[Intro: Hi-Tek] (*Sample) (*Where do I Start?) Let's see what they wanna hear?
[Chorus: Dion] (Jadakiss) (*Sample) (**New York Sample) (***Sample) Let me see where I started at (Uh) Hood cats are part of where it started at (**New York) (No doubt) We hustle hard to keep the sharks fear (Yeah) For the score go to war like a jarhead (**New York) (Hi-Tek!!!) New York, New York, New York, New York, New York!!! (**New York, New York) (Woo!) New York, New York, New York, New York, New York!!! (***We gonna take you all on a little trip to New York City!) (*With a first hello!)
[Verse 1: Jadakiss] Uh! Got alot of heart, best part is I'm clever too Hand skills, hard work, gun play whatever duke Ecstacy, oxy, vicodin, powder Ari, haze, diesel, sour Dust Juice, Lucy's, turbans, kufi's Hand guns is petite the shotties is doofy Talkin in is not nice, lot of niggaz got life Everything is good in my bank except cop dice Harlems, Jordans, the hood can't afford them So they bootleg them now everyday sport them Dorms, cells, packages, mail Warrants, bails, everything's real now
[Chorus: Dion] (Papoose) (*Sample) (**New York Sample) Let me see where I started at Hood cats are part of where it started at (**New York) We hustle hard to keep the sharks fear For the score go to war like a jarhead (**New York) New York, New York, New York, New York, New York!!! (**New York, New York) New York, New York, New York, New York, New York!!! (Hi-Tek Hi-Tek, Papoose Pa-poose) (*With a first hello!)
[Verse 2: Papoose] All I got is my word and my nuts, man I got Brooklyn in my balls So you could see Bed-Stuy if you lookin in my draws Always talkin bout you ballin, look you wanna ball Word on the streets, niggaz ready to put you on the wall You just a leg shooter, you aim your gun low I shoot my tek high I keep a Hi-Tek like the producer Pap ripped the Desi, till that clip is empty Man I'll have black buried in the cemetary Go 'head get your fetti, but you better tell holmes Messin with me will get black buried like a cell phone Punks pay dues not me I pay attention Call it New York cause we keep reinventin
[Chorus: Dion] (*Sample) (**New York Sample) Let me see where I started at Hood cats are part of where it started at (**New York) We hustle hard to keep the sharks fear For the score go to war like a jarhead (**New York) New York, New York, New York, New York, New York!!! (**New York, New York) New York, New York, New York, New York, New York!!! (*With a first hello!)
[Verse 3: Talib Kweli] Who flipped the vocabulary? Shadow my adversary buss 'em like vocabulary Roaches and rats in every corner when it's warmer but New York is used to that already Manhattan built the cemetaries where the blacks is buried I take the Staten Ferry I walk to Broadway I talk to chicks along the way with John Forte Used to do this all day burnin in the project hallway Discussin strategies in the court case I rock the Northface cold like winter I'm from Brooklyn like the D-Cep and low life niggaz word Fuck the talking it's a New York thing We aboard but, all things considered we all kings, what
[Chorus: Dion] (Raekwon) (*Sample) (**New York Sample) Let me see where I started at Hood cats are part of where it started at (**New York) We hustle hard to keep the sharks fear For the score go to war like a jarhead (**New York) New York, New York, New York, New York, New York!!! (**New York, New York) (My nigga my nigga whattup, Tek you did it again nigga!) New York, New York, New York, New York, New York!!! (Word up I love that) (*With a first hello!)
[Verse 4: Raekwon] Aiyyo yo, I rhyme for the streets broke niggaz rap when they feast Who an