New York (Ya Out There)

If you was born in New York City, let me hear you say, "You know that"

You know that

I was born in New York City

Ayo, once upon a rhyme where the scenery sets, you see stress

Street's a matter of life and death, no regrets

Life's a test, it's trife with special effects

Neighborhood's full of reps, cities are projects

Where the young cadets get stripes from the vets

And comrades, they quest to be the next to finesse

Collect debts and select bets with death threats

Object - cheddar, better your total net

Where trends are set from ways to express the outfits

Friends get wet tryna make ends connect

Avenues to check, boulevards to sweat

The smell of gun smoke's more common than cigarettes

We got cliques for wreck, we like pits for pets

We got Giants and Jets, the Knicks, Yanks, and Mets

We like much respect, the sex extra wet

And high-tech dialect you ain't catch yet

Ayo, we got blocks and blocks of big shots with big knots

And big props, yo, this is where the bullshit stop

Where herbs get got, if you snitch, you get shot

We get down and leave the town in a state of shock

We got dangerous hangout spots and slick cops

Place called Rikers Island where kids get locked

A lotta gear to rock with blocks of clothes shops

Styles are top-notch, this is the place to watch

So blast the box, the radio station is hot

Ease your mind staring at skylines from rooftops

Flip scripts for chips, and new whips off the lot

Quick to call a shot, politic with thick plots

And the Garden of Eden against the sea that we got

To make sure the core of the Big Apple don't rot

Where seeing's believing, we be achieving a lot

Where disc jocks created hip-hop, check it out

Ayo, we got five boroughs of ghettos with many places to meet

You get lost in busy streets, the city that never sleeps

Mecca, Pelan, Medina, the population increase

The Desert and The Oasis, New York, the Far East

With Gods and Sheiks, pretty Amazons for weeks

Player dons the fleece, you're the family's black sheeps

Icons that teach, but we all act unique

We got stats to reach, so we all have to eat

A mass of peeps, with they own masterpiece

The craft's elite, we be going past the peak

The latest technique, no other place get as deep

Who parks release some of the world's greatest athletes

DJs and MCs and graffiti artistes

Who use walls and subway trains for marquees

We go back to b-boys, breakdancing, breakbeats

And it'll never cease, and on that note, we say peace