Rappers I monkey flip em with the funky rhythm I be kicking Musician, inflicting composition Of pain I'm like Scarface sniffing cocaine Holding a M-16, see with the pen I'm extreme, now Bullet holes left in my peepholes I'm suited up in street clothes Hand me a nine and I'll defeat foes Y'all know my steelo with or without the airplay I keep some E&J, sitting bent up in the stairway Or either on the corner betting Grants with the celo champs Laughing at base-heads, trying to sell some broken amps G-Packs get off quick, forever niggas talk shit Reminiscing about the last time the Task Force flipped Niggas be running through the block shooting Time to start the revolution, catch a body head for Houston Once they caught us off guard, the Mac-10 was in the grass and I ran like a cheetah with thoughts of an assassin Pick the Mac up, told brothers, "Back up," the Mac spit Lead was hitting niggas one ran, I made him back flip Heard a few chicks scream my arm shook, couldn't look Gave another squeeze heard it click yo, my shit is stuck Try to cock it, it wouldn't shoot now I'm in danger Finally pulled it back and saw three bullets caught up in the chamber So now I'm jetting to the building lobby And it was filled with children probably couldn't see as high as I be (So what you saying?) It's like the game ain't the same Got younger niggas pulling the triggers bringing fame to they name And claim some corners, crews without guns are goners In broad daylight, stickup kids, they run up on us Fo'-fives and gauges, Macs in fact Same niggas'll catch a back to back, snatching yo' cracks in black There was a snitch on the block getting niggas knocked So hold your stash until the coke price drop I know this crackhead, who said she gotta smoke nice rock And if it's good she'll bring ya customers in measuring pots, but yo You gotta slide on a vacation Inside information keeps large niggas erasing and they wives basin It drops deep as it does in my breath I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined I think of crime when I'm in a New York state of mind New York state of mind New York state of mind New York state of mind New York state of mind Be having dreams that I'ma gangster, drinking Moets, holding Tecs Making sure the cash came correct then I stepped Investments in stocks, sewing up the blocks To sell rocks, winning gunfights with mega cops But just a nigga, walking with his finger on the trigger Make enough figures until my pockets get bigger I ain't the type of brother made for you to start testing Give me a Smith and Wessun I'll have niggas undressing Thinking of cash flow, Buddha and shelter Whenever frustrated I'ma hijack Delta In the P.J.'s, my blend tape plays, bullets are strays Young bitches is grazed each block is like a maze Full of black rats trapped, plus the Island is packed From what I hear in all the stories when my peoples come back, black I'm living where the nights is jet black The fiends fight to get crack I just max, I dream I can sit back And lamp like Capone, with drug scripts sewn Or the legal luxury life, rings flooded with stones, homes I got so many rhymes I don't think I'm too sane Life is parallel to Hell but I must maintain And be prosperous, though we live dangerous Cops could just arrest me, blaming us, we're held like hostages It's only right that I was born to use mics And the stuff that I write, is even tougher than dice I'm taking rappers to a new plateau, through rap slow My rhyming is a vitamin, Hell without a capsule The smooth criminal on beat breaks Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes The city never sleeps, full of villians and creeps That's where I learned to do my hustle had to scuffle with freaks I'ma addict for sneakers, twenties of Buddha and bitches with beepers In the streets I can greet ya, about blunts I teach ya Inhale deep like the words of my breath I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death I lay puzzle as I backtrack to earlier times Nothing's equivalent, to the new york state of mind New York state of mind New York state of mind New York state of mind New York state of mind Nasty Nas