Project Windows

By Nas

On Nastradamus

Released on November 23, 1999

26K Views

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[Verse 1: Nas]

Black hoods, cops and projects. Sewers flooded with foul blockage

The gutter's wild and every child watches

Chains in top locks get ripped off hinges

Doors kicked off, drunks stag off Smirnoff. Wipe your beard off

Crippled dope fiends in wheelchairs stare. Vision blurry

'Cause buried deep in they mind are hidden stories

Bet he's a mirror image of that '70s era

He's finished for the rest of his life, 'til he fades out

The liquor store workers miss him but then, it plays out

So many ways out the hood, but no signs say "out"

Mental slave house where gats go off, I show off

Niggas up north prison-ology talk 'til they time cut off

You should chill if you short. Prepare deep thought

To hit the street again, get it on. Get this paper and breathe again

Plan to leave somethin' behind

So your name'll live on, no matter what the game lives on

[Chorus: Ron Isley & Nas]

Lookin' out of my project window (Lookin' out)

Oh, I feel uninspired

Lookin' out, lookin' out of my project window (Oh, I'm lookin' out)

Oh, it makes me feel so tired (Uh. Yo)


[Verse 2: Nas]

If this piano's the cake, then my words are the candles

Light it up, make a wish, and them angels will grant you

Impatient once tried, but in those angels and bamboo

They lit it up {*puff, puff*}, hit it up {*puff*}. Now, they dismantled

Think the whole world is crazy. Got a nine, watch where you walk

Two dollar fine. Sign of the times here in New York

Hire Satan. United Nations quietly taken

Toll on your soul; take it or leave it. Just my evaluation

Stack loot and guns. Teach the girls karate, school your sons

Not to hate, but to stay awake

'Cause the scars a razor make is nothin' in comparison

To the gash left on this whole mass, if we don't get it controlled fast

Might as well be, laughin' with Malcolm X's assassin as we die slow

Perishin'. Brain dead from a Ericsson

Words are the medicine. Two teaspoons for goons

A cup of it for those thuggin' it. Y'all sing the tune, uh


[Chorus: Ron Isley]

Lookin' out of my project window (Lookin' out)

Oh, I feel uninspired

Lookin' out, lookin' out of my project window (Oh, I'm lookin' out)

Oh, it makes me feel (oh, yeah) so tired


[Verse 3: Nas]

Another day, another dollar, my mother will holla

She said go and see the world for myself, and my brother should follow

Pops was smooth, from his top to his shoes

Sang the blues. Guitar strings he played smokin' his Kool

Duke Ellington hat. Picture this, yo; seventies cat

He wrote his music in the back of the crib. I did my homework

At night, the windows were speakers, pumpin' life out

A fight. People screamin' 'cause somebody pulled a knife out

So, I look at this room. I'm hooked to this tune

Every night, the same melody. Hell sounded so heavenly

But jail was ahead of me, was speedin' like amphetamine

Reading's what I should've done, 'cause my imagination would run

I was impatient to get out and become

Part of the noise out there. I used to stare

Five stories down; basketball courts, shot up playgrounds

And I witnessed the murders and police shake-downs

Yo, the hustla's and hoes, drugs and fo'-fo's

This was the life of every kid, lookin' out project windows


[Chorus: Ron Isley]

Oh, outta my window, I'm starin'

Lookin' out of my project window (Lookin' out)

Oh, I feel uninspired

Lookin' out, lookin' out of my project window (Oh, I'm lookin' out)

Oh, it makes me feel so tired


[Chorus: Ron Isley]

Lookin' out of my project window (Lookin' out)

Oh, I feel uninspired

Lookin' out, lookin' out of my project window (Oh, I'm lookin' out)

Oh, it makes me feel so tired


[Outro: Ron Isley]

Starin' out of, out my window

Oh I, feel so tired

Oh, yeah, outta my window

Oh, lookin' out, lookin' out of

Lookin' out my window, oh, yeah

Makes me feel so tired

Ohh

Lookin' out of my project window (No, no, no, no, no)

Oh, it makes me feel so tired (Outta my window)

Lookin' out of my project...