Hold Down The Block - Nas
I gotta lay down the block
When the block is hot
I gotta use my imagination
To change the situation
I gotta lay down the block
When the block is hot
I gotta use my imagination
To change the situation
Yea Feds feast on street dons
Look at their teeth showin'
Salivatin' at the mouth
South to East Orange
Keep pourin' that liquor
But ni**a don't sleep on it
You'll be givin' up your Jesus piece
To your peeps to pawn it
For legal fees in the penal dorm
Screamin' on the horn with 'bout
Thirty years on your conscience
I'm watchin' brothers disappear
It's appallin'
Some dudes had just only a year of ballin'
Counter-intelligence
Found a strange evidence
(When the block is hot)
Still we behind the wheel with heat on us
Hangin' with predicates
Position we placed in caves in
So they got us caged in
Ways spinnin' like Mike Bivens
From New Edition aging
I got families I'm feeding '
Cause my mans is bleeding
Every five seconds look in all directions
I come through prepared;
I give 'em a call
I'm close bring them guns downstairs
I gotta lay down the block
When the block is hot
I gotta use my imagination
To change the situation
I gotta lay down the block
When the block is hot (hold it down)
I gotta use my imagination
To change the situation
Uh uh it's beef week
Monday murder
Two niggaz dead Tuesday
Wednesday and Thursday is hearse-day
Friday somebody-gotta-die-day
Saturday put the gat away
Chillin' wit your chick and a bag of haze
Wonderin' how it's all gon' end
And what type of way
'Cause Sunday back to gunplay
Mo' sh*t start over nothin'
And get finished quick 'cause
The art of repercussion
Yeah I seen it a G' going out indecent
Takin' a plea agreement
Thinkin' he secret
Escape the crime scene
Now you live straight like 9:15
Then one-time intervene
My man ain't like me sayin'
I don't care if I die
But the SIG Sauer on me now
I'm scared to die
You thinkin' the one
I send to clap you be a shorty
But he old school holdin' a 38
He in his forties
I gotta lay down the block
When the block is hot
I gotta use my imagination
To change the situation
I gotta lay down the block
When the block is hot
I gotta use my imagination
To change the situation
(I gotta ) Anytime brothers
Can't get jobs then they rob
A man rather die than
Live on his knees and starve
Cops steady askin' your man what happened
First he tell then he stop
Like he not really rattin'
Guess he not really
In that casket from a sawed-off
Listen
Peep game from the brain of an all-star
The rain hurt niggaz bones who been shot
Metal pins in their leg
They walk with a limp-hop
The streets lie
So you better be cautious
Your man'll fry you plus
Everybody talkin'
A vet a General
Don't step where I walked in
Make your own path
Be a legend in your skin
Make your own cash
Don't stress what I'm forcin'
Don't expect more
When you put in less work than all them
Queensbridge projects has taught him
And that's for life
You heard me right I got the block
When the block is hot
(When the block is hot)
I gotta use my imagination
To change the situation
I gotta hold down the block
When the block is hot
I gotta use my imagination
To change the situation
I gotta hold down the block
When the block is hot
I gotta use my imagination
