Back When

[00:00.80] Warning, Warning...
[00:02.12] New York, New York
[00:04.40] The sound, the sound
[00:05.86] You're about to hear, to hear...
[00:09.12] You love to hear the story
[00:11.43] How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[00:14.45] You love to hear the story
[00:16.70] How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[00:19.11] You love to hear the story
[00:21.64] How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[00:23.90] Start it off, start it off, start it off
[00:25.84] Back when, back when, back when, back when
[00:28.52] Back when, back when, back when, back when
[00:30.47] The ill reminisce and think about the fly days
[00:33.21] Nothing like them 80s summer NY days
[00:36.03] Hop on the NB5 days
[00:38.32] Mopeds, Pro Keds, city split five ways
[00:41.03] How it all started, fifth floor apartment
[00:43.81] A jigsaw puzzle aerial view of the projects
[00:46.34] A kid saw struggle, buried a few of his partners
[00:49.08] Now I chill in resorts, enjoying massages
[00:51.60] Check out the oracle bred from city housing
[00:53.98] Nas, I arise the dead by thousands
[00:56.48] I remember seeing Shan chilling near his Audi
[00:59.45] Hollis Ave, Run and them, but I proudly
[01:01.54] Put a poster up of Shan and Marley, that was art, kid
[01:04.39] You love to hear the story how it started
[01:06.84] The bubbly I'm pouring wasn't popped yet
[01:08.92] Before there was a audience to watch us
[01:10.79] I assure you, there was a process
[01:12.55] You love to hear the story
[01:13.62] How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[01:16.22] You love to hear the story
[01:18.14] How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[01:21.28] You love to hear the story
[01:23.64] How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[01:25.58] Start it off, start it off, start it off
[01:27.14] Back when, back when, back when, back when
[01:29.24] Back when, back when, back when, back when
[01:32.59] To call them fake today is hate, real niggas extinct
[01:34.99] Pac left me inside a rap world with niggas that wink
[01:37.55] At other rappers, undercover niggas spit every way
[01:40.04] Won't be surprised if all their rides have federal plates
[01:42.61] Let alone their wardrobes and Studio 4 flow
[01:45.23] It was real when I appeared, it would've been some jaws broke
[01:47.86] Nas, my real name, stage name, same thing
[01:50.65] How could you let these lames claim king? I'm so ashamed, man
[01:53.55] I light a L for Vernon, for niggas who would burn in Hell
[01:56.30] For Vernon; 10th Street, 12th Street, Nightmare on Elm Street
[01:59.16] Pimps creep, delve deep inside the editorials
[02:01.40] Of the ghetto queens, kings, stories true
[02:03.99] Who possesses the testicular fortitude
[02:06.36] To blow away myths that's a hindrance to all of you?
[02:09.08] You blame your own shortcomings on sex and race
[02:11.67] The mafia, homosexuals and all the Jews
[02:14.12] It's hogwash point of views, stereotypical
[02:16.42] Anti-Semitic like the foul words Gibson spewed
[02:20.17] And it's pathetic
[02:21.36] I don't get the credit I deserve
[02:22.95] That's why I hate doing interviews
[02:24.36] But I don't sweat it, study long, study raw
[02:26.61] My man Dion said "Nas over-think the songs he writing"
[02:29.76] I'm not a wack performer standing near a corny hype man
[02:32.38] I got the Donism
[02:33.56] I'm here to enlighten
[02:35.05] You love to hear the story
[02:35.84] How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[02:38.34] You love to hear the story
[02:40.91] How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[02:43.78] You love to hear the story
[02:46.14] How it all, how it all, got started, got started
[02:49.49] Start it off, start it off, start it off
[02:51.73] Back when, back when, back when, back when
[02:53.18] Back when, back when, back when, back when
[02:56.41]