It’s the saga… (yo)
Put you through the epic right here (yo, yo)
One for the money, two for the dough
Three pound seven, four shots blow
It’s the raw rock show
On the stage with a gauge, that’s all I know
On your mark, set, go (set, go)
Yes, Moe, pace yourself, breath slow
Four more spots, house reps or congressional
With that Illmatic, listening to Esco
Tryna push back that decimal to this threshold
Without an arrest though, that’s professional
Fuck being that n***a in jail all swell with the best flow
Hands and feet and chains, ask you to leak some names
Or be down until 2020 Easter came
So we stay incognito, sip a little vino
In the Heights I’m Cuban, quiero perrico primo
¿Cuanto? Un kilo. ¿Serio?
Yeah, I know it’s hot but I’ll be back when it’s frío
I bought groceries when pops was goin’ through chemo
We all we got, like G Money told Nino
I watched Deon move with henchmen and chino
Practice hidow he tdalked tidon tdhe fdone with his people
My role models sold snow in a bottle to the weak and the frail
By ‘86 it was rocks in them vials
Shit looked like sleet and hail
My favorite cousin taught me how to make good tasty hood pastries on that amazing oven
Cake with the icing
If n***as short him, better brace for the lightning
Made grandma smile, but the streets wasn’t safe, he was frightening
Never liked ‘em dreads (nah)
Had trouble with the yardies
Saw 'em all on Erasmus
Caught double figure bodies
In the street, that’s live mink custom
Gun in the East River
Firing pin is in the Hudson
We never cooled out, stayed in the block steady bustin’
You was home writing Santa asking for a Teddy Ruxpin
I saw it over and over
How can I not crime when I’m older, chip on my shoulder
Wanna go from shit to brick to boulder
Long as cops don’t witness this like Jehovah
I’m a captain now I need you to be a soldier
Fuck blingin’, that ain’t part of my upbringing
That ain’t why I’m up slingin’ (no)
If I was home too long, Dee would erupt singin’
(Yo Ka, there’s money outside, go get it)
(Yo Ka, there’s money outside, go get it!)
Stayed quiet for years, then hunger fired my gears
I woke up one morning, said “I’m with it” (I’m with it, I’m with it)
Chose the path, forty years through the desert like Moses with the staff
No smile, no laugh, gettin’ n***as in the smash
Fast money crash, slow money last
It’s like crack and heroin
The difference is the peddlin’
Heads rush but fiends be patient for that medicine
I talk about the war because I’m a decorated veteran
Brownsville is what I signed in the log, at your local Sheraton
I was in your local town district and province
Problems in the empty clips spelled BK in the bricks in your projects
I was in the dark waitin’ for somebody to click on some knowledge
Till then I’m dirty in the hood
But my guns and shit polished
They was fresh out the box now they got a little mileage
From the bloodline of field n***as got slavery abolished
Born the same year uncle was murdered, I’m his reincar
We was both in the streets with comrades, tryna be a czar
But he never made it
He caught a slug, spirit elevated
My pops cuffed the ox, heard the news n***a detonated (boom!)
Diligent on some killa shit
Went to visit every n***a my uncle was dealin’ with
He was a vessel with that Saturday night special
Would impress you the amount of n***as he stepped to
Finally got his lead that he need, ran up on it like a steed
Son gon’ bleed, son gon’ bleed (son gon’ bleed!)
Some n***a from Chauncey talkin’ raunchy
Just speakin’ ‘bout it now, this shit kinda haunt me (shit fucked me up right now)
Walked up on him on broad day, once he stepped out of 4J
Stomped him the fuck out and then lit him up in the hallway (blap blap, blap blap)
Squeezed until there was nothin’ left, avenged his brother death
Homicide came by in a week five deep on the steps (what y’all want, man?)
You see, he ain’t playing, that’s part of my DNA
Now I’m on a team with n***as with the hunter gene
Y’all n***as keep being prey
But we'll spray, we'll spray
Y’all n***as prey
Y'all need us