Nas — Yall My Niggas

[Intro: sample] We use the word everyday Now we don't know the capacity of this word Are we headed for conflict or not? (Yes sir) Because we did not break down the capacity Of the same what (the same word) Brothers and sisters, this is why we hung up the consciousness We've been taught wrong [Verse 1] Find a room to lock yourself in and close the door It's some heavy concepts that we gotta explore We gotta, strip the word down rugged and raw The rhetoric of Martin King just ain't around no more Du Bois ain't here, James Baldwin neither, they all were leaders But they ain't help me get this Porsche two seater A lawyer left the hood, he never looked back To be a Fortune 500 CEO, it took rap So what if my pants sag with my hat turned back? The same swag got our merchandise flying off the rack Marketing companies is hiring blacks Fresh hip-hop lingo for your campaign ads Controversy surrounds who could say it and when Some niggas are full time, some play and pretend So fuck that, no apologies on the issue If it offends you, it's meant to, it's that simple [Chorus] Tryna erase me from y'all memory Too late, I'm engraved in history (I'm here my niggas!) Speak my name and breathe life in me Make sure y'all never forget me ('cause y'all give me life!) 'Cause y'all use my name so reckless Whether to be accepted or disrespected (and I love it!) And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public And I'm the subject, 'cause y'all my niggas [Verse 2] Yo, I was thinking a little bit What would it take to authenticate my nigganess? Ball ridiculous? 26 inches when I call up the dealership? Aww, that's some nigga shit We only out for our own benefit? We having too many kids? We Claudines? Welfare recipients? The infamous free clinics is the sickest shit Make me think what the hell they clean they syringes with Everybody bleeding, the cops are the demons Courtrooms full of goons, jail buses leaning Handcuffs squeezed too tight on youth life If you fight, they just give in, people used to do sit ins They got Nigeria and Niger, two different countries Somehow Niger turned to nigga, and shit got ugly The problem is we started thinking like the colonists 'Til Noble Drew Ali started dropping that consciousness [Chorus] Tryna erase me from y'all memory Too late, I'm engraved in history (I'm here my niggas!) Speak my name and breathe life in me Make sure y'all never forget me ('cause y'all give me life!) 'Cause y'all use my name so reckless Whether to be accepted or disrespected (and I love it!) And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public And I'm the subject, 'cause y'all my niggas [Verse 3] My father was not a banker, neither was my neighbor When it came to getting paper, who the hell was gon' train us? Oppression couldn't escape us through the ages We changed the basis of derogatory phrases And I say it's quite amazing The use of ghetto terms developed our own language No matter where it came from It's celebrated, now people are mad if they ain't one [Interlude: sample] Every word we use, it has a capacity And if you don't understand the words you're using And understand the capacity of it You are using words that is creating a destiny for you That you don't even know, or even conscious of [Chorus] Tryna erase me from y'all memory Too late, I'm engraved in history (I'm here my niggas!) Speak my name and breathe life in me Make sure y'all never forget me ('cause y'all give me life!) 'Cause y'all use my name so reckless Whether to be accepted or disrespected (and I love it!) And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public And I'm the subject Tryna erase me from y'all memory Too late, I'm engraved in history Speak my name and breathe life in me Make sure y'all never forget me 'Cause y'all use my name so reckless Whether to be accepted or disrespected And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public And I'm the subject, 'cause y'all my niggas