Lyrics The Empire - Iron Solomon, Talib Kweli

The Empire

I’m from the home of the hustler, born with a mean mark
Talk fast and we walk fast, keep up
Step with a different rhythm, try to make the most of what little we’ve been
given
By the city that we live in
We… walk … like a streets marks,
Intersect, dogs eat dogs, … law, that’s
Dry a nigga even for the odds that we overcoming
So we can hear them sirens and them coppers…
No matter what we facing we don’t turn the cheek
The highest currency is courage in these urban streets
We’re in the … where people popping they heels
We never follow our leader…
With lady liberty’s … without stopping the…
You can never doubt us out, even when we downing out
Nothing to be proud about, show the people shouting out
My city, my home, my city, my home, my city, my home, New York city
My city, my home, my city, my home, my city, my home, New York city
I’m from the home of the stickers, can’t be always show the streets love
Talk fast, plus we walk fast, keep up a step
Over gutter rainbows
Wish I could give away millions like I was Maino
You know how the gutters… if you listen to the…
The bombers made it tragic but we rose up from the ashes
Like the promise of the phoenix…
I roll a purple… youth… I grew up in New York
… Fuck how niggas… it’s tragic how our whips got more gadgets than the
Batmobile
The inspiration… the metropolitan… stay on top of other problems
Cause we’re coming my from the bottom
My city, my home, my city, my home, my city, my home, New York city
My city, my home, my city, my home, my city, my home, New York city
New York, New York, my city, my home
My city, my home,
As a teen I sold 20's spending my own money
Stepping out my parent’s house the city was home to me
Riverside park, we would kick it after dark, by the peer
With some beers, and a piff that we would spark
And run up in house parties and turn them to our parties
And neighbors would call cops, cause we would get…
Another night, another page written in life’s journal
9 million stories in a city with 5 burrows
Different backgrounds, but we came through the same struggle
Dreaming of fame, we wrote our names on train tunnels
Running round the city like rats in crawl spaces
Catching court cases for jacking north faces
Chasing the fast life, we know that it’s short
Breathing the air here it’s like smoking a Newport
My home is in New York… we living… die
The city of NY
My city, my home, my city, my home, my city, my home, New York city
My city, my home, my city, my home, my city, my home, New York city
New York, New York, my city, my home
My city, my home.