Lyrics Shine On - Nas

Shine On

They dug me out the soil in the mines of the motherland
Now I’m misplaced, one hand to another hand
Illegal smugglin', people strugglin'
Wish they could just throw me back in the mud again
Yeah, guess that’s how we got here
Slave trade then the diamond trade
Every child’s afraid
When his mother and father get sprayed
Forced in the army, young killer brigade
Gets a new name and then he give his nose glue
'Til his mind can’t take what he’s gon' through
Lookin' in that dirt for that ice so blue
Then the royal family, the ice goes to
And this thing has to change, feelin' half-ashamed
As I rap with my platinum chain
When you shop for a gift for me
You think about the misery?
The same way we made Apartheid History
We can do the same thing to the conflict ice
But everybody wanna shine, right?
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
They wanna shine on 'em
Shine on 'em
My VVS glimmers on my chest
200-thou-encrusted watch on my wrist
I wonder how people starve to death
When God bless the land that lacks the harvest
The stone’s equality, but they homes are poverty
And the whole world ignores the robbery
Bought my girl pretty rocks when she’s mad at me
Tear-drop shaped, uh, perfect clarity
It shocks, so many are killed annually
'Cause of greed, lust, and pure vanity
Stop talkin' and do somethin' about it
Every holiday season, jewelry stores crowded
Kids snatched from their homes, mutilated alive
Husbands separated from wives, keep a Jesus piece to be fly
But back in the day there was a time when they called us shine
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
They wanna shine on 'em
Shine on 'em