Artist: Nas
Album: Hip Hop is Dead
Yea niggaz want to talk about this rap sh*t
Niggaz want to talk about this money
About these cars these homes these labels
Clothes sneakers big money sh*t
Now everybody tryin' to get rich
Now get rich niggaz f**k it
Some rap pioneers be them crackheads
When they speak you see missin' teeth
Silver chain with a silver piece
Niggaz your grandfather's age
They pants still hangin' down they legs talkin' about they ain't paid
And they hate you 'cause they say you ain't pay dues
And *edited* *edited* was stealin' and robbin' them
I feel it's a problem we gotta resolve
Hip-Hop been dead we the reason it died
Wasn't Sylvia's fault or because MC's skills are lost
It's because we can't see ourselves as the boss
Deep-rooted through slavery self-hatred
The Jewish stick together friends in high places
We on some low level sh*t
We don't want niggaz to ever win
See everybody got a label
Everybody's a rapper but few flow fatal
It's f**ked up it all started from two turntables
When they crown you - and you rise up to your position
+Carry On Tradition+
When they knight you - then you go to fight go to war don't petition
+Carry On Tradition+ - +Carry On Tradition+
Carry on ca-carry on +Carry On tradition+
+Carry On Tradition+ when you rep what we rep
Then +Carry On Tradition+
Now some of these new rappers got their caps flipped backwards
Wit their fingers intertwined in some gang-sign madness
I got an exam let's see if y'all pass it
Let's see who can quote a Daddy Kane line the fastest
Some of you new rappers I don't understand your code
You have your man shoot you like in that Sopranos episode
Do anythin' to get in the game mixtapes you spit hate
Against bosses; hungry f**ks are moraless
You should be tossed in a pit full of unfortunate vocalists
Niggaz I coulda wrote your sh*t; I had off-time was bored wit this
I coulda made my double-LP just by samplin' different parts of Nautilus
Still came five on the charts with zero audience
The lane was open and y'all was droppin' that garbage sh*t
Y'all got awards for your bricks - it got good to ya
You started tellin' them bigger dogs to call it quits WHAT
When they crown you - and you rise up to your position
+Carry On Tradition+
When they knight you - then you go to fight go to war don't petition
+Carry On Tradition+ - +Carry On Tradition+
Carry on ca-carry on +Carry On tradition+
+Carry On Tradition+ when you rep what we rep
Then +Carry On Tradition+
Now niggaz got the studio poppin' it's mad clearer
Engineers got his earplugs and still hear us
The live-in-the-park sound versus the studio state of art sound
We on the charts now; from British Walkers and Argyles
Look at us rap stars now wit our black cars now
Fortune 500 listed brunches sip Cipriani's
Sippin' blunted with rich white guys around me
Thick white girls around me Chinese lined up
Because I'm what every dime lust
We used to be a ghetto secret; can't make my mind up
If I want that or the whole world to peep it
Now +Carry On tradition+
F**k a bum wack rapper makin' his career out of dissin'
Peace to the strugglin' artists and dead one's gone we miss 'em
I promise I +Carry On tradition+
When they crown you - and you rise up to your position
+Carry On Tradition+
When they knight you - then you go to fight go to war don't petition
+Carry On Tradition+ - +Carry On Tradition+
Carry on ca-carry on +Carry On tradition+
+Carry On Tradition+ when you rep what we rep
Then +Carry On Tradition+
