JAY-Z — Young Gifted and Black

[Intro: Louis Farrakhan] And out of the mercy of Allah and the law written in our nature We call an individual into existence, and when that individual comes I make no apologies for what I'm about to do... [Verse: Jay-Z] I'm America's worst nightmare I'm young, black, and holdin' my nuts like "Chyeah!" Y'all was in the pub, having a light beer I was at the club, having a fight there Y'all can go home, husband and wife there My mama at work tryna buy me the right gear Nine years old, uncle lost his life here I grew up thinking life ain't fair How can I get a real job? China white right there Right in front of my sight like, "Here, yeah There's your ticket out the ghetto—take flight right here Sell me you go bye-bye here," damn! There's a different set of rules we abide by here You need a gun—niggas might drive by here Y'all having fun, racing all your hotrods there Downloading all our music on your iPods there I'm Chuck D, standing in the crosshairs here Y'all straight, chicks got horse hair here Y'all ain't gotta be in fear of y'all bosses there You lose your job, your pop rich, y'all don't care So I don't care, y'all acting like y'all don't hear All the screams from the ghetto, all the teens ducking metal here So they steam like a kettle here Tryna take they mind to a whole different level here Yeah, we real close to devil here Gotta be a better way; somebody call a reverend here Yeah, y'all must really be in heaven there Somebody tell God that we got a couple questions here My lil' cuz never got to see his seventh year And I'm so used to pain that I ain't even shed a tear Yeah [Outro: Mariah Carey] Jay is like the epitome of the American Dream. I mean, he had to come up in a very difficult environment. Um... And he's—Like he said himself, he's been fighting all his life. And, um... He... has taken his talent and his creativity and gone to, like—I think he's probably done things that are pretty much unparalleled.