Intro

Man I worked for at one of the biggest companies in New York City

He didn't own his own company

White man owned it, so they owned him

Nobody owns me, though

Your gangster is not defined

Your gangster is not defined

By how low your jeans fall by your waist

But more how your genes stand up against expectations

Never forgetting where we came from, you're gangster

Your gangster is not defined by how many rocks are in your watch

But more how many rocks you move while on your watch

Gangsters, hustlers, Republicans and Democrats, pimps and hoes

Conservatives, Labor, the seller, the buyer, the product, the producer

See, you are what you are in this world

Gangster is absorbed and adored

By those that don't understand the laws that govern gangsterment

Gangsterment

Gangsterment allows you to make up your own laws

And create brand new worlds

Gangster mentality

Gangster mentality, and American way

Created by the white, mastered by the black

And absorbed by the fiends

Taxed by the governmentality

Charted by Forbes

If you believe in Jay-Z, then you, too, can be a gangster

Then you, too, can be a gangster, by any means necessary

By owning that dream

I mean, it's a long walk to freedom

But while deep, deep, deep inside the bush

The war on terror screams, damn, it feels good

Damn it feels good to be a gangster

To be a gangster, swagger is not a must

It's a liability, a cliche, a bad suit, cut the bullshit

You know that if it wasn't for this, there would be no that

Which we call the American Gangster