Rakim New York (Ya Out There) lyrics

If you was born in New York City
Let me hear say, "You know that"
(You know that)
I was born in New York City

New York, ya out there? New York, no doubt
New York, ya out there? No doubt
New York City, ya out there? New York, New York

Ya out there? New York
Ya out there? New York
Ya out there? New York, no doubt, New York, New York

Ya out there? No doubt, New York City
Ya out there? New York, New York
Ya out there? New York, ya out there?

Aiyyo, once upon a rhyme where the scenery sets, you see stress
Streets a matter of life and death, no regrets
Life's a test, strife, wit special effects
Neighborhood's full of reps, cities are projects

Where the young cadets get stripes from the vets
And comrades quest, to be the next, to finesse
Collect debts and select bets with death threats
Object, Chedder, better your total net

Where trends are set from ways to express the outfits
Friends get wet tryin' to make ends connect
Avenues to check, boulevards to sweat
The smell of gun smoke, more common than cigarettes

We got clicks for wreck, we like Pits for pets
We got Giants and Jets, the Knicks, Yanks and Mets
We like much respect and sex extra wet
And High tech dialect, you ain't catch yet

The Bronx
Ya out there?
No doubt
Ya out there?
Brooklyn
Ya out there?

Aiyyo, we got blocks and glocks with
Big shots with big knots and big props
Yo, this is where the bullshit stops
Where herbs get got, if you snitch, you get shot

We get down and leave the town in a state of shock
We got dangerous hang out spots and slick cops
Place called Riker's Island where kids get locked
A lotta gear to rock with blocks of clothes shops


Styles are top notch, this is the place to watch
So blast the box, the radio station is hot
Ease your mind, staring at skylines from rooftops
Flip scripts for chips and new whips off the lot

Quick to call a shot, politic with thick plots
And the Garden of Eden against the sea, that we got
To make sure the core of the Big Apple don't rot
Where seeings believing, we be achieving a lot
When disc jocks created hip hop, check it out

Queens, ya out there? No doubt
Manhattan, ya out there? No doubt
New York City, Staten Island
New York, New York, Long Island
New York, ya out there?

Aiyyo, we got five boroughs of ghettos
With many places to meet, you get lost in busy streets
The city that never sleeps
Mecca [Incomprehensible], Medina, the population increase
The desert and the oasis, New York, the far east

With Gods and sheiks, pretty Amazons for weeks
Player dons that fleece, the family's black sheep
Icons that teach, that we all act unique
We got stats to reach, so we all have to eat

A mass of peeps with they own masterpiece
The crafts elite, we be going past the beat
The latest technique, no other place get as deep
Who parks release, some of the worlds greatest athletes

DJ's and MC's and graffiti artistes
Who use walls and subway trains for marquees
We go back to B boys, breakdancing, breakbeats
And it'll never cease and on that note, we say peace

Ya out there? New York
Ya out there? New York, no doubt
Ya out there? New York

Ya out there? No doubt
New York City, ya out there?
New York, New York

Ya out there? New York
Ya out there? New York
Ya out there? New York, no doubt