Lyrical Breakdown of The Message - A Journey through Words and Rhymes

Fake thug, no love, you get the slug, CB4 Gusto

Your luck low, I didn't know 'til I was drunk though

You freak niggas played out, get fucked and ate out

Prostitute turned bitch, I got the gauge out

96 ways I made out, Montana way

The Good-F-E-L-L-A, verbal AK spray

Dipped attache, jumped out the Range, empty out the ashtray

A glass of 'Ze make a man Cassius Clay

Red dot plots, murder schemes, thirty-two shotguns

Regulate with my dunn's, 17 rocks gleam from one ring

They let me let y'all niggas know one thing

There's one life, one love, so there can only be one King

The highlights of living, Vegas style roll dice in linen

Antera spinning on milleniums, twenty G bets I'm winning them

Threats I'm sending them, Lex with TV sets the minimum

Ill sex adrenaline

Party with villains, a case of Demi-Sec to chase the Henny

Wet any clique, with the semi TEC who want it?

Diamonds I flaunt it, chicken-heads flock I lace 'em

Fried broiled with basil, taste 'em, crack the legs

Way out of formation, it's horizontal how I have 'em

Fucking me in the Benz wagon

Can it be Vanity from Last Dragon?

Grab your gun it's on though

Shit is grimy, real niggas buck in broad daylight

With the broke MAC it won't spray right

Don't give a fuck who they hit, as long as the drama's lit

Yo, overnight thugs, bug 'cause they ain't promised shit

Hungry-ass hooligans stay on that piranha shit

I never sleep, because sleep is the cousin of death

I ain't the type of brother made for you to start testin'

I never sleep, because sleep is the cousin of death

I ain't the type of brother made for you to start testin'

I never sleep, because sleep is the cousin of death

I ain't the type of brother made for you to start testin'

I never sleep, because sleep is the cousin of death

I ain't the type of brother made for you to start testin'

I peeped you frontin', I was in the Jeep

Sunk in the seat, tinted with heat, beats bumpin'

Across the street you was wildin'

Talkin' 'bout how you ran the Island in '89

Layin' up, playin' the yard with crazy shine

I cocked a baby 9 that nigga grave be mine, clanked him

What was he thinking on my corner when it's pay me time?

Dug 'em, you owe me cousin, something told me plug him

So dumb, felt my leg burn, then it got numb

Spun around and shot one, heard shots and dropped son

Caught a hot one, somebody take this biscuit 'fore the cops come

Then they came asking me my name, what the fuck

I got stitched up and went through

Left the hospital that same night, what

Got my gat back, time to backtrack

I had the drop so how the fuck I get clapped?

Black was in the Jeep watching all these scenes speed by

It was a brown Datsun, and yo nobody in my hood got one

That clown nigga's through, blazin' at his crew daily

The 'Bridge touched me up severely, hear me?

So when I rhyme it's sincerely yours

Be lightin' L's sippin' Coors, on all floors of project halls

Contemplatin' war niggas I was cool with before

We used to score together, Uptown copping the raw

But uh, a thug changes, and love changes

And best friends become strangers, word up

Y'all know my steelo

There ain't no army that can strike back

Y'all know my steelo

There ain't no army that can strike back

Y'all know my steelo

There ain't no army that can strike back

Y'all know my steelo

There ain't no army that can strike back

Thug niggas

Yo, to them thug niggas gettin' it on in the world, you know?

To them niggas that's locked down

Doin' they thing, survivin', ya know'm sayin'?

To my thorough niggas, New York and worldwide

Yo, to the Queensbridge Militia, yo

'96 shit

The Firm clique

Illmatic, nigga

It was written though

It's been a long time comin'

Y'all fake niggas, tryna copy

Better come with the real though

Fake-ass niggas, yo

(They throw us slugs, we throwin' them back, what)

Bring the shit, man, live, man

(Fuck that son, word up) '96 shit