Released: July 14, 1998

Songwriter: Clem Burke N.O.R.E. Debbie Harry Chris Stein Pharrell Williams Chad Hugo

Producer: The Neptunes

[Produced by The Neptunes]

[Intro]
I'm, I'm actually waitin on the boss now
He said we have some kind of special assignment or something
He's supposed to be callin' me, like any minute now, any minute
Hold on, hold on, lemme get the phone
Hello? Jackson here
Ya, what? you found Manuel Noriega?
In the Philipines?
He has a mansion?
Ok, we're on it, we're on it right now... bye

[Hook: Noreaga and Tammy Lucas]
What, what, what, what, what, what, wh-what!
Superstar

[Verse 1]
We light a candle
Run laps around the English Channel
Neptunes, I got a cocker spaniel
We on the run now, you know it ain't no fun now
And where I go, yo niggas can't even come now
You hate the law, nigga break it, I don't care
But when you get caught, remember that I don't care
N.O.R.E., loved throughout the atmosphere
That mean now we on the run, yo if that ain't clear
Weak niggas wanna snitch yo but that ain't fair
Yo we down in Vegas, money, skies too courageous
I know I'm on the run but still rip stages
They call me animal thug, when I'm in cages
I used to boost razors, roll dice with no aces
Now I live secluded in the oasis
Gotta take spaces, no time for car races
Check my Skytel, I got five pages

[Hook]

[Verse 2]
Yo hit Lousiana, then Atlanta, Indiana
Forget a city slicker, got country grammar
Aiyyo we goin places where my SoundScan ain't tough
To where I say I ain't Nore, yo it ain't that rough
I leave the jake in my face, asking all this stuff
I gotta keep my mouth shut and don't say what, what
But yo it's hard to, knuckleheads got the heart to
Yo from New Orleans, L.A., V.A. to Queens
The I-95, now we hit the Philippines
But now it's different, we gotta stay sober
Yo, communicate, StarTAC, Motorola
Keep it on the hush hush, don't talk too much
Thugged Out Entertainment, you know we touch
All our whips got navigation
While your whips is just garbation
Is you knowing what you facing?

[Hook]

[Hook 2: Pharrell]
This is the life, yo, of a superstar
Fly ass mansions and a million cars
Gotta get the cash yo
And it's live or die
The Neptunes and Noreaga
The limit is the sky

[Verse 3]
Yo, lemme do it again, do it to win
Last album was a eight, this one is a ten
And when Capone come home, we gon' triple the sin
Yo I love my family, treat my folks like kin
Rock a ’embrero, like I'm Mexican
Shouting out my pops, cause yo next to him
He told me every thug nigga is a gentlemen
So I took heed, take my time still won't speed
You know a nigga got kids, so my family need
A little more than they used to get
Real not the duplicate
Taking no falls, making y'all just recouping it
Doing it up, tell me whatcha wanna do wit' it
Capone's plan, passport to foreign land
Overseas in Japan, politicking with Chan
Yo, N-E-P-T-U-N-E-S
The way they lace a beat like one of the best, what?

[Hook]

[Hook 2]

Yo, N.O.R.E., Nore, stand for now we on the run eating

N.O.R.E.

Queens rapper Noreaga (also known as N.O.R.E.) was one of the most distinctive voices of the late ’90s hardcore hip-hop scene. He found critical and commercial success, both as a member of the duo Capone-N-Noreaga and as a solo artist, well into the 2000s.

Born Victor Santiago, Jr., to a Puerto Rican father and black mother, N.O.R.E. was raised in the Lefrak City housing projects in Queens, New York. In the early ’90s, while serving a sentence for attempted murder at the Green Haven Correctional Facility, he befriended Queensbridge native Capone. Once released, the two began rapping together under the mentorship of Juice Crew veteran Tragedy Khadafi, appearing in The Source Magazine’s “Unsigned Hype” column in 1995.

The duo attracted widespread attention in 1996 with the release of the single “L.A., L.A..” The song—a response to Tha Dogg Pound’s “New York, New York”—is considered a key record in the infamous East Coast/West Coast battle. Only 18 at the time, Noreaga’s unorthodox style of rapping immediately stood out. VIBE Magazine described his flow as “staggered, high-pitched parrot riffs.” The Source called it “word association-style poetics.” Capone-N-Noreaga’s debut The War Report was released by Penalty/Warner in June 1997 to critical acclaim.