Can I Live

(album: Reasonable Doubt - 1996)

Yeah, hah, yeah, Roc-A-Fella
We invite you to something epic, you know?
Well, we hustle out of a sense of hopelessness
Sort of a desperation
Through that desperation, we become addicted
Sort of like the fiends we accustomed to serving
But we feel we have nothing to lose
So, we offer you, well, we offer our lives, right?
What do you bring to the table?

While I'm watching every nigga watching me closely
My shit is butter for the bread, they wanna toast me
I keep my head, both of them, where they supposed to be
Hoes'll get you sidetracked, then clapped from close feet
I don't sleep, I'm tired, I feel wired like codeine, these days
A brother gotta admire me from four fiends away
My pain, wish it was quick to see
From selling 'caine 'til brains was fried to a fricassee
Can't lie, at the time it never bothered me
At the bar, getting my thug on properly
My squad and me lack of respect for authority
Laughing hard, happy to be escaping poverty, however brief
I know this game got valleys and peaks
Expectation for dips, for precipitation we stack chips, hardly
The youth I used to be, soon to see a mill'in
No more Big Willie, my game has grown
Prefer you call me William
Illing for revenues, Rayful Edmond-like
Channel 7 News, round seven jewels, head dead in the mic
Forgetting all I ever knew, convenient amnesia
"I suggest you call my lawyer, I know the procedure."
Lock my body, can't trap my mind
Easily explain why we adapt to crime
I'd rather die enormous than live dormant, that's how we on it
Live at the main event, I bet a trip to Maui on it
Presidential suites my residential for the weekend
Confidentially speaking in codes since I sense you peeking
The NSX rental, don't be fooled, my game is mental
We both out of town, dog, what you trying to get into?
Viva Las Vegas, see ya later at the crap tables
Meet me by the one that starts a G up
This way no Fraud Willies present gambling they re-up
And we can have a pleasant time, sipping margaritas

Ge-ge-geyeahhh
Can I live?
Can I live?

My mind is infested with sick thoughts that circle
Like a Lexus, if driven wrong it's sure to hurt you
Dual level like duplexes, in unity
My crew and me commit atrocities like we got immunity
You guessed it, manifest it
In tangible goods, platinum Rolex'd it
We don't lease, we buy the whole car, as you should
My confederation, dead a nation
Explode on detonation, overload the mind of a said patient
When it boils to steam, it comes to it
We all fiends, gotta do it: even righteous minds go through this
True this, the streets school us to spend our money foolish
Bond with jewelers and watch for intruders
I stepped it up another level, meditated like a Buddhist
Recruited lieutenants with ludicrous dreams of getting cream
"Let's do this," it gets tedious
So I keep one eye open like CBS — you see me stressed, right?

Can I live?
Can I live?
Can I live?
Can I live?