🎵 Streets Is Watching // by JAŸ-Z

72 ContributorsStreets Is Watching Lyrics “Streets Is Watching” is a track on JAY-Z’s 1997 sophomore album In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 and is the title track of the soundtrack to his 1998 movie Streets Is Watching.… Read More  [Produced by Ski Beatz] [Intro] Uh-huh uh huh uh, gee-gee-geyeah Peepin', watchin', streets You boys are soft like bread Uh-huh uh huh uh, live from Brooklyn Uh-huh uh, the streets is watchin' Check it, check, uh-huh uh, check [Verse 1] Look, if I shoot you, I'm brainless But if you shoot me, then you famous, what's a nigga to do When the streets is watchin', blocks keep clockin' Waitin' for you to break, make your first mistake? Can't ignore it, that's the fastest way to get extorted But my time is money, and twenty-five, I can't afford it Beef assorted like Godiva chocolates Niggas you bought it, I pull the slide back and cock it Plan aborted, you and your mans get a pass This rhyme, you're operatin' on bitch time Y'all niggas ain't worth my shells All y'all niggas tryna do is hurt my sales and stop trips to John Meneilly The type to start a beef then run to the cops When I see you in the street, got one in the drop When I'd rather be on tour gettin' a hundred a pop Takin' pictures with some bitches in front of the drop The streets is watchin' [Chorus] When the streets is watchin', blocks keep clockin' Waiting for you to break, make your first mistake Can't ignore it [Verse 2] Now it's hard not to kill niggas It's like a full time job not to kill niggas, can't chill The streets is watchin' you when you froze your arms Niggas wanna test you when your gun goes warm Can't get caught with your feet up, got to keep your heat up Sweet niggas runnin' 'round swearin' shit's sweeter Once you're tagged lame, the game is Follow the Leader Everybody want a piece of your scrilla, so you gotta keep it realer Kidnap niggas wanna steal ya Broke niggas don't want no cash, they just wanna kill ya For the name, niggas don't know the rules Disrespectin' the game, want you to blow your cool Force your hand, of course that man's plottin' Smarten up, the streets is watchin' (It's on) [Chorus] When the streets is watchin', blocks keep clockin' Waiting for you to break, make your first mistake Can't ignore it [Verse 3] My street mentality — flip bricks forever You know me and money — we like armed co-defendants, nigga, we stick together Shit, whatever for this cheddar, ran my game into the ground Hustle harder 'til secret indictment time came around Now you can look up and down the streets, and I can't be found Put in 24-hour shifts but, that ain't me now Got a face too easy to trace, niggas mouths got slow leaks Had to hire a team of workers, couldn't play those streets See out of space like Mercury, you jerkin' me? Hectic Had to call upon my wolves to send niggas the message It said this, "Let's play fair and we can stay here I'm tryna transform you boys to men like daycare" Hey, there's money to be made, and niggas got the picture And stopped playin' with my paper, and we got richer Then hard times fell upon us, half of my staff had warrants The other half — in the casket lay dormant I felt like life was cheatin' me For the first time in my life, I was gettin' money, but it was like my conscience was eatin' me Was this a lesson God teachin' me? Was he sayin' that I was playin' the game straight from Hell from which few came back? Like bad coke, pimp or die, was my mind frame bad? When niggas was thinkin' simplify was turnin' cocaine crack? Ain't a whole lot of brain to that, just tryna maintain a stack And not collide like two trains that's on the same track But get my life together like the oils I bring back In the bottom of the pot where the water gets hot Got my transporter, take it across the border then stop To set up shop with a quarter of rock Here's the plan — for three straight weeks, niggas slaughtered the block But you know the game is food, it fucked up me and my dudes One drought can wipe a nigga out, faster than the cops And this unstable way of livin' just had to stop Half of my niggas got time, we done real things By '94 became the subject of half of y'all niggas rhymes Public apologies to the families of those caught up in my shit But that's the life for us lost souls brought up in this shit The life and times of a nigga's mind, excited with crime And the lavish luxuries that just excited my mind I figured, "Shit, why risk myself? I'll just write it in rhymes And let you feel me, and if you don't like it, then fine" The mind state of a nigga who boosted the crime rate So high in one city, they sent National Guards to get me Shit, B [Outro] What's fuckin' with that? The streets