Date 2020-10-28
Category Foreign Music Download, Lyrics, Music Video, New Music
Simpler times, people. The year was 1997 and the hip-hop landscape was a vastly different place. The death of The Notorious B.I.G. had left a major void in Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Empire, and Ma$e stepped up to carry the load with his official debut album Harlem World. Released twenty-three years ago to this day, the album marked the young rapper’s first major look since “Mo Money Mo Problems,” a verse that boosted his status in a major way.
Lined with guest appearances from DMX, Busta Rhymes, 8 Ball & MJG, Puffy himself, and more, one of Harlem World’s many highlights came by way of “24 Hrs To Live,” a smooth posse cut the likes of which we simply don’t see anymore. Featuring a lineup of DMX, The LOX (who were also signed to Bad Boy at this time), and Black Rob, the conceptual track found each emcee reflecting on their last days. Though plenty of gems are shared throughout, Jadakiss offers up one of the most enticing options in his opening bars. “Yo, yo if I had twenty-four hours to kick the bucket, fuck it, I’d probably eat some fried chicken and drink a Nantucket,” he muses. On the other end of the spectrum is DMX, who prefers to level the playing field. “24 left until my death,” he spits, in the track’s darkest verse. “So I’m gonna waste a lot of lives, but I’ll cherish every breath.”
Mase – 24 Hrs To Live (ft. DMX, Black Rob & The Lox) (prod. Nashiem Myrick, Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie & Carlos “6 July” Broady)
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[Intro – Puff Daddy]
I want you to ask yourself one question
If you had 24 hours to live, what would you do?
That’s some deep shit right there, a lot of pressure
How would you handle it?
Mase, what would you do?
[Verse 1 – Mase]
Yo, I’d turn out all the hoes that’s heterosexual
Smack conceited niggas right off the pedestal
I’d even look for my dad that I never knew
And show him how I look in my Beretta, too
I’d do good shit like take kids from the ghetto
Show them what they could have if they never settle
Take every white kid from high class level
Show ’em what Christmas like growin’ up in the ghetto
Teach niggas how to spend, stack the rest
Give blunts to the niggas under massive stress
Give every bum on the street cash to invest
And hope Harlem will blow up be my last request
[Verse 2 – Jadakiss]
Yo, yo if I had twenty four hours to kick the bucket, fuck it
I’d probably eat some fried chicken and drink a Nantucket
Then go get a jar from Branson
And make sure I leave my mother the money to take care of grandson
Load the three power, hop in the Eddie Bauer
And go give all six to that papi that sold me flour
Get a fresh baldy, make a few calls
Shop at the mall, shoot a lil’ ball
Have all of my bitches on one telly at the same time
Spread it out on different floors
And I’m gonna play lotto, for what?
Even though I ain’t gonna be here tomorrow, so what
[Verse 3 – Black Rob]
You know when I was close to the ledge
I’d probably be in the wedge
With this bare Spanish mami playin’ ‘tween my legs
Then I’m off to get choke and smoke one of them dreads
And get that bitch from ’89 that gave us up to the feds
Thought of momma, wrote her a note, we ain’t close
I hate her boyfriend so I put one in his throat
Fuck around and sniff an ounce of raw, bust the four
Pause, pull out my dick and take a piss on the floor
Jump in the whip, get them cats I wanted to get
Since the Tavern on the Green robbery in ’86
Went home took a shower in ice cold water
And spent my last hours with my son and my daughter
[Hook – Puff Daddy]
If you had 24 hours to live just think
Where would you go?
What would you do?
Who would you screw?
And who would you wanna notify?
Or would your ass deny that your ass about to die?
[Hook]
[Verse 4 – Sheek]
What hey yo, if I had 24 nigga gotta get the raw
Run all them papis’ spot, put one in his head at the door
For the times that I paid for twenty and he gave me twelve
The other eight had to be baking soda by itself
So papi fuck you, you dead now, I’m off to the bank
With those bricks in a book bag and a stolen Jag I just grabbed
Went in there grabbed the bank teller with the pretty face
Fuck her in the safe, and have her take me to my place
We’ll make a kid but that’s selfish and that’ll be bad
For my son to have the same shit his pops just had
And when I’m down to 23, I’mma be strapped with TNT
Run up in city hall and take the judges with me
[Verse 5 – Styles]
If I had 24 hours to live, I’d probably die on the fifth
Run in the station squeezin’ the inf’
I’ll be waitin’ to get to hell and bust down Satan
Styles on this shit and I got spot vacant
Back to the 24 I make it out the precinct
Shootin’ niggas that I hate in they face while they eatin’
I’m on the job robbin’ every so-called Don
Give the money to my moms and tell her that I’m gone
I would school my little brother that niggas mean him harm
He should learn to tell the future without readin’ palms
When they come in with the bullets, you prepared with the bomb
So fuck bein’ violent get stocks and bonds
[Verse 6 – DMX]
24 left until my death
So I’m gonna waste a lot of lives, but I’ll cherish every breath
I know exactly where I’m goin’, but I’mma send you there first
And with the shit that I’ll be doin’, I’mma send you there worse
I’ve been livin’ with a curse, and now it’s all about to end
But before I go, say hello to my little friend
But I gots to make it right, reconcile with my mother
Try to explain to my son, tell my girl I love her
C-4 up under the coat, snatch up my dog
Turn like three buildings on Wall Street, into a fog
Out with a bang, you will remember my name
I wanted to live forever, but this wasn’t fame
[Hook]