Intro - Jay-Z, Idris Elba

A man I worked for had one of the biggest in New York

He didn’t own his own company, a White man owned it, so they owned him

Nobody owns me though

Your gangster is not defined (Your gangster is not defined)

Your gangster is not defined by how low your jeans fall by your waist

But more how your genes stand up to their expectations

«Never forgetting where we came from»

Your gangster, your gangster

Your gangster is not defined by how many rocks are in your watch

But rather how many rocks you move while owning watch

Gangsters, hustlers, republicans and democrats, pimps and hoes

Conservatives, labour

The seller, the buyer, the product, the producer

«See you are what you are in this world»

The gangster is absorbed and adored by those that don’t understand the laws

that govern the gangsterment

Gangsterment, gangsterment

Gangsterment allows you to make up your own laws

And create brand new words, gangster mentality

Gangster mentality, an American way created by the white

Mastered by the black, and absorbed by the fiends

Taxed by the governmentality, governmentality (Governmentality)

Charted by Forbes, if you believe in JAY-Z

Then you too can be a gangster (Then you too can be a gangster)

By any means necessary, by owning that dream

I mean it’s a long walk to freedom

But, while deep, deep, deep inside the bush

The war on terror screams, damn it feels good

Damn it feels good to be a gangster, haha

To be a gangster, swagger is not a must, it’s a liability

A cliché, a bad suit, cut the bullshit (Cut the bullshit)

You know if it wasn’t for this, there would be no that

Which we call, the American Gangster