Nas

Released: December 19, 2006

Songwriter: Nas Salaam Remi

Producer: Salaam Remi

[Produced by Salaam Remi]

[Hook:]
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
They wanna shine on 'em
Shine on 'em
Shine on 'em

[Verse 1:]
Yea, they dug me out the soil and the mines of the motherland
Now I'm displaced, one hand to another hand
Illegal smugglin', people strugglin'
Wish they could just throw me back in the mud again
Yea, guess that's how we got here, slave trade and the diamond trade
Every childs afraid when his mother and father get sprayed
Forced in the army, young killer brigade
Get's a new name, then he gets his nose glued
Till his mind can't take what he's going through
Lookin' in the dirt for that ice so blue
Then the royal family the ice go to
And this thing has to change, feelin' half ashamed
As I rap with my platinum chain
When you shop for me you think about the misery?
The same way we made apartheid history
We can do the same way to the conflict ice
But everybody wanna shine right?

[Hook:]

[Verse 2:]
My VVS glimmers on my chest, 200 thou encrusted watch on my wrist
I wonder how how people starve to death, when God blessed the land that lacks the harvest
The stones are quality, but their homes are poverty
And the whole world ignores the robbery
Bought my girl pretty rocks, but she mad at me
Tear drop shape, ugh, perfect clarity
It shocks so many are killed annually
Cause of greed, lust, and pure vanity
Stop talkin' and do somethin' about it
Every holiday season, jewelry stores crowded
Kids snatched from they homes, mutilated alive
Husbands separated from wives
Keep a Jesus Piece to be fly
But there was a time back in the day when they called that shine

[Hook:]

[Outro:]
Incomprehensible singing

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, known to one and all as Nas, is one of hip-hop’s best-known, most mercurial, and lyrically blessed figures ever to touch the microphone. Since his heart-stopping debut turn on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque,” Nas has delivered countless beautifully structured, thought-provoking, keenly observed verses.

Growing up in Queens, NY, Nas never really performed in big crowds—he kept to himself. Nas used a different type of vernacular that others didn’t understand, which helped him to stand out from other rappers from his era.

With every ensuing album, Nas always reminds fans that he’s still the same Queensbridge MC who crafted one of the greatest albums of all time, and arguably the bible of Hip-Hop, Illmatic.

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