I'm Livin' Like That..

.. Here's a lil' Saturday afternoon throwback. I'm uppin' one of Nas' often-overlooked gems from 96's It Was Written since I consider these verses to be some of his best verses ever and some of the best lyricism in hip-hop, period. Lyrics nabbed from OHHLA, real heads.. Enjoy!

Nas - Take It In Blood

Artist: Nas
Album:  It Was Written
Song:   Take it in Blood

"I made it like that, I bought it like that,
I'm livin like that" (repeat 2X)
--> Kool Keith from the
Ultramagnetic MC's 'Ease Back'

[Nas]
Yo; I never brag, how real I keep it, cause it's
the best secret
I rock a vest, prestigious, Cuban link
flooded Jesus
in a Lex watchin Kathie Lee and Regis
My actions are one with the seasons
A tec squeezin - executioner, winter time I
rock a fur
Mega popular, center of attraction
Climaxin, my bitches they be laughin
They high from sniffin coke off a twenty-cent
Andrew Jackson
City lights spark a New York night
Rossi and Martini sippin, Sergio Tachinni
flippin mad pies
low price, I blow dice and throw em
Forty-five by my scrotum, manifest the
"Do or Die" slogan
My niggaz roll in ten M3's
Twenty Gods poppin wheelies on Kawasaki's
Hip-Hop's got me on some ol', sprayin shots
like a drumroll
Blankin out and never miscount the shells my
gun hold
I don't stunt, I regulate
Henny and Sprite, I seperate, watchin crab
niggaz marinate
I'm all about tecs and good jooks and sex
Israelite books, holdin government names from Ness
MC's are crawlin out, every hole in the slum
You be aight like blood money in a pimp's cum

"I made it like that, I bought it like that,
I'm livin like that"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that,
I'm livin like that..
.. for, you wack MC's"

[Nas]
Currency is made in trust of the Messiah
I'm spending it to get higher
Earth, Wind, and Fire singing reasons why I'm
up early, trustworthy is a nine that bust early
Sunshine on my grill, I spill
Remi on imaginary graves, put my hat on my waves
Latter Day Saints say religious praise
I dolo, challenge any team or solo
You must be buggin out, new to my shit, home
on a furlough
Ask around, who's laid up, sharp and straight up
Mafioso, gettin niggaz wigs sprayed up
Skies are misty, my life's predicted by a gypsy
I'll one day walk into shots drunk off champange
from Sicily
This be the drama, I'ma pause like a comma
in a sentence, paragraph's indented
Bloodshot red eyes, high, yellow envelopes of
lye
Openin cigars, let tobacco fly
Condos are tuneproof, we're looking out the 
sky's moonroof
Shittin like gin and prune juice
Yo the system wants the coon's noose, hang
em high
Courtrooms filled up, it's off the hook
while Ijust wrote a statement, like I'm facing
twenty years
in the basement - chilling on the via with
Mumia
for wearin chrome - I told the judge snakes
slither
like Sharon Stone, but like Capone I'm thrown (yo)

"I made it like that, I bought it like that,
I'm livin like that"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that,
I'm livin like that..
.. for, you wack MC's"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that,
I'm livin like that"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that,
I'm livin like that..
.. for, you wack MC's"

[Nas]
Lyrical, ly-lyrical mission..
Lyrical..
Yo the time is wastin, I use the mind elevation
Dime sack lacin, court pen pacin
Individual, lyrical math abrasion
Psychic evaluation, the foulest nation
We livin in, dangerous lives, mad leak and
battered wives
A lifestyle where bad streets is
patternized
Wise men build and destroy
While the real McCoy dopefiend, named
Detroit is still dealin boy
Coke suppliers actin biased
Cause rumors say that niggaz wear wires
and we liars
But every night the gat's fired, and
every day a rat's hired
I still remain the mack flyest in the phat
Kani, it's --
-- just the killer in me, slash drug
dealer MC
Ex-slug filler, semi mug peeler
Demi, bottles of Mo', yo simply follow
me flow
Put poetry inside a crack pot and blow
rough holes for cracked out pussies
and buttholes
Bring the G's and the D's roll, they
can't touch those
Why shoot the breeze about it, when you
could be about it?
My degrees are routed, toward the peasy
haired brick houses
Instead of the fake medallions
Rich niggaz transport in thousands
Foreign cash exchange amountin to millions
Doors is locked, rocks is chopped, watch
the cameras in the ceilings
Trick bitches catching mad feelings
Peelin off in the Lex Jeep, techniques
is four-wheelin
I bet it be some shit when we connect
with Stretch
When we catch them sex niggaz with the
tecs you blessed, word
So now it's on, never wasted a slug,
Time is money when it comes to mine,
take it in blood

"I made it like that, I bought it like that,
I'm livin like that"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that,
I'm livin like that..
.. for, you wack MC's" (repeat in background to fade)