It’s Not a Game

By N.O.R.E.

On N.O.R.E.

Released on July 7, 1998

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[Intro: Noreaga & Musaliny]

Yeah, this is, this ain't no game, man

A lot of people look from the outside in

Thinking that it's easy, man, you know what I'm saying?

Not realizing we work too, you know what I mean?

We working every day hard, getting our hands dirty just like y'all

But y'all think y'all better (Yo, yo, yo, yo)

But y'all think y'all better (Yo, yo)


[Verse 1: Musaliny]

I pledge allegiance

To money, weed, jewels, hoes, and big guns

While you dealing in crumbs and stacking the funds

Squeezing them ones, so jealous sons have 'em speaking in tongues

Headed for these slums, screaming at the top of they lungs

Bitch-made cats, find 'em wherever you at

Your man in your face will stab you in your back

Life's a bitch, so rub up and fuck it

To live your life, you gotta love it

Six-double-O, used to whip a bucket

Left the strip 'cause niggas like five-seven tips

Hood of loose lips, iced my necklace to my wrists

'Long with the stones on my fists

Niggas hating me 'cause I got chips

Left the hood rich, nothin' but diamond this

Head from a bitch in the back of a thugged-out whip

Why-not shit, devilish, your crabs ain't shit

Mad at this, certain gentle wrist


[Chorus: Maze]

It's not a game, nigga, we move in and move out

Most niggas try to follow the route

But they can't see what we see, thugged out

Like wherever we be, M-A-Z-E, N.O.R.E., Musaliny


[Verse 2: Noreaga]

Now that's that shit that I'm talking 'bout and shit

Them same niggas that you fucking with

Fucking with them cats that you don't fuck with

What you 'posed to do?

Both of them are part of the crew

Can't choose sides (True)

I don't know, I don't like to go that road

If that's your clique, I suggest that you stay with them, yo

While some say break up to make up

I say stick together, God, until you all cake up

Bitches meet me at the Crowne Plaza

On they period, it don't matter

I'm in the head, something serious

This ain't a game, God, yo, it never was

I get super high while y'all niggas get a buzz

My associates that I used to sit, chill with

Now it's only family I like to deal with

That I like to build with, get high, and hold steel with

So let's do this, all my niggas run through this


[Chorus: Maze]

It's not a game, nigga, we move in and move out

Most niggas try to follow the route

But they can't see what we see, thugged out

Like wherever we be, M-A-Z-E, N.O.R.E., Musaliny


[Verse 3: Maze]

The money attitude's decaying

Too many snakes in the way

Of getting paid playing laid back on my days in

I wanna enter fortune, but which way in?

Without getting lost in a storm

My pen pages reflect Maze

Wide steps from his H on, shades beyond the grave

Golden braids hang from my physical, bitches scare me

Move mystical, enchanting Branson weed at me

I'm like fan of B

And vanish from the scene in a blur

But barely seen, clearly heard in my action

And act civil, my palm sizzle from the heat in my hand

We're in your land like a hard drizzle

To reach my pinnacle is minimal

Sinister style, thugged out, nigga, sending you foul, what?


[Chorus: Maze]

It's not a game, nigga, we move in and move out

Most niggas try to follow the route

But they can't see what we see, thugged out

Like wherever we be, M-A-Z-E, N.O.R.E., Musaliny