made it off of poverty bars
I was selling dope, when you had Monopoly cards
I was dirt poor, now you see the property large
New sweatsuit, fat knot, Glock in the palm
Took a yacht from the Bahamas, docked in the ponds
I'm from New York, new thoughts burn like Newports
I don't fuck with rap dudes, a lot of them too soft
Tryna get me the mall to smoke in the food court
Dog food and a new Porsche
With two pretty bitches that'll shoot at you soon as you snooze off
Nah, dawg, I'm legit now
Forest green 6 with the AMG kit when I skip town
Fuck a foreign car and an Audemars
I'm tryna get it like I'm Randolph and Mortimer
Duke, yeah that shit in your drop box Q
But you pussy, you should put it on mute, n***a
[Hook: Styles P]
Welcome to the Mecca, home of the homeboy
Home of the homegirl, home of the mic-checker
Welcome to the Mecca, home of the king and queen
Home of the gods and home of the fly sectors
Welcome to the Mecca, the city never sleeps
And the shit is like a movie, my n***as is directors
Welcome to the Mecca
New York City where rap was invented, you love it if you was in it

[Verse 5: Ghostface Killah]
Yeah, yo, Wizard of Oz, I push bars through seminars
Recoup and reinvest earners, back to Panama
A gangster's memoir, pinky ring, no chain
Used to sit in Cristal baths, watch Soul Train
To all my enemies, I'll shoot up your embassy
Starks go off your energy, .44's the remedy
I sit and just grin while embracing my pen
I shot between sharp walls, never scraping my fins
This is the moment, the CDC verse stop the COVID
Been in big dice games, never hesitating to roll it
I was taught to just shoot that shit, never to show it
Strangle the witness, slit the throat of a culprit
Ultra black's your toast, holy ghost, a blacksmith
Know n***as that'll cremate you, smoke your ashes
Two pulls and pass it
Then ask a n***a how he taste, fantastic

[Hook: Styles P]
Welcome to the Mecca, home of the homeboy
Home of the homegirl, home of the mic-checker
Welcome to the Mecca, home of the king and queen
Home of the gods and home of the fly sectors
Welcome to the Mecca, the city never sleeps
And the shit is like a movie, my n***as is directors
Welcome to the Mecca
New York City where rap was invented, you love it if you was in it

[Outro: Radhamusprime]
Radhamusprime, Nas
Dave East, we in the Mecca
Ayo Remy, Styles P
Ghostface, Beatminerz
Mr. Walt, Evil D