Released: April 26, 2019

Songwriter: JAY-Z

Producer: Just Blaze

[Verse]
Gentrify your own hood, before these people do it
Claim eminent domain and have your people movin’
That’s a small glimpse into what Nipsey was doing
For anybody that’s still confused as to what he was doing
The neighborhood is designed to keep us trapped
They red line us, so property declines if you live by blacks
They depress the asset and take the property back
It’s a ruthless but a genius plan in fact
So now we fighting over scraps
Crabs in a barrel, but crabs don’t belong in the barrel and they ain’t never tell us that
So in the barrel, we gonna act like we act
We can easily get out the barrel if we stand on each other’s back
Whoever gets on top, as long as they stay attached
They gonna pull everybody out—I was doing just that
I told Neighborhood Nipsey stay close
There’s a 100 million dollars on your schedule, lay low
Tell your team to be on point in the places that they go
I never dreamed that he get killed in the place that he called home
How we gonna get in power if we kill the source?
Y’all like to run off on the plug, so of course
That ain’t lit, that’s a means to an end
Me and my team was playing the plug ahead of plan
Sometimes we was only making a $1000 a joint
That ain’t no money, but that ain’t main point
So those 92 bricks was only 92 thou
So y’all can close your mouth, it ain’t nothing for y’all to wild (Wow)
But it is something to study
We was chasing our goals, not chasing money
Niggas chasing hoes, we find that funny
I pull up in the Rolls, that hoe gon’ want me
But I don’t want no hoe, I want a wife
Somebody to bounce these ideas off at night
I be going to sleep hoping Nip visit me
That young king had a lot of jewels to split with me
And we ain’t gotta leave the hood physically
But we gotta leave that shit mentally

[Chorus]
Some how, some way
We gonna make it out the hood some day

JAY-Z

Having sold over 100 million records worldwide, and holding the solo artist record of 14 Billboard 200 #1 albums, Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter is possibly the most talented, accomplished and respected rapper of all-time. He has released 13 studio albums and five collaborative albums over his 30-year career.

Three of his albums, Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint, and The Black Album, are considered landmarks in the genre, with all of them featured in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Hov has won 21 Grammy Awards from sixty-four nominations, making him the 10th most awarded artist of all-time.

Legendary for never writing down his lyrics, JAY-Z’s flow is considered one of the greatest to grace the genre, his wordplay and metaphorical ability is unmatched, and his live shows push the envelope of what it means to be a hip hop artist. His MTV Unplugged appearance introduced the idea of having a full band (The Roots) backing up a hip hop artist at major concerts, and during his 2004 documentary Fade to Black he doubled down, selling out Madison Square Garden (in mere minutes) while featuring an enormous live band performance.