[Produced by Salaam Remi]
[Hook: James Brown sample]
Get, get, get down!
[Verse 1: Nas]
New York streets where k**ers will walk like Pistol Pete
And Pappy Mason, gave the young boys admiration
Prince from Queens and Fritz from Harlem
Street legends, the d** kept the hood from starvin'
Pushin' cars, Nicky Barnes was the 70's
But there's a long list of high-profile celebrities
Worldwide on the thorough side of things
Livest kings, some died, one guy, one time
One day grabs me, as I'm about to blast heat
40-side of Vernon
I turned while he asked me
What you up to the cops gon' bust you
I was a teen drunk off brew
Stumbled I wondered
If God sent him cause two squad cars entered the block
And looked at us
I ain't flinch when they watched
I took it upstairs, the bathroom mirror, brushed my hair
Staring at a young disciple
I almost gave my life to what the dice do
Yeah man, throwing them bones
Hoping my ace get his case thrown
His girl ain't wait for him, she in the world straight hoeing
While he looking at centerfolds of pretty girls
Showing they little cooch
Gangstas don't die he's living proof
The D.A. who tried him was lyin'
A white dude, k**ed his mother during the case
Hung jury, now the D.A. is being replaced
Pre-trial hearing is over, it's real for the soldier
Walks in the courtroom, the look in his eyes is wild
Triple-homicide, I sit in the back aisle
I wanna crack a smile when I see him
Throw up a fist for Black Power, cause all we want is his freedom
He grabbed a court officer's gun and started squeezin'
Then he grabbed the judge, screams out
Nobody leaving, everybody
[Hook]
Get down, get down! Get down, get down!
Get, get, get, get, get, get, get down!
Everybody
Get down, get down! Get down, get down!
Get, get, get, get, get, get, get down!
[Verse 2: Nas]
Some n***as f** their enemies in they a** when they catch em
Weird-a** n***as are dangerous, so don't test em
They make you, disappear, this a year that I won't forget
Sold CD's double platinum, met mo' execs
Southern n***as, independent label, real k**ers
Know the business, ran Tennessee for years, now they chillin'
They had the coke game something crazy
Sold music out the trunk of they car, that sh** amaze me
Put me onto heron blunts, sherm or something
Took a puff, what the f**, I turned to punch him
Southern n***as ain't slow, n***a tried to play me
I left from around them dudes, they cool but they crazy
Now I'm back around the old school that raised me
New York gangstas, we lounging, out in L.A. see
A dude wrote my dog from Pelican Bay
The letter say, Nas I got your back the fools don't play
I rolled with some Crips down to a Crenshaw funeral
Never saw so many men slaughtered and I knew the ho responsible
The n***a still alive in a hospital
Midnight they crept in his room and shot the doctor too
See my cousin's in the game, thugging and things
He plugged me with a dame who was half-Mexicano
Gave the a** up, I'm a mack daddy Soprano
She pa**ed me the indigo, but the imbecile
Should have never tippy-toed, thought my eyes were closed
Opening the hotel room door to let her goons in
But I moved in a manner, on some Jet Li sh**
I let the hammers blow, wet three kids
See honey thought I had something to do with all the drama
Cause I was with a crew, that had her people k**ed
Called up my cousin told him I ain't f**ing with you
He responded cool but told me out here this how motherf**ers
[Hook]
Get down, get down! Get down, get down!
Get, get, get, get, get, get, get down!
Everybody
Get down, get down! Get down, get down!
Get, get, get, get, get, get, get down!
[Outro: Salaam Remi]
All I really gotta say is that
If that's how our people gon' get down, how we ever gon' get up
How we ever gon' get up if that's how we get down
A shame when you really look at it
My folk against your folk but we all kinfolk
Somebody got to make a change