[Intro: Nas & Flo Simpson]
Yo, it’s like waking up, from a bad dream (America)
Just to figure out, you wasn’t dreaming in the first place (no)
[Verse 1: Nas]
If all I saw was gangsters coming up as a youngster
Pussy and money the only language I clung to
Claim to, I mold myself up to become one
Ain’t you happy I chose rap? I’m a monster
Streets deceiving, can’t believe my achievements
Cultural strata, persona’s that of a non-needer
‘Cause I don’t need nada ‘cept for Prada beaver
For cold winters, tattoos got my summer sleeveless
To my G’s on the flee from the coppers
Stiff bodies on freeze in funeral parlors
From the slums I come up, a phoenix caked up
Tryna take what I’m eating, came up a dismissive kid
You lucky if you allowed to witness this
Savvy, mild, wild, hardly
A man’s man, who would’ve knew the beach houses and wild parties
Jezebels and Stella McCartneys
For years, all that, how can I not be dead?
This old German said I was a thug with a knotty head
Looked at my Benz and called that a Nazi sled
With a face like he wonder where I got my bread
Probably all these stones he see, from my shows overseas
From crime to rhyme
My story is I’m from the home of the thieves
[Chorus: Nas, Flo Simpson & Both]
America (Americaaaaaa), pay attention
Wake up (Americaaaaaa), this is not what you think it is
America (Americaaaaaa), pay attention
This is not what you think it is
[Verse 2: Nas]
Blessed, the Lord is a G, he gotta be
Who’s the god of suckers and snitches? The economy
Lipstick from Marilyn Monroe, blew a death kiss to Fidel Castro
He’d want me to spit this
Only the strong survive, Nas bear witness
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
Too many rappers, athletes and actors
But not enough niggas in NASA
Who give you the latest dances, trends and fashion?
But when it comes to residuals, they look past us
Woven into the fabric, they can’t stand us
Even in white tees, blue jeans and red bandanas
[Chorus: Nas, Flo Simpson & Both]
America (Americaaaaaa), pay attention
Wake up (Americaaaaaa), this is not what you think it is
America (Americaaaaaa), pay attention
This is not what you think it is
America (America, Americaaaaaa
This is not what you think it is)
[Verse 3: Nas]
Assassinations, diplomatic relations
Killed indigenous people, built a new nation
Involuntary labor, took a knife split a woman naval
Took her premature baby, let her man see you rape her
If I could travel to the 1700s
I’d push a wheelbarrow full of dynamite through your covenant
Love to sit on the Senate and tell the whole government
“Y’all don’t treat women fair”, she read about herself in the Bible
Believing she the reason sin is here
You played her, with an apron like, “Bring me my dinner, dear”
She the ‘nigga’ here, ain’t we in the free world?
Death penalty in Texas kill young boys and girls
Barbarity, I’m in the double-R casually
Bugging how I made it out the hood, dazzle me
How far are we really from third world savagery?
When the empire fall, imagine how crazy that’ll be
[Chorus: Nas & Flo Simpson]
America (Americaaaaaa, Americaaaaaa)
America (Americaaaaaa
This is not what you think it is)
America (Americaaaaaa, ohh
This is not what you think it is)
[Outro: Nas]
America
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