Shine On 'Em by Nas
[Man Singing Humming in Foreign Language]
[Intro: Nas]
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
They wanna shine on 'em
Shine on 'em [x7]
Yeah

[Verse 1: Nas]
They dug me out the soil in the Mines of the Motherland
Now I'm misplaced, one hand to another hand
Illegal smugglin', people strugglin'
Wish they could just throw me back in the mud again
Yeah, guess that's how we got here
Slave Trade then the Diamond Trade
Every child's afraid
When his Mother and Father get sprayed
Forced in the Army, young killer^{1 Brigade
Gets a new name and then he give his nose glue
Til' his mind can't take what he's gon' through
Lookin' in that dirt for that ice so blue
Then The Royal Family, the ice goes to
And this thing has to change, feelin' half-ashamed
As I rap with my Platinum2 chain
When you shop for a gift for me
You think about the misery3?
The same way we made Apartheid History
We can do the same thing to the conflict ice
But everybody wanna shine, right?
[HooK: Nas]
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
They wanna Shine on 'em
Shine on 'em [x7]
[Verse 2: Nas]
My VVS glimmers4 on my chest
200-thou-encrusted watch on my wrist
I wonder how people starve to death
When God bless the land that lacks the harvest
The stone's equality, but they homes are poverty
And the whole world ignores the robbery
Bought my girl pretty rocks when she's mad at me
Tear-drop shaped, uh, perfect Clarity
It shocks, so many are killed annually
'Cause of greed, lust5, and pure Vanity
STOP talkin' and do somethin' about it
Every Holiday Season, Jewelry6 stores crowded
Kids snatched from their homes, Mutilated alive
Husbands separated from wives, keep a Jesus piece to be fly
But back in the day there was a time when they called us shine
[HooK: Nas]
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
They wanna shine on 'em
Shine on 'em [x7]
[Man Singing Humming in Foreign Language]}

出道12年，累積出全球一千兩百余萬驚人銷量，坐擁90年代東岸紐約幫派饒舌巨星地位的Nas，一直以坦率直言的詞語，揭發出街頭生活現實黑暗面，貼切抒發壓抑已久情緒，讓黑人同胞們感同身受，不止是位全才型音樂創作者，更被美譽為充滿人文素養的街頭詩人。本名為Nasir Jones的Nas，是爵士音樂家OluDara的兒子，雖出生在充滿音樂熏陶的環境，不聽話的Nas，卻在國二時期便輟學到街頭討生活，還好有音樂支撐，加上自我好好學習下，激起對饒舌詞語的高敏銳度，不斷藉由犀利文字描繪險象環生的街頭文化。1991年Nas助陣于Main Source演唱會上，完全展放實力的公開表演，導致東岸饒舌圈不小震驚，3rdBass團員MCSerch聞風而至，力邀Nas在原聲帶《Zebrahead》中試露一手，引起Columbia唱片公司興趣，簽入旗下發行首張個人大碟《Illmatic》，獲得步伐藍調/饒舌榜亞軍+時尚榜Top12，不只迅速突破百萬銷售量，并獲AMG網站5星滿分評價，滾石雜志四星一定，The Source則贊譽此輯為嘻哈樂界完美示范盤。