I'm just, tryin to stay above water y'know
Just stay busy, stay workin
Puff told me like, the key to this joint
The key to staying, on top of things
is treat everything like it's your first project, knahmsayin?
Like it's your first day like back when you was an intern
Like, that's how you try to treat things like, just stay hungry

[Verse One: Jay-Z]
Uhh, uhh, yes, yes
Y'all wanna know, why he don't stop
Y'all wanna know, why he don't flop
Let me tell you pe-eople why
Came from the bottom of the block I
When I was born, it was sworn, I was never gon' be [bad word] Had to pull the opposite out this [bad word] Had to get my ri-ide on
Eyes on the prize, Shawn knew I had to
Had to had to get these chips
Had to make moves like Olajuwon
Started out sellin dimes and nicks
Graduated to a brick
No exaggeration, my infatuation with the strip
Legendary like a schoolboy [bad word] merely nearly every every chick
Heavy [bad word] - that's how schoolboy got whipped
And got left on some "Just +Me, Myself and I+"
On some [bad word] [bad word] Had your boys threw place up, to a place of no return
Had to play with fire and get burned
Only way the boy ever gon' learn
Had to lay way in the cut, 'til I finally got my turn
Now I'm on top in the spot that I earned
 [bad word] 
It's my life - it's my pain and my [bad word] The song that I sing to you it's my ev-ery-thing
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst is the same as - when I came
It's my joy and my tears and the laughter it brings to me
It's my ev-ery-thing

[Verse Two: Jay-Z]
Like I never rode in a limo
Like I just dropped flows to a demo
Like it's ninety-two again and
And I got O's in the rental
Back in the Stu' again, no prob' livin was a whole lot simpler
When you think back, you thought that
you would never make it this far, then you
take advantage of the luck you handed
Or the talent, you been given
Ain't no, half steppin, ain't no, no slippin
Ain't no different from a block that's hidden
Gotta get it while the getting's good
Gotta strike while the iron's hot, 'fore you stop
Then you gotta bid it, good riddance
Goodbye, this is my second major breakup
My first was, with a pager
With a hooptie, a cookpot, and the GAME
This one's with the stool, with the stage, with the fortune
[From: [bad word] /www.elyrics.net/read/j/jay,,Z-lyrics/my-1st-song-lyrics.html ]
Maybe not the fortune, but certainly the FAME
 [bad word] 
It's my life - my pain and my [bad word] The song that I sing to you it's my ev-ery-thing
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst is the same as - when I came
It's my joy and my tears and my laughter it brings to me
It's my ev-ery-thing
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst like the first song I sang

[Outro: Jay-Z]
Woo! It's like the blues - we gon' ride out on this one
Ta-tah, be-hah
Yo Hah, 'member you was makin them dashes
for them niggaa at radio and [bad word] 
Clark Kent, that was good lookin out [bad word] Carlene - who ever thought we'd make it this far homey?
Sha, they can't stop us, knahmsayin? Lenny S
Dame whattup? Robbin the bank
Niggaz thought we was crazy man, 'member uhh
You had that [bad word] up [bad word] handwritin
You was writin all the numbers that we was spendin now
for the videos we was doin ourselves, whattup?
Original Flavor, your accountant was crazy wrong and [bad word] But we we still put it together
Bigs, whassup? 'Member we went to St. Thomas and uh
But y'all my nizzle, your dog peed on homey leg and [bad word] at his crib - I think that [bad word] And they was havin a lil trouble with the pool
You and Ta-tah was laughin
Emory was there, whattup Emory? What up Ta?
Hip-