The mic check is life or death, breathing a sniper's breath
I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous steps
Deep like The Shinin', sparkle like a diamond
Sneak a uzi on the island in my army jacket lining
Hit the Earth like a comet, invasion
Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazing
And my physical, I'll express through song
Delete stress like Motrin, then extend strong
I drank Moet with Medusa, give her shotguns in hell
From the spliff that I lift and inhale, it ain't hard to tell

The buddha monk's in your trunk, turn the bass up
Nas, stories by Aesop, place your loot up
Nas, I analyze
Inhale from the L, school a fool well, you feel it like braille
It ain't hard to tell, I kick the skill like Shaquille holds a pill
Vocabulary spills I'm ill
Plus 'Matic, I freak beats slam it like Iron Shiek
Jam like a tech with correct techniques
They analyze me, surprise me, but can't magnetize me
Scanning while you're planning ways to sabotage me
I leave 'em froze like heroin in your nose
Nas'll rock well, it ain't hard to tell

This rhythmatic explosion, is what your frame of mind has chosen
I'll leave your brain stimulated, niggas is frozen
Speak with criminal slang, begin like a violin
End like Leviathan, it's deep well let me try again
Wisdom be leaking out my grapefruit troop
I dominate break loops, giving mics men-e-straul cycles
Street's disciple, I rock beats that's mega trifle
And groovy but smoother than moves by Villanova
Yet still a soldier, I'm like Sly Stallone in Cobra
Packing like a rasta in the weed spot
Vocals'll squeeze glocks, MC's eavesdrop
Though they need not to sneak
My poetry's deep, I never fell
Nas's raps should be locked in a cell
It ain't hard to tell, 20 years

Copyright: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Writer(s): Claydes Smith, Cleveland Horne, Dennis Thomas, Gene Redd, George Brown, John Bettis, Nasir Jones, Richard Westfield, Robert Bell, Robert Mickens, Ronald Nathan Bell, Roy Handy, Steven M. Porcaro, William Paul Mitchell