Released: November 14, 1995
Featuring: Nas
Songwriter: Nas Kool G Rap
Producer: Buckwild
The time has come, we gotta expand, the whole operation
Distribution, New York, to Chicago, L.A
We gotta set our own market, and enforce it
[Verse 1: Kool G Rap]
Champagne wishes and caviar dreams, a team that's gettin' cream
With sales of fishscales from triple beams, I gleam
Livin' the life of Riley, packin' fifty calis
Rockin' lizard Bally's while we do our drug deal in a dark alley
Up in casinos, just me and my dino primo
Pushin' beam-o's, then parlay in Reno with two fly Latinos
Nas, he runs the whole staff, we count math from steam baths
We've seen half a Milli Jackson out there on the Queens half
Three major players gettin' papers by the layers
And those that portray us on the block get rocked like Amadeus
Fakers get used as shootin' targets, soon as the dark hits
Front on the drug market, bodies get rolled up in a carpet
Those that cheat us, try to beat us, we got hookers with heaters
That'll straight pop and put more shells in your top than Adidas
The leaders lookin' straight charmin' in our Giorgio Armani's
You wanna harm me and Nas?
You gots to come get through our whole army
The cee-lo rollers, money folders, sippin' Bolla, holdin' mad payola
Slangin' that Coke without the Cola
Me and black don't fake jacks but we might sling one
It ain't no shame in our game, we do our thing, son
[Chorus x2]
Livin' the fast life, with fast cars
Everywhere we go, people know who we are
A team from out of Queens with the American Dream
So we're plottin' up a scheme to get the seven-figure cream
[Verse 2: Nas]
Yo, I got guns from Italy, smoke trees considerably
Mid-state and Green, it seems, is where all my niggas be
The ghetto misery - shootouts and liquor stores
A perpendicular angle of the clout war
Police searchin' up my Lexo, but who's petro?
My tech blows straight off the roof and tests yo' respect, though
But dough don't respect me, it got me handcuffed
The rough life, I just be up nights, breathin' with scuffed Nike's
Pour my beers for my peoples under the stairs
These years I got they names in my swears
Poppin' Cristal like it's my first child, lickin' shots Holiday style
Rockin' Steele sweaters, Wallabee down
Twenty-four carats, countin' cabbage like the Arabs
The marriage of me and the mic is just like magic
Elegant performance, bubble Lex full insurance
Guzzlin' Guinness, shootin', catchin' cases concurrent
It's Nas, seven hundred wives, King Solomon size
We on the rise, me and G - ghetto wise guys
The Luciano, Frankie Yale, Bugsy Siegel
Green papers with eagles from a trade that's illegal
[Chorus x2]
Brother, you've got to make it happen
Yeahhhahh yeahhh, get this money, yeahhh
Brother, you've got to make it happen
When you're livin' in the fast life, heyy, yeaaaah, yeah
[Verse 3: G Rap & Nas]
Aiyo, our lifestyles' exquisite, yayo like a blizzard
Esquire attire, standin' on ground with one pivot
Two players rockin' silk blazers and diamonds like glaciers
Lands with name-brand seats, reclinin' like it's spacious
Bodies on ice, livin' trife, rollin' fixed up dice
Gamblin' Grants, handlin' stamps
Moves are sheist
My bankrolls got the cops comin' in plain clothes
Tryin' to arraign our gang 'cause of our fame
That's how the game goes (True)
Right out the slammer with the fame and glamour
Cookin' up grams with Arm & Hammer
Supplyin' scramblers in Alabama
Rub out faces and leave no traces
My aces got mad body cases, preserve spaces at the horse races
Servin' us Dom, Veuve Clicquot
Dimes look magnifico, puttin' a cut inside perico
Heat for foes, shoppin' sprees with my fleet for clothes
In Caribbean suites deep, rippin' beats with flows
Aiyo, we went from standin' on blocks without some socks
Sellin' rocks, to pickin' up stocks in boat docks with Glocks
And got poppy seed fields with million dollar bills
Packin' all the blue steel, we keeps it real inside the battlefield
Yeah, so here's a toast to the funds and things
Gun smokes in rings, graveyards is buried with kings
[Chorus x2]
Livin' the fast life, with fast cars
Everywhere we go, people know who we are
A team from out of Queens with the American Dream
So we're plottin' up a scheme to get the seven figure cream
Distribution, New York, to Chicago, L.A
We gotta set our own market, and enforce it
[Verse 1: Kool G Rap]
Champagne wishes and caviar dreams, a team that's gettin' cream
With sales of fishscales from triple beams, I gleam
Livin' the life of Riley, packin' fifty calis
Rockin' lizard Bally's while we do our drug deal in a dark alley
Up in casinos, just me and my dino primo
Pushin' beam-o's, then parlay in Reno with two fly Latinos
Nas, he runs the whole staff, we count math from steam baths
We've seen half a Milli Jackson out there on the Queens half
Three major players gettin' papers by the layers
And those that portray us on the block get rocked like Amadeus
Fakers get used as shootin' targets, soon as the dark hits
Front on the drug market, bodies get rolled up in a carpet
Those that cheat us, try to beat us, we got hookers with heaters
That'll straight pop and put more shells in your top than Adidas
The leaders lookin' straight charmin' in our Giorgio Armani's
You wanna harm me and Nas?
