What This All Really Means

## Song by Nas

"**What This All Really Means**" is the eighth track from American rapper Nas' seventeenth studio album, *Magic 2* (2023).

## Critical reception

*Clash* penned, "cross-referencing his upbringing, and the centrality of rap in the Black American experience, it's a profound statement on the nature of the art, the sound of an artist working long enough to claim his own legacy."

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Intro]

I finally see

See what it all mean

Yeah

[Refrain]

The feelin' of the first time seein' your name on a flyer

It just was yesterday, picture that on the day you retire

And they still shocked and amazed, I made it up higher

'Cause I came up with them hot heads that played with the fire

[Verse 1]

Product of the '80s, Prada Milan store for the lady

I'm a carnivore, constantly come with concepts to pay me

I'm responsible for they most cockiest behavior

My DNA in they G'd up ways, and they surveyin' us

Showed 'em my scrotum is golden, rap game stomach was swollen

I left these bastards on your doorsteps, behold 'em

Ideas come and go away but I already thought 'em

So years later, they still knew when I go record 'em

I done hooked up with a beast, never stingy with the beats

Experimental, accident records wind up killin' the streets

"Black and Proud" shirts, white Jesus pieces on cuban links

Civil war chick, yo, she black and white on Egyptian sheets

[Chorus]

And I can see the jealousy, I think they really scared of me

Do what I do and let it be

And that's the way I always been since I was seventeen

I finally see what this all really means

[Verse 2]

Did a double album when rap double albums was startin'

They bootlegged I Am, an album I put my heart in

Nipsey met me to do a doc about it 'fore he departed

He talked to Stoute about it too 'cause he was 'part of that project, yeah

Back then, we charted with the CDs and tapes

And I still come out the field, you either scrape or get scraped

You either in and out, you rollin' or you just in the way

What this all really means, I had to reload the Drac'

Eighty years old, I'm still gon' have a chain, a kilo it weigh

Speedos on the beach, my belly out when I land in Capri

Wearin' black owned designer (Uh) math on my mind (Okay)

It's a while 'fore I get there, almost passed forty-nine

I be on the block easy with a glass full of wine

Red Chrome Heart lenses to see I'm in my third prime

The Q-U double E-N-S

Y'all gon' need some EMS when we drop this and that's a bet

[Refrain]

The feelin' of the first time seein' your name on a flyer

It just was yesterday, picture that on the day you retire

And they still shocked and amazed I made it up higher

'Cause I came up with them hot heads that played with the fire (It's facts)

[Chorus]

And I can see the jealousy, I think they really scared of me

Do what I do and let it be (Uh)

And that's the way I always been since I was seventeen

I finally see what this all really means

[Outro]

It's everything, from the hard times

(I finally know what this all really means)

The bad times (Anthony Saleh, we got a team)

The better times

All mixed in-between

Sunshine and rain

Yeah, yeah

Tough people last, tough times don't, yeah

Tough people last, tough times don't

Now I see

## References

1. ↑ Murray, Robin (July 21, 2023). "Nas - Magic 2". *Clash*.

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