🎵
[00:00.33]Warning, Warning...
[00:02.36]New York, New York
[00:05.05]The sound, the sound
[00:06.05]you're about to hear, to hear...
[00:10.10]You love to hear the story
[00:11.36]How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[00:15.30]You love to hear the story
[00:16.49]How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[00:20.56]You love to hear the story
[00:21.68]How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[00:23.47]Start it off, start it off, start it off
[00:25.72]Back when, back when, back when, back when
[00:28.42]Back when, back when, back when, back when
[00:31.27]The ill reminisce and think about the fly days
[00:33.96]Nothing like them 80s summer NY days
[00:36.94]Hop on the NB5 days
[00:39.26]Mopeds, Pro Keds, city split five ways
[00:41.61]How it all started, fifth floor apartment
[00:44.16]A jigsaw puzzle aerial view of the projects
[00:46.68]A kid saw struggle, buried a few of his partners
[00:49.56]Now I chill in resorts, enjoying massages
[00:51.75]Check out the oracle bred from city housing
[00:54.13]Nas, I arise the dead by thousands
[00:56.54]I remember seeing Shan chilling near his Audi
[00:59.70]Hollis Ave, Run and them, but I proudly
[01:01.68]Put a poster up of Shan and Marley, that was art, kid
[01:05.05]You love to hear the story how it started
[01:07.09]The bubbly I'm pouring wasn't popped yet
[01:08.93]Before there was a audience to watch us
[01:10.79]I assure you, there was a process
[01:12.22]You love to hear the story
[01:13.26]How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[01:17.15]You love to hear the story
[01:18.46]How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[01:22.42]You love to hear the story
[01:24.25]How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[01:26.63]Start it off, start it off, start it off
[01:28.32]Back when, back when, back when, back when
[01:30.34]Back when, back when, back when, back when
[01:32.40]To call them fake today is hate, real niggas extinct
[01:35.10]Pac left me inside a rap world with niggas that wink
[01:37.71]At other rappers, undercover niggas spit every way
[01:40.22]Won't be surprised if all their rides have federal plates
[01:42.93]Let alone their wardrobes and Studio 4 flow
[01:45.59]It was real when I appeared, it would've been some jaws broke
[01:48.08]Nas, my real name, stage name, same thing
[01:50.57]How could you let these lames claim king? I'm so ashamed, man
[01:53.85]I light a L for Vernon, for niggas who would burn in Hell
[01:56.30]For Vernon; 10th Street, 12th Street, Nightmare on Elm Street
[01:59.33]Pimps creep, delve deep inside the editorials
[02:01.94]Of the ghetto queens, kings, stories true
[02:04.16]Who possesses the testicular fortitude
[02:06.39]To blow away myths that's a hindrance to all of you?
[02:09.28]You blame your own shortcomings on sex and race
[02:11.80]The mafia, homosexuals and all the Jews
[02:14.49]It's hogwash point of views, stereotypical
[02:17.46]Anti-Semitic like the foul words Gibson spewed
[02:20.34]And it's pathetic
[02:21.39]I don't get the credit I deserve
[02:22.89]That's why I hate doing interviews
[02:24.73]But I don't sweat it, study long, study raw
[02:27.00]My man Dion said "Nas over-think the songs he writing"
[02:29.96]I'm not a wack performer standing near a corny hype man
[02:32.59]I got the Donism
[02:33.97]I'm here to enlighten
[02:34.79]You love to hear the story
[02:35.84]How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[02:39.70]You love to hear the story
[02:41.01]How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[02:45.09]You love to hear the story
[02:46.81]How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[02:49.22]Start it off, start it off, start it off
[02:50.90]Back when, back when, back when, back when
[02:53.53]Back when, back when, back when, back when
[02:56.74]🎵