Nas

"How can you lose when you're doing you?"

"I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death"

"Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined"

"The smooth criminal on beat breaks Never put me in ya box if ya shit eats tapes"

"I switched my motto instead of saying 'fuck tomorrow' that buck that bought a bottle could've struck the lotto"

""Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne"

"I need a new nigga, for this black cloud to follow cause while it's over me it's too dark to see tomorrow"

"I set it off with my own rhyme cause I'm as ill as a convict who kills for phone time"

"I reminisce on park jams, my man was shot for his sheep coat chocolate blunts will make me see him drop in my weed smoke"

"Live amongst no roses, only the drama, for real A nickel-plate is my fate, my medicine is the ganja"

""Fuck 'rap is real', watch the herbs stand still never talkin' to snakes cause the words of man kill true in the game, as long as blood is blue in my veins"

"Then I rose, wiping the blunts ash from my clothes then froze only to blow the herb smoke through my nose and told my little man that i'm a go cyprose there's some jewels in the skull that he can sell if he chose words of wisdom from nas try to rise up above"

"When I was ten I was a hip-hop a shorty wop known for rockin' microphones and twistin' of a forty top"

"So analyze me, surprise me, but can't magmatize me Scannin' while you're plannin' ways to sabotage me I leave 'em froze like her-on in your nose Nas'll rock well, It ain't hard to tell"

"I've seen some cold nights and bloody days They grabbed me bullets spray, they used me wrong so I sing this song 'til this day."

"From child births to hearses, flow like the Nile covered surface Bit the fruit from the serpent."

"Mad smoke makes me able to quote Soliciting ill editions of that murder I wrote."

"fake thug no love, get the slug CB4 gusto ur luck low, i didn't know til i was drunk tho you freak niggaz played out, get fucked and ate out prostitute turned bitch got the gage out 96 ways i made out montanna way, good f-e-l-l-a, verbal AK spray"

"A thug changes, and love changes and best friends become strangers, word up"

"I never brag, how real I keep it, cause it's the best secret."

"Yo, if this piano's the cake then my words are the candles Light it up, make a wish, and them angels will grant you"

"Freedom or jail clips inserted, a baby's being born/ Same time a man is murdered, the beginning and end."

"Street scriptures, for lost souls in the crossroads.."

"I'm like the farmer, planting words, people are seeds/ My truth is the soil, help you grow like trees/ May the children come in all colors, change like leaves/ Behold before you, one of those prophetic MC's."

""U wet who I want wetted/I wet who u want wetted/any nigga can get it(a favour for a favour)"

"Had 8 partners growin' up/ 8 turned to 7/ 7 turned to 6 n!*@%^$/ got 2 in heaven/ 6 of us, holdin it, now it's 5 rollin' thick/the 6th one's parole flipped, 5 n***az went to 4 quick/ when he went O.T, college life, converted into gangbangin/ 4 n***az still hangin/ years passin, slang changin/ 3 of us now, 4th n***a ain't around/ we all thought he was real, he did that snake shit, fake shit/ beat his ass down/ yo his mouth could've got us all wasted/ what a fuckin clown/ all I got left in the end is two of my best friends/ and we all goin' out 'till the death of these ends"

"(speking) "You hear about, you see about it/ it's in your papers/ it's in your daily news/ (get money!) / New York chronicles, every day/ the crime rate, the murder rate/ the money rate, the paper chase, youknowwhatImean?/ New York State of mind, baby, check it out."

"Aiyyo, the brother's "Stillmatic" I crawled up out of that grave, wipin the dirt, cleanin my shirt. They thought I'd make another "Illmatic" But it's always forward I'm movin Never backwards stupid here's another classic"

"It's suicidal, high smokin' so much la', I saw a dead bird flyin through a broken sky"

"No idea is original, there's nothing new under the sun, it's never what you do, but how it's done"

"The hardest thing is to forgive, but God does Even if you murdered or robbed, yeah it's wrong, but God loves Take one step toward him, he takes two toward you Even when all else fail, God support you.""

"The reason that I want to be alone Tired of all the things that went wrong That would have went right if I would have did it on my own"

"I'm capable of anything, my imagination can give me wings"

"Don't say the car is topless, say the titties are out"

"You a slave to a page in my rhyme book"

"How can I trust you when I can't trust me"

"I get upset 'cause I just want to be treated the way you are Like a star not a worry in this world thus far But wait a minute we both need ya mother's attention I must be crazy jealous of my own baby infant*"

"Whatever you decide, be careful, some men be Rapists, so act your age, don't pretend to be Older than you are, give yourself time to grow You thinking he can give you wealth"

"And they're aware of us though And we don't give a flyin' 747 fuck though Stayin' on my hus-tle"

"When I was nine, coldest winter i remember we're slipping in december, two feet of snow Yeah thats the east coast, that black ice - symbolize the rap life"

"Some things are forever, some things are not It's the things we remember that gave the world shock""

"Now all these new cats with they hats flipped backwards fingers intertwined in sum gang sign madness I got an exam lets if you pass it Now who can quote a Daddy Kane line the fastest?"

"Slave food turned to soul food, collards to neck bones"

"if you squash me, learn to live with me"

"People afraid of criticism but I always put myself in a sacrificial position,they been know I ain't just rappin for fame"

"As James Baldwin says, You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world considers a nigger"

"The hypocrisy is all I can see, White cop acquitted for murder, Black cop cop a plea, That type of shit make me stop and think"

"We in chronic need of a second look of the law books, And the whole race dichotomy"

"Who give you the latest dances, trends, and fashion, But when it comes to residuals, they look past us"

"Too many rappers, athletes and actors But not enough nigga's in NASA"