[Masta Ace]
`New York, Big City of Dreams`
to get by, cats doing plenty of things
it`s a honest hustle, but you gotta have some kind of muscle
either it`s that or you sign with Russel
`cause nowadays an average cat can flow decent
so in your sparetime you can go to the precinct
let me introduce you to some cats who won`t shoot you
everyday they`re spinnnin their pen it`s so crucial
they got kids to feed, wifes to hug
their jobs are so strange, their lifes above
look, my nigga Al had a store in his trunk
and the place under the dash where he store his pump
he had them white and white `Air Force Ones` for 40 ($)
and them iddy-biddy-kiddy ones for shorty
he was just trying to survive to the session
now he`s locked up for stolen goods and gun posession
my nigga Neek had them first for cheek
he bough a too family home and excursion jeep
but word got around he was doing it big
cops ran up in his crib, now he`s doing a bit
now Jose was making money hand over biz
he had legimated jobs with a little bit of a twist
besides me and my man, I`ve known people
he sold stuff too, out of the back of home deepo
everything from new tools to kitchen sinks
and he was just trying to get rich as stinks
`cause now he lost his job and his morgage due
and he can`t afford a lawyer, man law gets through, oooh
we were lying on skeems and skams
just so we could realize our dreams and plans, man
this ain`t America is it?
it don`t take much for the cops to come pay you a visit
but do what you gotta do, fuck them laws
life is a test you better up them scores
listen, I ain`t trying to survive, I`m trying to life
and here is some advise I been dying to give
they don`t care if you sell it to inner section
republicans run for officers when ellection
who`s in the inner section, see my pen errecting
this for my cats that just been effecting
from ground sillawats, it`s down steal the spots
it won`t stop untill we`re down kill the cops
it`s a revolution, you believe in god, a evolution
either way dog, we need a resolution like Aaliyah
a man got sentenced to a year
and when he get out, it`s another street career
it`s a vicious cycle
for every kid who ball in the park and wish he might do
listen the world don`t like you, but
you better keep it moving, you better keep improving
you love my voice, ain`t it deep insolvent
I`m saying fuck fame, I`m having a no-name
platinum and gold chain, and saying
I`ma beat `em at their own game
