Y'all My Ni**as (Album Version|Edited)

Y'all My Nias - Nas

We use the word everyday

Now if we don't know the capacity of this word

Are we headed for conflict or not

Because we did not breakdown the capacity of the same what

Brothers and sisters this is why we re still hung up in consciousness

We've been taught wrong

Find a room to lock yourself in and close the door

It's some heavy concepts that we gotta explore

We gotta strip the word down rugged and raw

The rhetoric of martin king just ain't around no more

Dave Bowie ain't here James Baldwin neither

They all were leaders

But they ain't help me get this Porsche two seater

A lawyer left the hood he never looked back

To be a fortune 500 CEO it took rap

So what if my pants sag with my hat turned back

The same swag got our merchandise flying off the rack

Marketing companies that's hiring blacks

Fresh hip hop lingo for your campaign ads

The controversy surrounds who could say it and when

Some niggas are full time some play and pretend

So f**k that no apologies on the issue

If it offends you

It's meant to

It's that simple

Trying to erase me from y'all memory

Too late I'm engraved in history I'm here my niggas

Speak my name and breath life in me

Make sure y'all never forget me cuz y'all give me life

Cause y'all use my name so reckless

Whether to be accepted or disrespected and I love it

And I love it especially when y'all do it in public

And I'm the subject

Cause y'all my niggas

Yo I was thinking a little bit what would it take

To authenticate my nigganess

Ball ridiculous

26 inches when I call up the dealership

Ahh that's some ni**a sh*t

We only out for our own benefit

We having too many kids

We Claudine's welfare recipients

The infamous free clinics is the sickest sh*t

It make me think what the hell they clean they syringes with

Everybody bleeding

The cops are the demons

Courtrooms full of goons

Jail buses leaning

Handcuffs squeezed too tight

On youth life

If u fight they just give in

People used to do sit ins

They got nigeria and niger two different countries

Somehow niger turned to nigger

And sh*t got ugly

The problem is we started thinking like the colonists

Til noble dru ali

Started dropping that consciousness

Trying to erase me from y'all memory

Too late I'm engraved in history I'm here my niggas

Speak my name and breath life in me

Make sure y'all never forget me cuz y'all give me life

Cause y'all use my name so reckless

Whether to be accepted or disrespected and I love it

And I love it especially when y'all do it in public

And I'm the subject

Cause y'all my niggas

My father was not a banker

Neither was my neighbor when it came to getting paper

Who the hell was gonna train us

A pressure couldn't escape us through the ages

We changed the basis of derogatory phrases

And I say it's quite amazing

The use the ghetto terms developed our own language

No matter where it came from

It's celebrated now people are mad if they ain't one

Every word we use it has a capacity

And if you don't understand

The word you're using and understand the capacity of it

You are using words that is creating a destiny for you

That you don't even know or even conscience of

Trying to erase me from y'all memory

Too late I'm engraved in history I'm here my niggas

Speak my name and breath life in me

Make sure y'all never forget me cuz y'all give me life

Cause y'all use my name so reckless

Whether to be accepted or disrespected and I love it

And I love it especially when y'all do it in public

And I'm the subject

Trying to erase me from y'all memory

Too late I'm engraved in history

Speak my name and breath life in me

Make sure y'all never forget me

Cause y'all use my name so reckless

Whether to be accepted or disrespected and I love it

Especially when y'all do it in public

And I'm the subject

Cause y'all my niggas