Released: May 12, 1998

Songwriter: DMX Dame Grease Younglord Manuel Alejandro Ana Magdalena

Producer: Younglord Dame Grease

[Intro]
If you love somethin', let it go
If it comes back to you it's yours
If it doesn't, it never was
Hold me down, baby

[Chorus]
Either let me fly or give me death
Let my soul rest, take my breath
If I don't fly I'ma die anyway
I'ma live on, but I'll be gone any day
Either let me fly or give me death
Let my soul rest, take my breath
If I don't fly I'ma die anyway
I'ma live on, but I'll be gone any day

[Verse 1]
Hold me down, niggas wanna know me now
Didn't want to play with me when to show me how
No meow, 'cause it's all about the bark
Let the dog loose, baby, it's about to spark
Light up the night like the 4th of July
Niggas know, when I let go, niggas die
With this Y and you don't know, you slow
Like Baltimore, if you ain't tryin' to go you blow
I soak up all the pain and accept it in silence
When I let go it's violence, 'cause the wildest
Is the dog barkin' up the tree for the cat
In the fog, what y'all niggas see is the bat
Flappin' away, but I'm blind like Stevie
Niggas don't hear me, still tryin' to see me
Stop bein' greedy, you heard what I said
Let me go, let me flow, or I'm dead

[Chorus]
Either let me fly or give me death
Let my soul rest, take my breath
If I don't fly I'ma die anyway
I'ma live on, but I'll be gone any day
Either let me fly or give me death
Let my soul rest, take my breath
If I don't fly I'ma die anyway
I'ma live on, but I'll be gone any day

[Verse 2]
I sold my soul to the Devil, and the price was cheap
And yo, it's cold on his level, 'cause it's twice as deep
But you don't hear me, ignorance is bliss and so on
Sometimes it's better to be thought dumb – shall I go on?
Yo, on the real, what the deal? It's a mystery
How is it I can live and make history?
If you don't see it, then it wasn't meant for you to see
If you wasn't born with it, it wasn't meant for you to be
But you can't blame me for not wantin' to be held
Locked down in a cell where a soul can't dwell
This is hell, go get the Devil and give me the key
But it can't be worse than the curse that was given to me
It's what I live for, you take away that and I'm gone
There's a difference between doin' wrong and bein' wrong
And that ain't right, just keep it fair, baby
Put me in the air and I'll take it there, baby – yes!

[Chorus]
Either let me fly or give me death
Let my soul rest, take my breath
If I don't fly I'ma die anyway
I'ma live on, but I'll be gone any day
Either let me fly or give me death
Let my soul rest, take my breath
If I don't fly I'ma die anyway
I'ma live on, but I'll be gone any day

[Verse 3]
I'ma flow regardless because I'm an artist until I'm trapped
I'ma continue to hit the hardest whether I scrap or rap
Give me dap, but you ain't my friend
I see it in your eyes, you contemplate my end
You waitin' for that bend in the road where you were told
That you would go when you were old and if you died young it was cold
Sold, not for nearly what it was worth
Think back 26 years, be like, "What if his birth
Was a miscarriage and I never existed?"
Have I given somethin' that if taken away you'd have missed it?
Didn't know, yet I persisted, it was the call of the wild
I merely say what's in my heart and you call it a style
Don't put it in a cage, don't mistreat it
You say you hunger for knowledge? Here it is, eat it!
Another song completed is another thought captured
Let me do my thing, I got it locked with this rap shit

[Chorus]
Either let me fly or give me death
Let my soul rest, take my breath
If I don't fly I'ma die anyway
I'ma live on, but I'll be gone any day
Either let me fly or give me death
Let my soul rest, take my breath
If I don't fly I'ma die anyway
I'ma live on, but I'll be gone any day

[Outro]
Or give me death
Or take my breath
I'ma die anyway
But I'll be gone any day
Or give me death
Or take my breath
I'ma die anyway
But I'll be gone any day
Where my niggas?
Uh, ahh, for my niggas
Uh, ahh, for my niggas
Uh, ahh, for my niggas

DMX

Earl Simmons better known by his stage name DMX (An acronym for DarkMan X) rose to fame in the late 1990’s.

His stage name pays tribute to the Oberheim DMX drum machine, an instrument he used when he made his own rap beats in the 80’s.

To date, his best-selling album is his 1999 album …And Then There Was X, which featured the hit single “Party Up (Up in Here)”.