It has been, it has been, it has been, it has been      It has been said that there has been known to be bloodshed   Over bread, men who have bled to death, dead   Strapped to beds, pipe bombs, dynamite, lead   Money power respect, street cred, yeah      It's scary, ain't it? Picture yourself goin' out as a hero   Picture mural pictures of us painted all over street corners   Fans meet to mourn us, while we meet the coroners   Notorious tried to warn us      We watched, so many Biggie backed off of   Biggie's back and 'Pac's, landmarks, history in rap   Statistically in fact, it's so sad to see us re-enact   These tragic events, which lead us back      To where we left off on March 9th to come from such hard knock lifes   And make it up out of 'em, hit the spotlights   And, once they're on us this is our lives   Thrust out for all eyes to cast upon us to see who can last the longest      And he who lasts the longest, must be the strongest   In this concrete jungle, where this dog eat dog mentality comes from   It's origin, which is usually originated from cats who starvin'   Or it could just be somebody's horror that just horrifies      And applies to his persona or the sizes   In his entourage, that intimidates the people   To the point that you know that he's gangster   He ain't just say shit, you just believe it      Since B.I.G. taught us niggaz to think big   I'm been about my business since then, so anxious   It ain't how we live, it's what he said, he did it for Brooklyn   This I took in, sent chills through my skin      Vicious, I'm experiencin' the same sights as him   It's what excited Obie to write these poems   Rollin', goin' through the same shit he spoken   Open up my eyes, so there's no limit in them skies      'When Ready To Die' was a sick part of my life   Palmin' that forty-five, plottin' to pop my mind   Then that crooked eye Jamaican, I'd so many times rewind   Got me to walk a straight line and get up on my grind      Get up out the system, who could give him better signs?   No pop of mine could top Big Poppa rhymes   So, possibly I'd be popular, huh?   That's the inspiration I got from my nigga B.I.      I took him from coal to diamond, I molded his mind   Enter the most phenomenal artist of any and all time   I made a Frankenstein, my design impressed   Backpackers and press, who said my house was a mess      Critics lashed, said I made a fortune off of his passin'   All I did was build a dynasty, off of his passion   And I'm addressin' the adolescents absent to who he is   The original king of New York, Christopher Wallace      This is a promise on Diddy's honor, I'm a father T'Yanna   And teach her that with all the drama, don't even bother   On repeat, all of your albums play back to back   And I visit your grave 'cause our friendship's intact      An immaculate concept, extravagant progress   Bullet wounds left in my heart, I'm yellin', "God bless"   Regardless to critics yellin' that East, West   I seen the game losin', I'm just pressin' the reset      And when the resurrection of you shines through an individual   Lyrical enough to wear the same crown of thorns literally   I'ma pay homage, Brooklyn's finest   Whether it's Queens or Harlem, it'll be instant stardom, nigga