Lyrics Hope - Album Version Acappella (Explicit) - Nas

Hip hop (it will never die)
Hip Hop
Hip pop will never, never die

Ghetto nigga strutting, with nothing but dreams in Queens broke
Mac-10s, you can smell the PCP smoke
Melle Mel told it real, in the music he wrote
Those were the days I remember, we used to be close
Then I was nine, coldest winter I remember
Was slipping in December, two feet of snow
Yeah, that's the East Coast, that black ice

Symbolize the rap life, it was slick and smooth
I understood I had to come from the hood
Doing the Pee Wee Herman, the Smurf
Before them phones chirped
The block's drugs flowing, didn't have your own work
You had to have somebody else's, a small chrome on your pelvis

Starter jacket, Blue Georgetown or Green Celtic
Your girl's too expensive, she want shellfish
Red Lobster was popping, standing on that line forever
I wish someone would step on my Bally leathers
Now it's whatever
Hip Hop's forever

Kept my radio on 98 or BLS
Had a pre-pubescent lyric gift, but niggas never hear me spit
My little brother tried to warn them, I was a tornado coming
He knew from the inside like the eye of a storm, and told my pops about it
He gave us tickets to that Wild Style flick
Double Trouble retarded, we was the proudest
I never had a summer job

Sweeping leaves, socks to my knees
Home-made shorts, cut off Lee's
I ain't work a day in my life
Wiping away eraser off the paper, man
I'm just trying to say it right
Big radio, tape's slowing down

Lower the lights go, battery dead
I got to freeze them 'till they're ice cold
In the freezer later, I'm staring at the speaker
Sunk in them 808s deeper, cleaning my sneakers
With the bristles of a toothbrush, soap and water
I let the shoestrings soak in water

(Live hip-hop, live) ain't got nothing to do with Old School
(Live hip-hop, live) New School, Dirty South
(Give hip-hop, give) West Coast, East Coast, this about us
(Give hip-hop, give) this our thing, you know what I'm saying
(Stay hip-hop, stay) this came from the gut, from the blood
(Stay hip-hop, stay) from the soul, right here, man
(I pray hip-hop, pray) this is our thing, man
(I pray hip-hop, stays) you know? So I say what I say

(Live hip-hop, live) and I say what I say, and I mean it
(Live hip-hop, live) y'all take it how you want to take it
(Give hip-hop, give) 'cause if you asking "Why is hip-hop dead?"
(Give hip-hop, give) it's a pretty good chance, you the reason it died, man
(Stay hip-hop, stay) it's a pretty good, chance your lame ass, corny ass
(Stay hip-hop, stay) is the reason it died, man
(I pray hip-hop, pray) you don't give a fuck about it, you don't know nothing about it
(I pray hip-hop, stays) you want this paper, be a hustler

(Live hip-hop, live) you a hustler, you ain't a rapper, get your paper man
(Live hip-hop, live) you know what I'm saying, but this rap shit is real
(Give hip-hop, give) bitch, this shit is real, hahaha
(Give hip-hop, give)
(Stay hip-hop, stay)
(Live) (stay hip-hop, stay)
(Live) (I pray hip-hop, pray)
(Give) (I pray hip-hop, stays)

Oh (live hip-hop, live)
(Stay) (live hip-hop, live)
(Give hip-hop, give)
(Give hip-hop, give)
(Stay hip-hop, stay)
(Stay hip-hop, stay)
(I pray hip-hop, pray)
(I pray hip-hop, stays)