[Verse 1: Jay-Z]
Things just ain't the same for gangstas
But I'm a little too famous to shoot these pranksters
All of these rap singers claiming they bangers
Doing all sorts of twisted shit with their fingers
Disrespecting the game, no home training or manners
I was doing this shit when you was shitting your Pampers
I was moving them grams before you knew what a hand in hand was
Ducking the vans, radars, the scanners
Before you knew what "hard white" or "tan" was
I was hitting the turnpike, aight, with the bammers
I was nice with my hands, cuz aight with them hammers
I was pricking my finger before you knew what a "Fam" was
I had it laid out 'fore you knew what a plan was
300 mil later, now you understand us
Y'all ain't see us coming through Vegas
You ever seen so much cham' bust in one night, grand fucked up one fight
I was on the Peter Pan bus
You was putting Peter Pan up in your room, y'all fucking with whom?
Allow me to retort
You cowards is just now learning the shit that we taught
You niggas ain't know about a Robb Report
About a high speed Porsche, i.e
You niggas ain't know how to floss 'til I came through the door
Like Eric B. for Pres, respect me in this bitch!
You can't disrespect us cause you got a little check cut
You was sucking 'em so long, fucking your little neck up
Now you too big for your britches, you got a few little bitches
You think you Hugh Hefner, you just ridiculous
I blew breath for you midgets, I gave life to the game
It's only right I got the right to be king
Niggas that got life really like what I sing
Cause they know what it's really like, niggas feel my pain
Know the shit I don't write be the illest shit that's ever been recited
In the game word to the hyphen in my name!
J-A-Y, Dash, Hoffa
The past, present, nigga the future, proper
The holy trinity of hip-hop is us
We give Dre his props but that's where it stops, it's the Roc
[Hook: Truth Hurts]
I know, you got your eyes on me, I feel you watching me
But it ain't hard to see that you can't see me
You try, but what you think you saw
Ain't what you thought you saw
You better off not looking at all
(Everywhere that I go, ain't the same as before
People I used to know, just don't know me no more
But everywhere that I go, I got people I know
Who got people they know, so I suggest you lay low)
[Verse 2: Dr. Dre]
I'm still on top of the game
Still dropping flames, still cock and aim
Still at the top had to rock for the fame
Over setbacks, there's been a lot since I came
You seen it all, how I got, how I gained
The momentum when it dropped, how I got through the pain
When I roll and shock, they watched me reclaim
The streets, they made a special spot for my name
Dre, haters wanna stop to my reign
But the music lives in me, every drop in my veins
The pride and the pain
All the way back from the rise of my name
See the world clear through the eyes of the mane
See the world cheer for the rhymes that I gave
When the beat bangs it'll drive them insane
The eyes that I played, the best to emerge in the game is the Watcher
[Hook]
[Verse 3: Rakim]
I'm Rated R, my brain contains graphics thangs
It turn traumatic teens into addicts, and fiends
It's like, watchin a movie through a panoramic screen
Which means, I can see the whole planet in the scene
Cash is the topic, the object, a fatter pocket
Some take the crack and chop it, but those that haven't got it
Take away the added profit, it's catastrophic
I take the gat and cock it, and I'll sit back and watch it
These New York streets is ugly, I keep it gully
The world is mine and can't nobody keep it from me
Yo, my neighborhood is never sunny
In the place where the number one cause of death is money
You can try copin', I've seen enough shit
To leave your frame of mind broken, I'm still alive and scopin'
Be another hundred years 'til my skies close in
And I'mma die with my eyes open, the watcher
[Hook]
