American born, American raised, American made
    [Chorus 2X]
  My country shitted on me (My country)
  She wants to get rid of me (Naw, never)
  Cause the things I seen (We know too much)
  Cause the things I seen (We seen too much)
    [Verse 1 (Nas)]
  It was packed on the Ryker's bus
  The tight cuffs is holdin' me shackled
  The life of a thug caught in the devil's lap
  On the streets I was invincible
  Cowards would duck at a glimpse if they knew
  What my pistol would do, a fuckin' killa
  Mothers of dope fiend embarrassin' me
  All in front of my friends
  In the street smile with no teeth
  I never knew daddy, heard he had a 72 caddy
  Died in a robbery, can't remember him, was probably 3
  Why didn't my folks just die in this society
  Why wasn't I a child of a doctor, who left stocks for me
  Two little brothers, two sisters, them shortiez gots to eat
  Mother's a junkie, she twisted, so all they got is me
  I'm the provider, with goals to do much better than my father
  Whether through drugs sold, or holdin' revolvers
  Blurry visions of dad holdin' me high
  It comes to me slowly, the words he would cry
    [Repeat Chorus]
    [Verse 2 (Millenium Thug)]
  It is I that step up
  Me that don't give a fuck, you that bold, then it's all over soldier
  Hummers and Range's through the desert
  Fuck a 20 years, long as we got gas and we got water
  Troopers lookin' for manslaughter
  I gotta get back, for what they owe
  Shoot'em in the back for the get back
  Lead through shit bag, hold tie gag
  Forget the life had, now we all rebels
  Everything burnt down includin' the ghetto
  We can see 4 miles the land its major rubble
  And debris from the earth as we knew crumble
  Yo you could see the sea
  And the stars look closer to me
  I'm a mad man, this is a real life movie Mad Max
  S-K's, AK's max, ABR's spittin' and it ain't a rap
  My mommy dearest pray for me hopin' I come back
  But yo
    [Repeat Chorus]
    [Verse 3 (Nas + Millenium Thug)]
  Yo, I'm sittin' behind these prison walls
  I got this pen and pad wishin' on a visit, God
  Brothers is here for homicide and yo, it's some for rape
  Some brothers innocent, I pray that I could just escape
  How is the war
  And yo I'm wishin' I was in your shoes
  Holdin' machine guns
  Clean fun shootin' ducks with fatigues on
  Anywhere is better than this
  It's America's plan every color of man inherits the shit
  Yo I'm startin to think it's all a scheme, nobody cares
  I know the warden is readin' the scribe
  [MT] But yo I swear, it's a billion dollar business
  Courts, lawyers and jails
  We all slaves in this business, I'm bout to rebel
    [Verse 4 (Millenium Thug)]
  There's not a bitch in sight
  All block bench, all block gates
  All gray fence, look who fucked it all up, Mr. President
  I remember yesterday we was on the block gettin' bent
  Now it's state of the art
  I just saw the first dude I met here, his head came apart
  What a bloody mess, a slug fest
  I just buried 8 of mine, at night I hear grown men cryin'
  You know I'm spittin' mine
  I ain't goin' out here, we gotta win
  Everytime I hear the wind I think a slug went in
  I'm checkin' my chest, holdin' my head
  Catchin' my breath, watchin' my back
  Smokin' this grass, beatin' my dick, thinkin' of ass
  I don't know what they broadcast, the news hash is fake
  Everyday I'm feelin' like you, I wanna escape
  And if y'all niggas feelin' like me, y'all niggas just say
    [Repeat Chorus]
    [Nas talking...]