NY State of Mind, Pt. 3

[Intro: Nas]

Yo, Preem, play me that Billy Joel joint

[Chorus: Billy Joel]

Some folks like to get away

Take a holiday from the neighborhood

Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood

But I'm taking a Greyhound

On the Hudson River line

I'm in a New York state of mind

[Verse 1: Nas]

Steel toe, construct walk, Nike shorts at night at court

Stress'll cut your life short, I'm from egg rolls and duck sauce

Where the feds rolled on Dutch Schultz, City Island, and Sei Less

Plenty talent, the kids stay blessed, gamble and make bets

Throw on some DMX, his words, they live in all of us

Some get deportеd, some die young, but it's all a rush

On part two, I left you with two of my friеnds

And now our goals is that our sons don't end in juvenile pens

Rikers should be closed, MDC to Beacon

Wear ice if you real, or they'll rob you and pawn your piece in

If you was locked down for a while, it's a different place now

They buildin' hotels where it once was a Devil's playground

Michelin star's cool, but the streets is cookin' that beef stew

That chopped cheese too, screwface how we smile

They want us gone, but that's fine

'Cause we really outside, for now and all time

That New York state of mind

[Chorus: Billy Joel & Nas]

Some folks like to get away (Part three, three times for NYC)

Take a holiday from the neighborhood

Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood (What a city)

But I'm taking a Greyhound

(Knicks, Mets, Yanks, Jets, Nets, Giants, Islanders, Rangers)

On the Hudson River line

I'm in a New York state of mind (The world)

[Verse 2: Nas]

And we got fit, jumpin' up

Hittin' pull-ups and dips on scaffoldings

Potholes still be hard in our whips

Never ending night life, supermodels, events, some art galleries

I can name some clubs that no longer exist

The Limelight, the Tunnel, and the Palladium

All night, we stayed in them fly

Wave in the sky if you was made in N.Y

And wouldn't trade it to the day that you die

The most hated and I think we know why, now

Rappers we know as legends drift and float to Heaven

Some are living in present-day, I miss '87

In Queens, was a teen then, a kid with a chain

Holdin' a pen and wrote pain, we'll never see this again, so

I let Ring replace the peepholes

I'm suited in boutique clothes, we're just inclined to defeat foes

The five boroughs where real life is defined, y'all know the time

When I'm in the New York state of mind

[Chorus: Billy Joel & Nas]

Some folks like to get away

(Opposition tease walk in The Garden, mockingly rockin' Timbs and a Nas tee)

Take a holiday from the neighborhood

Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood

(They only trollin' and that's fine, 'cause we outside for the third time, that New York State of Mind)

But I'm taking a Greyhound

On the Hudson River line

(Wipe your feet when you step in my house, though, ha-ha-ha-ha)

I'm in a New York state of mind (Let 'em know, yeah)

[Outro: Rakim]

New York State of Mind

New York State of Mind

New York State of Mind

New York State of Mind

New York State of Mind

New York State of Mind

New York State of Mind