Old-school classic from my favourite rapper Jay-Z. This music video is from the film Streets is Watching released in 1998. It features the tracks Friend or Foe off Reasonable Doubt, and Friend or Foe ’98 off In My Lifetime Volume 1. Streets is Watching was one of those straight-to-video films that loosely tied together a bunch of Jay-Z tracks/music videos such as: Imaginary Player, Where I’m From, and You Must Love Me. At the end of the video is where the true value kicks in as Jay-Z’s original music videos are included such as: Dead Presidents (with original lyrics not found on Reasonable Doubt), In My Lifetime (remix), and the first video he ever made as a solo artist, I Can’t Get With That.

State your biz

Artist: Jay-Z
Album: Reasonable Doubt
Song: Friend or Foe

Check one check two, you know what to do
Primo, cold crush when i give it to you
Friend or foe yo, state your biz
Ya tend to dough, ah , there it is
Me? I run the show, oh, and these kids
Don’t like nobody commin’ around here fuckin wit they dough for shit
You enterprisin though, and i like it
But fuck with the big dogs though, i gotta bite ya,
Look, its out of my hands
And you gettin money round here, its not in the plans
So hop yo ass out of that van, head back to kansas
I’m sendin niggas back up in campuses
Chance is slimmer than that chick in Calvin Klein pantses’
Let me guess, they said it was money round here
and the rest is me stoppin you from gettin it, correct?
Sorry to hear that, my guess is you got work at the hotel
I’ll take care of that , you’ll see, now please give me the room key
You’re twitchin, don’t do that, you makin me nervous
My crew, well, they do pack, them niggas is murderous
So would ya, please put your hand back in sight
They don’t like to see me nervous you can understand that, right?
You draw, better be picasso, y’know the best
Cause if this is not so, ah, god bless
You leave me no choice, i leave you no voice
Believe me son i hate to do it just as bad as you hate to see it done
now calm your boys,
cause i’m findin it a little hard to concentrate with all the noise
get the point, i’ll let ya go, before ya leave,
I guess i oughta let you know, i need those keys
And promise you never, no matter the weather
evaevaevaevaevaevaevaevaeva come around here no mo’

Artist: Jay-Z
Album: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
Song: Friend or Foe ’98

I’m done talking
Ran up in the spot gun smoking
Shot it in the air, one woke him
Sun-soaking, sweating in his bed like Dunlo
Thinking to himself what done provoked him
His thoughts is racing like a vulcan
I swear I saw a lightbulb when
He finally figured out who was the culprit
I said yeah, remember me from Friend or Foe when
I told you don’t ever ever come around here no more
Time to pay now, you try to rise, I wave the gun – lay down
This time you’re really going to listen to Jay now
I try to talk sensibly, hoping that eventually you realize
I had this locked and it just wasn’t meant to be
Plus I had sympathy when we all wore rams with your keys
And it wasn’t afterthought that maybe you’ll try to revenge me
But I was like “Nah”, Chromes had to know he was wrong
And if you caught me on the foul now you would sing me the same song
Plus you promised
And that’s really no fun
Yeah I find you in this Motel 6 with all these guns
And all your goons, lined up in adjoining rooms
Like some wild cowboys coming to get me at high noon
But my mind’s like a flower in bloom
*** my eyes just scower the room
I’m alert, plus I paid the clerk I got it laid out
You think you the first nigga I played out, in a 2 hotel town?
Come on now, I peep your Lexus at you
Left the exit got some niggas on that side of the town
Money well invested, rudely interrupted
Jamaican accents ***
A gun in your face and that’s all you can come up with?
I’m done talking, back up and clap them, one in the abdomen
Do me a favor dude, get 2 ice cubes I pass them
Take that ice up, for the nicest MC
And please yo, tell BIG, he’s unbelievable
Friend or foe BIOTCH!