Dope Man
(专辑: Vol. 3... Life And Times Of S. Carter - 1999)
(Millennium flow) Serena Altschul's here live outside the
criminal courthouse (This is bullshit y'all) In New York City for the
first day in the
trial of (I'm gone) The
State vs. Shawn Carter, a.k.a. Jay-Z (Uh, uh-huh-uh, uh, uh-huh-uh, uh) Whatever the
verdict in this trial may be The
effects will undoubtedly be felt worldwide Ayo, stand forward, 'fore you take notice Or witness to me killing the
track Testify 'til me spilling the
smack Now they got me for trafficking, racketeering, audio crack They call me dope man, dope man I
try to tell 'em I'm where hope, floats man Ghetto spokesman A
broke man, approaching the
bench with intent To bury me under the
cell, fingered me as the
toast man Evidence stemming from ninety-six They say the
world ain't recovered from his fix While they was using cut, I
was on some other shit Gave it to you raw and they just discovered it Nowadays, the
jury got their brow raised Listening to testimony about my foul ways Exhibit A: Reasonable Doubt They say this was the
first thing that turned the
peoples out You can feel the
tension building here As an unprecedented number of people have turned out For what may be the
trial of the
century They call me dope man, dope man I
try to tell 'em I'm where hope, floats man Ghetto spokesman How come, you label your brand of dope Vol. 1
and spread it through the
slums? Fed it to the
young with total disregard Your honor, the
State seeks the
maximum charge And how could you turn right around And release a
lethal dosage called Vol. 2
And is true you operate the
criminal enterprise Known as Roc-A-Fella in charge of his meteoric rise? And do you deny you're responsible for the
demise Of record execs, and do you object? Your distribution's Polygram, and through your connects Def Jam, you pushed over five million SoundScan And not to mention your cohorts and henchmen Dame, Biggs, Lyor, Kev' and Russell Simmons And we ain't gon' talk about Murder Inc That just establishes a
darker deeper criminal link The
State is seeking the
maximum penalty And with the
overwhelming amount of evidence The
D.A.'s presented, things aren't looking good They call me dope man, dope man I
try to tell 'em I'm where hope, floats man Ghetto spokesman Despite the
grim outlook at this point the
rapper has been known to emerge triumphant in the
face of adversity They call me dope man, dope man I
try to tell em I'm where hope, floats man Ghetto spokesman Jay-Z is taking the
stand Right hand on the
Bible, left hand in the
air Before I
spoke one word, made sure my throat was clear Ahem, I'm a
prisoner of circumstance Frail nigga, I
couldn't much work with my hands But my mind was strong, I
grew where you hold your blacks up Trap us, expect us not to pick gats up Where you drop your cracks off by the
Mack trucks Destroy our dreams of lawyers and actors Keep us spiraling, going backwards At age nine, saw my first hate crime Blindfolded, expected to walk a
straight line Mind molded, taught to love you and hate mine Climbed over it at a
early age, Jay shined Fuck the
system at Lady Justice I
blaze nine Your Honor, I
no longer kill my people, I
raise mine The
soul of Mumia in this modern day time While the
jury is inside deliberating outside the
crowd is frozen with anticipation They call me dope man, dope man I
try to tell 'em I'm where hope, floats man Ghetto spokesman Well the
verdict has just been announced: "Not guilty"! It is complete pandemonium out here! People are cheering and hugging – there he is Jay-Z is exiting the
courtroom right now There is a
swarm of cameras surrounding him And people are just rushing up to him Let's try and make our way over there, Jay-Z! Jay-Z!