America

[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