New York

[Intro]
Where we at? Where you at? Yo, who's in the place?
Y'all hear me out there? BK, NY, QB, LI
"This is this place to be"

Verse One [Rise]
We in the York newest
The stork that warped music
Caused an uproar and a change of all movement
Should have ruled foolish how we civil warred through it
Still we maintain without image all ghoulish
Lessons happily learned in the apple with worms
And crabs packin' the turns, trains trackin' their errs
Fuck parkin' in the city in the mid afternoon
And when you go out the little kiddies pull a clip out for you
There's a lot of pro teens in this mixed pot of stew
That represent Brooklyn even if they move out too
Gentrified, see a fence will rise for quality homes
Little Tyrone alone at home, violently zones
Turns pennies into nickles
Dimes, dubs only hazes now
Cause a bunch of records
Niggas call on you way foul
The land of opportunity
You got a chance to loose
The center of the Toosie Pop
The donut of the news

[Hook]
New York
BK
New York
QB
New York
DS
New York City
New York
Uptown
New York
Downtown
New York
Mid-town c'mon
New York City
New York
Clinton Hill
New York
Hicksville
New York
Project Heights
New York City
New York
Juan Dance
New York
Brentwood
New York
C'mon
"This is the place to be"

Verse Two [Substantial]
Dear NYC I miss you more than a tad bit
Without you I would have never knew this rap shit
In fact if, I didn't live there
Life would have been weird
Wouldn't have a wife and a kid
Hearin' Merlin, I'm certain
You wouldn't know my name
If the Big Apple didn't pull back the curtain
When I was doin' my thing
Pursuing my dreams, I was sure
"This is the place to be"
Wheeeeere
Rap artists outnumber the rats
And crooked cops fiend for someone to clap
The ? in your pad usin' nothin' but crack
Where the Twin Towers were under attack
Wrote so many rhymes while ridin' the subway
I'll still be underground when I'm platinum someday
From, yours truly Substantial
Though it can be a handful
"This is the place to be"

[Hook]

Verse Three [Rise]
Where you're just a graphic designer just makin' your coffee
And missiles from evil regimes are aimed at your office
Mid-Town moved to Parks Slope
The Slope moved to Flatbush
Flatbush moved to Florida state packed up
Like passin' through Queens on the Long Island E
If we car pooled then we can use the lane for Jay-Z
They say we're cocky and we're arrogant
Who knows what that meant
The only people on earth without an accent
"This is the place to be"
The Empire State
And I didn't write that
New York attack?
Look how the Empire Strikes Back
Startin' wars now just cause we didn't like cats
And everybody lived except the dudes from the ?
7-30 for 2-12
7-18 my 6-46 mobile lived in 5-16
6-3-1, countin' all the 7-11's
Who lived in the cribs
All the people that this record is reppin'

[Hook]

Verse Four [Substantial]
Where hustlers flip grams for next to no paper
And cop groceries from local bodegas
In the latest Tims cause they don't sport gators
You might get jumped for screamin' "Go Lakers"
Every single year they swear the Knicks gon' take it
Even when they suck, fans hold they team sacred
Though many hate it, you gotta respect it
Check it
"This is the place to be"
Where they
Grind God
Whether your grind hard
Wait tables or have a fashion design job
Hip hop's birth place
The paper chase capitol
Rent's dumb high so they do what they have to do
Train pan handlers
Playin' percussion
Homeless man sayin' sorry for the interruption
Never been? Then consider this your introduction
Welcome
"This is the place to be"

[Hook]