Nas Follow

We use the word everyday
Now, if we dont know the capacity of this word
Are we having a conflict or not? Yes sir
Because we did not break down the capacity
Of the same, what? The same word

Brothers and sisters this is why
We hung up in our consciousness
We been talking wrong

Find a room to lock yourself in and close the door
Its some heavy concepts that we gotta explore
We gotta strip the word down, rugged and raw
The rhetoric of Martin King just aint around no more

Du Bois aint here, James Baldwin either, they all were leaders
But they aint help me get this Porsche two-seater
A lawyer left the hood, he never looked back
To be a Fortune 500 CEO, it took rap

So what if my pants sag with my hat turned back
The same swag got our merchandise flying off the rack
Marketing companies is hiring blacks
Fresh hip-hop lingo for your campaign ads

The controversy surrounds who could say it and win
Some niggas are full time, some play and pretend
So fuck that, no apologies on the issue if it offends you
Its meant to, its that simple

Tryin to erase me from y'all memory
Too late, Im engraved in history, Im here, my niggas
Speak my name and breathe life in me
Make sure y'all never forget me, y'all give me life

Cause y'all use my name so reckless
Whether to be accepted or disrespected and I love it
And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public
And Im the subject cause y'all my niggas

Yo, I was thinking a little bit
What would it take to authenticate my nigganess?
Ball ridiculous, twenty six inches when I call up the dealership?
Aw, that's some nigga shit

We only out for our own benefit? We havin too many kids?
Were claudines, welfare recipients
The infamous free clinics is the sickest shit
Make me think what the hell they clean their syringes with

Everybody bleeding, the cops and the demons
Courtrooms full of goons, jail-busters leaning
Handcuffs squeezed too tight on you flight
If you fight they just give in, people used to do sit ins

They got Nigeria and Niger two different countries
Somehow Niger turned to nigger and shit got ugly
The problem is we started thinking like the colonists
To know the [Incomprehensible] started dropping their consciousness

Tryin to erase me from y'all memory
Too late, Im engraved in history, Im here, my niggas
Speak my name and breathe life in me
Make sure y'all never forget me, y'all give me life

Cause y'all use my name so reckless
Whether to be accepted or disrespected and I love it
And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public
And Im the subject cause y'all my niggas

My father was not a banker neither was my neighbor
When it came to getting paper, who the hell was gonna train us?
A pressure couldn't escape us through the ages
We changed the basis of derogatory phrases

And I say its quite amazing
The use of ghetto terms, developed our own language
No matter where it came from
Its celebrated, now, people are mad if they ain't one

Every word we use, it has a capacity
And if you dont understand the word youre using
And understand the capacity of it
You are using words that is creating a destiny for you
That you dont even know or are even conscious of

Tryin to erase me from y'all memory
Too late, Im engraved in history, Im here, my niggas
Speak my name and breathe life in me
Make sure y'all never forget me, y'all give me life

Cause y'all use my name so reckless
Whether to be accepted or disrespected and I love it
And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public
And Im the subject

Tryin to erase me from y'all memory
Too late, Im engraved in history
Speak my name and breathe life in me
Make sure y'all never forget me

Cause y'all use my name so reckless
Whether to be accepted or disrespected
And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public
And Im the subject cause y'all my niggas