If I Ruled The World – Nas (feat. Lauryn Hill)

[Nas (Lauryn Hill):]
Life. I wonder, will it take me under? I don’t know

[Nas:]
Imagine smoking weed in the streets without cops harassing
Imagine going to court with no trial
Lifestyle cruising blue Bahama waters
No welfare supporters
More conscious of the way we raise our daughters

Days are shorter, nights are colder
Feeling like life is over,
These snakes strike like a cobra
The world’s hot my son got knocked evidently
It’s elementary, they want us all gone eventually

Trooping out of state for a plate knowledge
If coke was cooked without the garbage we’d all have the top dollars
Imagine everybody flashing, fashion
Designer clothes,
Lacing your clique up with diamond Roles

Your people holding dough, no parole, no rubbers,
Go in raw imagine law with no under covers
Just some thoughts for the mind
I take a glimpse into time
Watch the blimp read “The World Is Mine”

[Lauryn Hill, Nas:]
If I ruled the world
Imagine that
I’d free all my sons, I love ’em love ’em baby
Black diamonds and pearls
Could it be,
If you could be mine,
We’d both shine
If I ruled the world
Still living for today
In these last days and times

[Nas]
The way to be, paradise like relaxing black, Latino and Anglo-Saxon
Armani Exchange deranged
Cash, Lost Tribe of Shabazz, free at last
Brand new whips to crash then we laugh in the iller path

The Villa house is for the crew, how we do
Trees for breakfast, dime sexes and Benz stretches
So many years of depression make me vision
The better living, type of place to raise kids in

Open their eyes to the lies history’s told foul
But I’m as wise as the old owl, plus the Gold Child
Seeing things like I was controlling, click rolling
Tricking six digits on kicks and still holding

Trips to Paris, I civilized every savage
Give me one shot I turn trife life to lavish
Political prisoner set free, stress free
No work release purple M3s and jet skis

Feel the wind breeze in West Indies
I’d make Coretta Scott-King mayor the cities and reverse fiends to Willies
It sounds foul but every girl I meet’d to go downtown
I’d open every cell in Attica send ’em to Africa

[Lauryn Hill, Nas:]
If I ruled the world
Imagine that
I’d free all my sons, I love ’em love ’em baby
Black diamonds and pearls
Could it be,
If you could be mine,
We’d both shine
If I ruled the world
Still living for today
In these last days and times

And then we’ll walk right up to the sun
Hand in hand
We’ll walk right up to the sun
We won’t land
We’ll walk right up to the sun
Hand in hand
We’ll walk right up to the sun
We won’t land

[Nas:]
You’d love to hear the story
How the thugs live in worry
Duck down in car seats, heat’s mandatory
Running from Jake, getting chased, hunger for papes
These are the breaks many mistakes go down out of state

Wait, I had to let it marinate we carry weight
Trying to get laced, flip the ace stack the safe
Millionaire plan to keep the gat with the cocked hammer
Making moves in Atlanta, back-and-forth scrambler

‘Cause you could have all the chips, be poor or rich
Still nobody want a nigga having shit
If I ruled the world and everything in it,
Sky’s the limit
I push a Q-45 Infinit

It wouldn’t be no such thing as jealousies or B felonies
Strictly living longevity to the destiny
I thought I’d never see but reality struck
Better find out before your time’s out, what the fuck??

[Lauryn Hill, Nas:]
If I ruled the world
Imagine that
I’d free all my sons, I love ’em love ’em baby
Black diamonds and pearls
Could it be, if you could
Be mine, we’d both shine
If I ruled the world
Still living for today, in
These last days and times

If I ruled the world, if I ruled, if I ruled
Imagine that
I’d free all my sons, if I ruled, if I ruled
I love ’em love ’em baby
Black diamonds and pearls, black diamonds, black diamonds
Could it be, if you could
Be mine, we’d both shine
If I ruled the world
Still living for today, in
These last days and times

If I ruled the world, if I ruled
If I ruled, I’d free all my sons
Black diamonds, I love ’em love ’em baby
Black diamonds and pearls, if I ruled
If I ruled the world

If I ruled the world
I love ’em love ’em baby!