[Intro (Nas talking)]
Yo, it's like waking up from a bad dream (Americaaa)
just to figure out you wasn't dreaming in the first place (Nooo...)

[Verse 1]
If all I saw was gangsters
Coming up as a youngster
Pussy and money the only language I clung to
Claim to, unrolled myself up to become one
Ain't ya happy I chose rap? I'm amongst the
Streets deceiving
Can't believe my achievements
Cultural strata
Persona's that of a non-needer
Because I don't need nada except for Prada beaver
For cold winters, tattoos got my summer's sleeveless
To my G's on the flee from the coppers (coppers)
Stiff bodies on freeze in funeral parlors (parlors)
From the slums I come up a phoenix
Caked up, tryin' to take what I'm eating
Came up a dismissive kid (kid)
You lucky if you allowed to witness this
Savvy mouth
While hardly a man's man
Who woulda knew the beach houses and wild parties
Jezebel's and Stella McCartney's?
For years, all that
How could I not be dead?
This old German
Said I was a thug with a knotty head
Looked at my Benz and called that a Nazi sled
With a face like he wonder where I got my bread
Probably all these stones he see
From my shows overseas
From crime to rhyme
My story is I'm from the home of the thieves

[Chorus 1]
America (America), pay attention
Wake up (America)
This is not what you think it is
America (America), pay attention
Wake up (America)
This is not what you think it is

[Verse 2:]
Blessed
The lord is a G, he gotta be
Who's the God of suckers and snitches?
The economy
Lipstick from Marilyn Monroe
Blew a death kiss to Fidel Castro
He'd want me to spit this
Only the strong survive
Nas bear witness
The hypocrisy is all I can see
White cop acquitted for murder
Black cop cop a plea
That type of shit make me stop and think
We in chronic need of a second look of the law books
And the whole race dichotomy
Too many rappers, athletes, and actors
But not enough niggas in NASA
Who give you the latest dances, trends, and fashion?
But when it comes to residuals, they look past us
Woven into the fabric, they can't stand us
Even in white tee's, blue jeans, and red bandannas

[Chorus 2]
America (America) pay attention
Wake up (America)
This is not what you think it is
America (America)
Pay attention (America)
This is not what you think it is
America (America)
(This is not what you think it is)

[Verse 3:]
Assassinations
Diplomatic relations
Killed indigenous people
Built a new nation
Involuntary labor
Took a knife split a woman naval
Took her premature baby
Let her man see you rape her
If I could travel to the 1700's
I'd push a wheelbarrow full of dynamite
Through your covenant
Love to sit in on the Senate
And tell the whole government
Y'all don't treat women fair
She read about herself in the bible
Believing she the reason sin is here
You played her, with an apron
Like, "Bring me my dinner, dear."
She the nigger here
Ain't we in the free world?
Death penalty in Texas kill young boys and girls
Barbarity, I'm in the double-R casualty
Bugging how I made it out the hood, dazzle me
How far we really from third world savagery
When the empire fall, imagine how crazy that'll be

[Chorus 3]
America (America, America)
America (America)
(This is not what you think it is)
America (America ohhh)
This is not what you think it is
America