Nas ‘The Lost Tapes 2′ Album: 20 of the Best Lyrics

"Heard some people discussing my whereabouts/Yeah, it's been a few sightings of me, a fair amount/Never seen much, but yet I'm never in the house/Move in style, wild, exciting when I do step out/Y'all been rhyming for years and Jungle made a hit/'Oochie Wally' ideas, sold a million records/Had 'em embarrassed" —Nas

"I got the je ne sais quoi, why bother/With girls who like to play keep-away with they toddlers?/She started with good intentions like a rich pastor/Bitch was bad, turned from good thing to disaster/Takes forever to build a rep, one second to lose it/She put her neck in a noose, snapped it/Hangin' on every word she heard come outta cougar mouth, super foul/Play your cards right, deuces wild, salute my pals" —Nas

"I could son a rapper/Every one of you rappers/Vámonos, I be running you rappers/Adios, I don't see none of you rappers/All of y'all under me rappers/I need to golf, need a day to relax/Get a massage, Al Jarreau on the track/Al Jarreau of rap, made the Mets hat/More famous than Strawberry, y'all know this already" —Nas

"Who be the holy prophet, they watchin’ with all his posture?/His Rothstein goggle game be the dopest, he gots to/Be from the '80s era/His tint is shade Carrera/Queens forever/Green pipe seats, clean Panamera/Amateur Hanna-Barbera characters know they envy/The illest Hennessy Black sipper with loaded semis" —Nas

"You pick of the week, voted-in rappers you go against me/You can't tantalize a call girl with just a roll of pennies/Can’t bait a lion in ya trap without a tranquilizer/You enterin' a boxing ring with no trainer beside ya/My Panerai watch glows like Avatar/Caviar black diamonds, can you imagine, y'all?/Takin' from a rich man plate, kick in his door/'Cause his war with the bloodsuckers of the poor" —Nas

"There's an obstacle in everything/It's all natural, I'm keepin' it pilin'/Keepin' heat with the silencers/Learnin' Greek and Italian, speak with kings while dinin'/Good with hyenas, meanin' it's hood when it's time for ridin'/Ties was suppliers for my days of the projects/Where I resided, a phenomenon/With the ambitions of a rider/Pretty amazon on my arm, nigga, I'm the flyest" —Nas

"She know who tryin' to rock her to sleep to get to me/Give 'em the side eye when she see 'em in the street/Her brother locked up, he doin' 10 up in the beast/He's short, he comin' home and she hyped for his release/Fly her to Hollywood, watch flicks from Nollywood/Like hydraulics, she ride the wood" —Nas

"She edu-ma-cated, she said she related to the Asian/Ethic persuasion, the sex is amazin'/Never bought her a Birkin, my nighttime nurse/May be more like a surgeon, nice on the eyes, I put that work in/Back when she was on the same block that I would service/Said, 'It's straight,' we need a place up in Jamaica Estates/And she was like, 'Oh no' in a silky Kimono/Said the streets, the snakes, plus Governor Cuomo" —Nas

"We fresh outta the Met Gala/Express power/Exude the essence of best dressed for the next hour/Toast glasses, velvet ropes, no trespassin'/Hella smoke, our section has the best fashion/Picture us laughin', how ticklish the money has us/Like little kids, but the difference is we'd much rather/Be ghost, back in the crib, some avocado toast/Laid back, we choose that over Almafi Coast" —Nas

"A known fraud once fell on his own sword/Scrawny as a fiend, he'll tell on his own broad/His lady's crazy and it bugs me/Behind her best friend back, she call her best friend baby ugly/Less then a week ago, he's beatin' his dick to a freak he know/Talkin' dirty to him on speakerphone/Right before he clinked up, his girl creeped up/Swung a knife, hit his cheekbone, made a deep cut" —Nas

"Tryna get my niggas legitimate/Shit is ugly, my dudes strugglin', drug dealer shit/Silhouette of a murderer, thug nigga, fitted Mets cap/Drunk liquor bit, young black militant/Just hopin' I hit a lick, a criminal's wit/Intelligence, still a menace each Guinness I sip/Bring the kid ideas, the visions I get/How this dude rich? He snuck in with no citizenship" —Nas

"I don't mean to be brass, even a genius asks questions in class/Supposed to know a love that'll last/Her friends, they don't mess with rappers, correction/I'm Akhenaten, King Tut's predecessor/I fantasize, and no mind him, I'm slick with words/Tell your girlfriend I flip the birds" —Nas

"Misogynistic monologue/What we dialogue/Yeah, I'm mature from the chest, and higher North/But below the waist, I'm a dog/Your girl in heat like cayenne sauce/She so sweet, but she kinda lost/Like me, African name with a diamond cross" —Nas

"Scientists told us how the Mayans lived/Highways are landing strips for planes to land/Before the Wright brothers planned aerodynamics/Now I am chilling 20 karats like a savage/Not embarrassed/Buy what I'm copping while I'm shopping out in Paris" —Nas

"D is for Dries Van Noten/Young niggas try to keep up with what I'm doing/D cups, tequila and blunts/Weed, women, and liquor/Depending on the day is a different mission/They not knowing, they wanna know what he got on/The QB Don went and got his Pete Rock on/Nas keep a fine bitch to roll his weed up on/My niggas in Mount Vernon keep it G'd up for him" —Nas

"Pulled out the barrel/Four-fifths rip through bone marrow/Make his toes spiral the dirt/While his feet kick up rock, he's a sprinter/Police agenda, lock up niggas for three winters/When I attack I'm faceless like a iron mask/They get away quick, traceless, lying back" —Nas

"My fate is highly favored by the father, love to all/Rest in peace to Zhanu, the barber brought cases/Celebrate and take us back to thought/The real New York, death to rapists and rats/The touch school to Brooklyn stories/The kings, the lifers, the lords of Queens/Or the stories on Puerto Rican righteous, I heard things" —Nas

"Some are caricatures, amateur boys/I'm like a classic pianist with a handful of swords/Bandages on my finger, still I'm managing chords/Like a live band, performing in a sand storm/Blinded, still hit the right keys, swift as a life breeze, dripping/In fear of God, scented in Diptyque fragrance/Some nights Creed flavors, I am motivation/I don't talk on the next man, I am never hating" —Nas

"This daily bread, holy bread/Alphabetical numerals, codes of red/What's more dense, gold or lead?/What's more expensive?/The OG said, 'No matter what it is, rent it/And never buy it, it's all temporary possessions/We don't own nothing on this Earth but our soul and that's the lesson'/Project apartment parties, rest in peace to Marley/Try not to get booked by Officer Laverty" —Nas

"Did songs with Chubb Rock to Chris Brown, switch styles/Yet to see any heavyweight make it to this round/This that pure champion sound, I wear the crizzown/Raw, one take, I don't even need a mixdown/Demure, not docile, volatile, I kick down/Amphibians, reptiles that make that hiss sound/They eyes change color, their pupils start to slit down/When I take cover, and I let off a fifth round" —Nas