| Brother, I know you could never win
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| I know you’ll never win
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| Time and time again, you get hurt in the end
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| Oh yes, I did know
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| I was new to New York, I was new to New York
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| I was new to New York, I was new to New York
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| I said if you could make it here
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| I said if you could make it here
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| You could make it anywhere
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| You could make it anywhere
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| My dreams bigger than the city I was born in
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| I was wastin' talent, I was workin' in a store then
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| Livin' in my mama pad, givin' my mama cash
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| Hoes through the front so I could put 'em on they back
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| Everyone I ever known goin' up
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| When we were growin' up, we would dream of blowin' up
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| The homie said I get it, I’mma make 'em notice us
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| Cut us from a different cloth, now we need to sew it up
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| But where I hung, no one showin' us the ropes
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| Ain’t nobody blunt, everybody blowin' smoke
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| We were sellin' drugs or we die of overdose
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| When you come up with less, that’s when you go through the most
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| So, oh I’mma go out and get it, my homie said move
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| And I told him I’m wit it and two days later, I loaded the Civic
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| And drove all the way to the city, I was new to New York
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| I was new to New York, I was new to New York
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| I was new to New York, I was new to New York
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| I said if you could make it here
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| I said if you could make it here
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| You could make it anywhere
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| You could make it anywhere
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| Yeah, now where I’m from, they don’t want you to win
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| They want you with a little but not more than them (Fuck 'em)
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| Now they ain’t fuckin' with me anyways
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| 'Cause I remind 'em of the dreams that they never chase
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| Wait, should I went to a community college
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| To graduate to a place with a community jobless?
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| Hell nah, my team gon' be runnin' thangs
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| We see the Statue of Liberty, bend her over and run a train
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| Small city, poorest of the size, it was crippled by the drugs and brutality
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| Yeah, I gotta leave, I got a fortune in my eyes
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| I’mma turn what I see into reality, yeah
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| Like I’mma run this shit, y’all gonna love this shit
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| I’mma show 'em that it’s my time
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| I rise above it like the Freedom Tower
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| So get used to seein' me up on the skyline, I was new to New York
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| I was new to New York, I was new to New York
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| I was new to New York, I was new to New York
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| I said if you could make it here
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| I said if you could make it here
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| You could make it anywhere
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| You could make it anywhere
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| I went to live in five deep in a one bedroom with no windows
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| Sleepin' on the floor, we were dyin' to live though
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| We couldn’t afford to be lyin' with bimbos
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| My little sister stole 'cause I was dead broke
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| I left home, I ain’t have a plan
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| Not a dollar to my name or not a penny in my hand
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| Walkin' 'round Brooklyn lookin' for a scam
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| I’m tryna get a job just to get a little cash
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| I’m the man, I’m the man, ain’t no one believe in me
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| They all sleep on me, tryna sell a dream to me
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| Where you could find anything but decency
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| We step over the homeless like don’t speak to me
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| (On the train) Everybody eyes vacant
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| Lookin' at the ground surrounded by skyscrapers
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| (Uptown) The homies, they hustle for wild paper
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| (Downtown) Blowin' that money they die makin'
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| Slumlords ownin' the buildin' and double the rent
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| You can’t make a livin' off little government checks
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| (Eastside) They makin' a condo out of the 'jects
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| Just look at Alphabet City to L-E-S
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| So we stress and we stress 'cause we can’t make our ends
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| Meet, then we cheat 'cause we can’t amends
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| Single mothers, how they gonna make us men?
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| If ain’t nobody eat, then we can’t break no bread |