[Intro: Nas]
|
Yea, niggaz want to talk about this rap shit
|
Niggaz want to talk about this money
|
About these cars, these homes, these labels
|
Clothes, sneakers, big money shit
|
Now everybody tryin' to get rich
|
Now get rich niggaz, fuck it
|
|
[Verse 1: Nas]
|
Some rap pioneers, be them crackheads
|
When they speak, you see missin' teeth
|
Silver chain with a silver piece
|
Niggaz your grandfather's age
|
They pants still hangin' down they legs talkin' about they ain't paid
|
And they hate you, 'cause they say, you ain't pay dues
|
And ..... was stealin' and robbin' them
|
I feel it's a problem we gotta resolve
|
Hip-Hop been dead, we the reason it died
|
Wasn't Sylvia's fault or because MC's skills are lost
|
It's because we can't see ourselves as the boss
|
Deep-rooted through slavery, self-hatred
|
The Jewish stick together, friends in high places
|
We on some low level shit
|
We don't want niggaz to ever win
|
See, everybody got a label
|
Everybody's a rapper but few flow fatal
|
It's fucked up, it all started from two turntables
|
|
[Hook: Nas]
|
When they crown you - and you rise up to your position
|
(Carry On Tradition)
|
When they knight you - then you go to fight, go to war, don't petition
|
(Carry On Tradition) - (Carry On Tradition)
|
Carry on, ca-carry on, (Carry On Tradition)
|
(Carry On Tradition), when you rep what we rep
|
Then (Carry On Tradition)
|
|
[Verse 2: Nas]
|
Now some of these new rappers got their caps flipped backwards
|
Wit their fingers intertwined in some gang-sign madness
|
I got an exam, let's see if y'all pass it
|
Let's see who can quote a Daddy Kane line the fastest
|
Some of you new rappers, I don't understand your code
|
You have your man shoot you, like in that Sopranos episode
|
Do anythin' to get in the game, mixtapes, you spit hate
|
Against bosses; hungry fucks are moraless
|
You should be tossed in a pit full of unfortunate vocalists
|
Niggaz, I coulda wrote your shit; I had off-time, was bored wit this
|
I coulda made my double-LP, just by samplin' different parts of Nautilus
|
Still came five on the charts with zero audience
|
The lane was open and y'all was droppin' that garbage shit
|
Y'all got awards for your bricks - it got good to ya
|
You started tellin' them bigger dogs to call it quits?! WHAT?
|
|
[Hook: Nas]
|
When they crown you - and you rise up to your position
|
(Carry On Tradition)
|
When they knight you - then you go to fight, go to war, don't petition
|
(Carry On Tradition) - (Carry On Tradition)
|
Carry on, ca-carry on, (Carry On Tradition)
|
(Carry On Tradition), when you rep what we rep
|
Then (Carry On Tradition)
|
|
[Verse 3: Nas]
|
Now niggaz got the studio poppin', it's mad clearer
|
Engineers got his earplugs and still hear us
|
The live-in-the-park sound, versus the studio state of art sound
|
We on the charts now; from British Walkers and Argyles
|
Look at us rap stars now, wit our black cars now
|
Fortune 500 listed, brunches, sip Cipriani's
|
Sippin', blunted, with rich white guys around me
|
Thick white girls around me, Chinese lined up
|
Because I'm what?, every dime lust
|
We used to be a ghetto secret; can't make my mind up
|
If I want that or the whole world to peep it
|
Now (Carry On Tradition)
|
Fuck a bum wack rapper makin' his career out of dissin'
|
Peace to the strugglin' artists and dead one's gone, we miss 'em
|
I promise I (Carry On Tradition)
|
|
[Hook: Nas]
|
When they crown you - and you rise up to your position
|
(Carry On Tradition)
|
When they knight you - then you go to fight, go to war, don't petition
|
(Carry On Tradition) - (Carry On Tradition)
|
Carry on, ca-carry on, (Carry On Tradition)
|
(Carry On Tradition), when you rep what we rep
|
Then (Carry On Tradition)
|
|
-----------------
|
Carry On Tradition
|
| Nas |
