[00:00.00]Twenty years in the making
[00:44.00]What was I thinking?
[00:45.42]1992, wow
[00:53.80]I wasn't sure how to get into the rap game
[00:57.19]The incredible rap game
[01:12.80]It's all a dream
[01:17.10]It's time, and when that time came
[01:23.53]I took it
[01:31.43]Yeah
[01:34.57]Rappers, I monkey flip 'em,
[01:35.98]With the funky rhythm I be kickin'
[01:37.61]Musician, inflictin' composition of pain
[01:40.36]I'm like Scarface sniffin' *******
[01:42.31]Holdin' an M16, see with the pen I'm extreme
[01:44.92]Now, bullet holes left in my peepholes
[01:47.24]I'm suited up in street clothes
[01:48.81]Hand me a 9 and I'll defeat foes
[01:50.38]Y'all know my steelo with or without the airplay
[01:53.17]I keep some E&J, sittin' bent up in the stairway
[01:55.77]Or either on the corner bettin' Grants with the cee-lo champs
[01:58.93]Laughin' at baseheads tryna sell some broken amps
[02:01.46]G-packs get off quick, forever *****s talk
[02:03.67]Reminiscin' about the last time the task force flipped
[02:06.77]*****s be runnin' through the block shootin'
[02:08.87]Time to start the revolution, catch a body, head for Houston
[02:11.81]Once they caught us off-guard, the MAC-10 was in the grass and
[02:14.50]I ran like a cheetah, with thoughts of an assassin
[02:17.00]Picked the MAC up, told brothers, "Back up!" — the MAC spit
[02:19.95]Lead was hittin' *****s, one ran, I made him backflip
[02:22.35]Heard a few chicks scream, my arm shook, couldn't look
[02:25.15]Gave another squeeze, heard it click,
[02:26.98]"Yo, my *******t is stuck!"
[02:27.90]It wouldn't shoot, now I'm in danger
[02:30.42]Pulled my *******t back and saw
[02:32.09]Three bullets caught up in the chamber
[02:33.41]Now I'm runnin' to the building lobby
[02:35.30]And it was full of children prob'ly,
[02:37.07]Couldn't see as high as I be
[02:38.56](So what you sayin'?) It's like the game ain't the same
[02:40.63]Got younger *****s pullin' the triggers,
[02:42.34]Bringin' fame to their name
[02:43.80]Claim some corners, crews without guns are goners
[02:46.51]In broad daylight, stick-up kids, they run up on us
[02:49.24]45's and gauges, MAC's in fact
[02:51.71]Same *****s will catch you back-to-back
[02:53.43]Snatchin' your cracks in black
[02:54.99]There was a snitch on the block gettin' *****s knocked
[02:57.62]So hold your stash 'til the coke price drop
[02:59.70]I know this crackhead who said she got to smoke nice rock
[03:02.32]And if it's good, she'll bring you customers in measuring pots
[03:05.07]But yo, you gotta slide on a vacation
[03:07.31]Inside information keeps large *****s erasin'
[03:09.97]And their wives basin'
[03:11.03]It drops deep as it does in my breath
[03:13.04]I never sleep—‘cause sleep is the cousin of death
[03:15.58]I lay puzzle as I backtrack to earlier times
[03:18.34]Nothing's equivalent to the New York state of mind
[03:21.81]"New York state of mind"
[03:24.33]"New York state of mind"
[03:26.48]Where I live, where I'm at("New York state of mind")
[03:30.16]"New York state of mind"
[03:31.77]Be havin' dreams that I'm a gangsta
[03:32.96]Drinkin' Moets, holdin' TEC's
[03:34.70]Makin' sure the cash came correct, then I stepped
[03:37.15]Investments in stocks, sewin' up the blocks to sell rocks
[03:40.77]Winnin' gunfights with mega-cops
[03:42.54]But just a ***** walkin' with his finger on the trigger
[03:45.27]Make enough figures until my pockets get bigger
[03:47.88]I ain't the type of brother made for you to start testin'
[03:50.51]Give me a Smith & Wesson, I have brothers undressin'
[03:53.34]Thinkin' of cash flow, buddha and shelter
[03:55.90]Whenever frustrated, I'm a hijack Delta
[03:58.47]In the PJ's, my blend tape plays, bullets are strays
[04:01.33]Young *******es is grazed, each block is like a maze
[04:04.21]Full of black rats trapped plus the Island is packed
[04:06.33]From what I hear in all the stories when my peoples come back
[04:08.91]Black, I'm livin' where the nights is jet-black
[04:10.87]The fiends fight to get crack
[04:12.58]I just max, I dream I can sit back
[04:14.54]And lamp like Capone, with drug scripts sewn
[04:17.19]Or the legal luxury life, rings flooded with stones, holmes
[04:20.34]I got so many rhymes, I don't think I'm too sane
[04:22.37]Life is parallel to Hell, but I must maintain
[04:24.93]And be prosperous, though we live dangerous
[04:27.01]Cops could just arrest me,
[04:28.30]Blamin' us: we're held like hostages
[04:30.23]It's only right that I was born to use mics
[04:32.70]And the stuff that I write is even tougher than dykes
[04:35.47]I've taken rappers to a new plateau
[04:37.30]Through rap slow,
[04:38.27]My rhymin' is a vitamin held without a capsule
[04:41.19]The smooth criminal on beat breaks
[04:43.26]Never put me in your box if your *******t eats tapes
[04:46.15]The city never sleeps, full of villains and creeps
[04:48.86]That's where I learned to do my hustle,
[04:50.33]Had to scuffle with freaks
[04:51.43]I'm an addict for sneakers
[04:52.65]20's of buddha and *******es with beepers
[04:54.65]In the streets I can greet ya, about blunts I teach ya
[04:57.44]Inhale deep like the words of my breath
[04:59.46]I never sleep—‘cause sleep is the cousin of death
[05:02.13]I lay puzzle as I backtrack to earlier times
[05:04.83]Nothing's equivalent to the New York state of mind
[05:08.99]"New York state of mind"
[05:11.16]"New York state of mind"
[05:12.84]Where I live, where I'm at ("New York state of mind")
[05:16.74]"New York state of mind"
[05:18.93]But tonight, tonight
[05:27.22]In the D.C state of mind
[05:29.69]Yeah, yeah
[05:39.38]Detonize, come on
[05:42.26]Detonize what
[05:44.58]Detonize all
[06:09.61]Thank you
[06:13.40]20 years ago, I was writing that rhyme in a small apartment
[06:19.79]In a small room, inside that small apartment.
[06:22.26]Just living in a world that I knew,
[06:26.11]Talking about the things that I see and live man.
[06:30.38]You know, teenagers' mind is wild
[06:35.87]That *******t just what was going on man