If you was born in New york City let me hear say "You know that"!
   YOU KNOW THAT
  
   Aiyyo, once upon a rhyme where the scenery sets, you see stress
   Streets a matter of life and death, no regrets
   Life's a test, strife, wit special effects
   Neighbourhood's full of reps, cities are projects
   Where the young cadets get stripes from the vets
   And comrades quest to be the next, to finess
   Collect debts and select bets with death threats
   Object - Chedder, better your total net
   Where trends are set from ways to express the outfits
   Friends get wet tryin' to make ends connect
   Avenues to check, boulevards to sweat
   The smell of gunsmoke more common than cigarettes
   WE GOT clicks for wreck
   WE LIKE Pits for pets
   WE GOT Giants and Jets, the Knicks, Yanks and Mets
   WE LIKE much respect and sex extra wet
   And High-Tech dialect you ain't catch yet
  
   (The Bronx
   Ya out there?
   No doubt
   Brooklyn
   ya out there)
  
   [Rakim]
   Aiyyo, we got blocks and glocks with
   big shots with big knots and big props
   yo this is where the bullshit stops
   where herbs get got
   if you snitch you get shot
   we get down and leave the town in a state of shock
   WE GOT dangerous hang out spots and slick cops
   place called Riker's Island where kids get locked
   a lotta gear to rock with blocks of clothes shops
   styles are top notch, this is the place to buy
   so bust the box the radio station is hot
   ease your mind staring at skylines from rooftops
   flip scripts for chips
   and new Whips of the lot
   quick to call a shot, pollitic with thick plots
   and eh, Carnegie niggers a see what we got
   to make sure the core of the big apple don't rot
   where seeings believing we be achieving a lot
   since disc jocks created hip hop, check it out!
  
   (Queens
   ya out there?
   no doubt
   Manhatten
   no doubt
   New York city
   Staten Island
   New york new york
   long Island
   New york
   ya out there)
  
   [Rakim]
   Aiyo, we got five bouroughs of ghettos
   with amny places to meet, you get lost in city streets
   the city that never sleeps
   Mecca ? Medina the population increase
   the desert and the oasis, New York, the far east
   with gods and Sheiks
   pretty amazons for weeks
   player dons that fleece the family's black sheep
   icons that teach that we all act unique
   we got stats to reach so we all have to eat
   a mass of peeps, with they own masterpiece
   the crafts elite, we going past the beat
   the latest technique no other place get as deep
   who parks release some of the worlds greatest athletes
   DJs and MCs and graffiti artistes
   who use walls and subway trains for marquees
   we go back to b-boys, breakdancing, breakbeats
   and it'll never cease and on that note
   we say peace