[Nas]
  Third grade, singin Star Spandled Banner
  Using proper mannersm, learned to handle anger
  Animal behavior
  Later on my block rockin wit my jocks on
  Eating Bon Ton cheese popcorn, hummin a KISS rock song
  Socks long to my knees
  Summer breeze runnin through the leaves
  Playin freeze tag, can I stay out, please dad?
  Can I hang wit my little gang out?
  Hearin shots rang out, heard my moms call my name out
  Come upstairs, run upstairs
  Take a bath, shit stained underwears
  Wipe yourself wit paper
  Bad little ass in my bed at 8:30
  Wash my plate, ate dinner up late
  Gazing at the wall, prayin basketball
  Was my future for this young one
  Hooping in the sun, proud to be where I come from
  Later shootin guns fantasizing
  Fascinated by gold rope chains
  Looking back at my hood days but things ain't change
  
  [Chorus] *all Nas samples* 2x
  "Nasty-Nasty-Nasty Nas is a rebel to America"
  "Lyrical professor, keep ya under pressure"
  "It's like that, you know it's like that"
  "Nas-Nas'll catch wreck and got the mad fat flow"
  
  [Nas]
  Bumpy Johnson style, old timers, crocodile shoes
  Pinky rings, bank robbers wit two's, boss of wild crews
  Slacks overlapsed, apple jack hats, quarter field coats
  Cadillacs wit white walls and chrome wheel spokes
  They was organizing, investing in a piece of the hood
  They had drugs, bettin numbers, police understood
  They played the Cotton Club, red carpet, hoes on they arm
  Plush minks, pimped out gangstas, civil rights wasn't won
  E'ry Christmas they was Santa Claus
  Nixon was the anti-christ
  Bitches ass was bigger than sniffin nose candy white
  Listenin to Malcom speak, talcum powder shaving cream
  Layin back, barber chair, straight razor clean
  Babies is born, big families started to blossom
  Mad people just applied for apartments and got em
  Used to be rules to this game of hustlers and dealers
  From tommy guns to mac 10's
  QB's new born killers (shit is changed)
  
  Chorus 2x
  
  [Nas]
  Yo everytime I turn around, niggas shot, niggas stabbed
  Winter nights, pregnant girls strugglin to get a cab
  Haze lurkin, D's searchin, pat pockets
  Kids quick to bed but they heads from gats poppin
  Queensbridge slingers hoppin out Benzes, don status
  Dope fiends got syringes, poppin out they arms sractchin
  I remember park jams
  Gazelles, perfect wave shell
  Adidas, smellin reefer way before purple haze
  Private stock bare, niggas wit ill walks like Mark Clare
  Hats tilted, wild niggas lickin shots in the air
  Me and Pop was there, through the years our names would switch
  Ain't nuttin changed but the names Nastradamus and Blizz
  What project is this?
  QB, Vernon and ?Timp?
  12th Street, murderous pimps, hot as hell's heat
  What could you tell me, nigga's seen it all in this game
  When it's all said and done, just remember my name
  
  Chorus 2x