8 Miles and Runnin’

[Intro: Jay Z]
Geah
Renegades is back
Em, the beat is sick
It's Young
Freeway
8 Miles
Let's go!

[Verse 1: Jay Z]
Eight miles and runnin', got my seventh album droppin'
And my eighth album comin', feeding a thousand growling stomachs
But I can rewind the calendar back, back when it was now or nothin'
People said I would amount to nothin', that I had talent for nothin'
Said I would succumb to violence or be silenced by a gunman
I could just hear the folks now: "He got what he had comin'."
Now that my eighth album's comin', everybody's smilin'
Wanting somethin', claiming that they done somethin' for him
Got their Jay Z pompoms and their Hov uniform
Claiming they been runnin' and tellin' everybody, like Martin Lawrence
'Bout how hot my rap performance was before I was who I was
Claiming that they threw it up before I threw it up—you what?
Where was you before I blew this up?
I didn't see you in the courtroom when everybody was suin' us
I didn't see you in all black when everybody was suitin' up
Back on the block, getting it in—it wasn't no you with us

[Chorus: Jay Z & Freeway]
Eight miles and runnin', got my seventh album droppin'
And my eighth album comin', feeding a thousand growling stomachs—Free!
Six miles and runnin', got my fifth strip poppin'
And my first album comin', feeding twenty growling stomachs
Eight miles and runnin', got my seventh album droppin'
And my eighth album comin', feeding a thousand growling stomachs—Free!
Six miles and runnin', got my fifth strip poppin'
And my first album comin', feeding twenty growling stomachs

[Verse 2: Freeway]
Six miles and runnin' in the Pontiac six thousand eighty six
Trans' might shift while the engine run
Anyone, tell your honor: "Give me one more chance"
And them smokers screaming, "One more gram!" so I'ma bring 'em one (Geah)
Only son to my pop, stick close to my mama
Keep toasters for drama, make Salat with my son
My son growin', and he learnin' a lot
That's when them toasters, when the burners will pop, brain on your, um–
'Brella, nigga, tell 'em niggas, that's like the Biblical scripture
Look back, turn to salt, like the sinners
And most of you heartless and self-centered like Meshach and Mesha
Set up your brother ‘cause you jealous, nigga
The heat back (Ugh), like you never left, I ever rep
Cops watch every step, six miles and runnin'
Dodgin' every trap, the rap gingerbread man
Cherish every precious breath, State P, the second gat

[Chorus: Jay Z & Freeway]
Eight miles and runnin', got my seventh album droppin'
And my eighth album comin', feeding a thousand growling stomachs—Free!
Six miles and runnin', got my fifth strip poppin'
And my first album comin', feeding twenty growling stomachs
Eight miles and runnin', got my seventh album droppin'
And my eighth album comin', feeding a thousand growling stomachs—Free!
Six miles and runnin', got my fifth strip poppin'
And my first album comin', feeding twenty growling stomachs

[Verse 3: Jay-Z]
Back when nobody would find he had talent, nobody would sign me
Nobody believed in me, nobody but Mommy, blindly
But how can she deny me? Me being the youngest runt
To come up outta her tummy, she got nothing but love for me
When niggas would one me, the industry shunned me
That's why I'm taking all the industry's money
Revenge is sweet honey, we run this
Young is the illest, Free is the future
Beans and Bleek is right now, we can see y'all, eight miles, nigga

[Chorus: Jay Z & Freeway]
Eight miles and runnin', got my seventh album droppin'
And my eighth album comin', feeding a thousand growling stomachs—Free!
Six miles and runnin', got my fifth strip poppin'
And my first album comin', feeding twenty growling stomachs
Eight miles and runnin', got my seventh album droppin'
And my eighth album comin', feeding a thousand growling stomachs—Free!
Six miles and runnin', got my fifth strip poppin'
And my first album comin', feeding twenty growling stomachs