You gots to come get through our whole army
The cee-lo rollers, money folders, sippin' Bolla, holdin' mad payola
Slangin' that Coke without the Cola
Me and black don't fake jacks but we might sling one
It ain't no shame in our game, we do our thing, son
[Chorus x2]
Livin' the fast life, with fast cars
Everywhere we go, people know who we are
A team from out of Queens with the American Dream
So we're plottin' up a scheme to get the seven-figure cream
[Verse 2: Nas]
Yo, I got guns from Italy, smoke trees considerably
Mid-state and Green, it seems, is where all my niggas be
The ghetto misery - shootouts and liquor stores
A perpendicular angle of the clout war
Police searchin' up my Lexo, but who's petro?
My tech blows straight off the roof and tests yo' respect, though
But dough don't respect me, it got me handcuffed
The rough life, I just be up nights, breathin' with scuffed Nike's
Pour my beers for my peoples under the stairs
These years I got they names in my swears
Poppin' Cristal like it's my first child, lickin' shots Holiday style
Rockin' Steele sweaters, Wallabee down
Twenty-four carats, countin' cabbage like the Arabs
The marriage of me and the mic is just like magic
Elegant performance, bubble Lex full insurance
Guzzlin' Guinness, shootin', catchin' cases concurrent
It's Nas, seven hundred wives, King Solomon size
We on the rise, me and G - ghetto wise guys
The Luciano, Frankie Yale, Bugsy Siegel
Green papers with eagles from a trade that's illegal
[Chorus x2]
Brother, you've got to make it happen
Yeahhhahh yeahhh, get this money, yeahhh
Brother, you've got to make it happen
When you're livin' in the fast life, heyy, yeaaaah, yeah
[Verse 3: G Rap & Nas]
Aiyo, our lifestyles' exquisite, yayo like a blizzard
Esquire attire, standin' on ground with one pivot
Two players rockin' silk blazers and diamonds like glaciers
Lands with name-brand seats, reclinin' like it's spacious
Bodies on ice, livin' trife, rollin' fixed up dice
Gamblin' Grants, handlin' stamps
Moves are sheist
My bankrolls got the cops comin' in plain clothes
Tryin' to arraign our gang 'cause of our fame
That's how the game goes (True)
Right out the slammer with the fame and glamour
Cookin' up grams with Arm & Hammer
Supplyin' scramblers in Alabama
Rub out faces and leave no traces
My aces got mad body cases, preserve spaces at the horse races
Servin' us Dom, Veuve Clicquot
Dimes look magnifico, puttin' a cut inside perico
Heat for foes, shoppin' sprees with my fleet for clothes
In Caribbean suites deep, rippin' beats with flows
Aiyo, we went from standin' on blocks without some socks
Sellin' rocks, to pickin' up stocks in boat docks with Glocks
And got poppy seed fields with million dollar bills
Packin' all the blue steel, we keeps it real inside the battlefield
Yeah, so here's a toast to the funds and things
Gun smokes in rings, graveyards is buried with kings
[Chorus x2]
Livin' the fast life, with fast cars
Everywhere we go, people know who we are
A team from out of Queens with the American Dream
So we're plottin' up a scheme to get the seven figure cream
From the albums
- 4, 5, 6 (1995)
- It Was... Remixed (Rare Unreleased & Remixed) (2004)
- The Veteran (2018)