Cover art for State to State by No I.D.
Sep. 23, 19971 viewer

State to State Lyrics

[Sampled Hook]
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state

We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state

[Intro: Dug Infinite]
Check it out one time
(We skate on suckers who perpetrate)
State to state
State to state

[Verse 1: Dug Infinite]
Now you got to tell me right now, is you man or meese?
Is it man or beast, cause I plan to release
The rent essentials, what's my name, confidential
(Na-nah) Don't tell a soul but I sold my credentials
Skipper off my team, everybody Top Gun
Fortify the army, you can't beat us with a pop gun
I stop one allowed with one thought on my mind
Number ten is a hero, take that one and make him zero
That's law, word to Shapiro, Infinite's a colonel
Now put that in your journal, better yet, in your eternal
We heavy like a sledgehammer, with Know the Ledge grammar
A bad mamma jamma all the way to Alabama
Chi-Town, where we don't fight over coasts
Cause the one that's in the middle is the one that see the most

No time for that (word) we burn cells, no time for fat
Let's say you like brain cells, we like state to state
[Hook]
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state

We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law

[Verse 2: Common]
I, gain... ground
Through my, pain
I came to bring it, I brought it, to the forefront
Work in the back, Beauty Shop with the storefront
Hyde Park beeper chicks with the hardcore cunts
Didn't grow up ghetto, where I'm tryin to get to is the same as you
I ain't a player, but I'm in the game with you
It's people in my city, that's just as lame as you
Laid the framework, now at the door, my name work
Free drinks, attention paid, that's how the game work
My flow became land, with mathematics
I reign supreme like the Rainman
Piss in unknown spots, givin dap with the same hand
Raps overlaps and fill gaps in the rap industry
For those whose tired of the same similies
Hood stories, and songs to homies in penetentiaries
Chances I take over breaks, to make shit interesting
My city'll hold it down like bends in intersections
Wanted to say Fuck the Police, I ain't had no protection
Got the License to Ill, the real one got suspended in time
Brother, you'll see it ain't all about the promo
Source rating groupies and album photos
A stick man with a message and a mag should be my logo
Think I'll start sportin' that instead of Polo, uhh... yo
[Hook]
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state

We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state
We skate on suckers who perpetrate

[Verse 3: Dug Infinite]
I decipher data
Computer program the ill chatter
Brain stimulize sparks everytime I reply
My telescopic type topics smash your planet when I drop it
88, popped it and locked it
97, time to rock it, grown man status
I'm pushin three-zero, I plan to be the baddest
Like hip-hop hero, in the game MCing
And makin sure that what you seein opens up your mind
When I kick the hard to find, strategic, rhyme design
Supersede your average line, intertwine when I combine
Elevating mankind, attract a scholar
I convert poetry to dollars, a risk taker
Money maker got no collar, this one nigga asked me
Well who you be? I be a store ownin real-estate flippin MC
Just makin beats on the side
Another way to survive, a turn around artist
Portfolio diversified, it's obvious
I ain't your average hip-hopper
To get up on the microphone and can't come proper
I be the MC to keep the clubs cold jumping
I be the MC that's saying something, never nothing
[Hook]
...And lay down laws from state to state
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state

We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state
We skate on suckers who perpetrate
And lay down law from state to state

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Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did No I.D. say about "State to State"?
Genius Answer

That was on the first Black Album [Laughs.] That whole album was a weird, weird process as Common and I were at a weird place in our relationship. The whole album [Accept Your Own And Be Yourself (The Black Album)] was supposed to feature Common and Dug [Infinite]. I wanted this project to be like the Chicago Chronic, with Shawnna, Kanye, Dug, Teefa, Common, Just Ro and me.

That was my initial goal for the album. But everybody wasn’t on the same page, and everybody didn’t want to work with each other like that. So it ended up me and Dug doing the whole thing. In theory, if it would’ve went the way I wanted, we would’ve had a real dynasty type of team. Our goal was to sign everybody to a label that me and Common wanted to start. Relativity wanted to do it.

Common was working on One Day It’ll All Make Sense at the time, but I wasn’t as heavily involved with that album as I was his previous two, so I didn’t come in until the very end, because I was working on my album. I wonder what the album would’ve sounded like had it have been half of the One Day / The Black Album beats?

I signed my solo Relativity deal years before my album came out—before being a producer could be a career job. I never really wanted to be a rapper, but I wanted to do what Dre did and make my own version of The Chronic. But after that album came out, and I saw the politics of the game, I realized that side wasn’t for me. Relativity had me signed for a few albums, but I retired. [Laughs.]

via Complex.

Credits
Featuring
Produced By
Engineer
Mastering Engineer
Copyright ©
Phonographic Copyright ℗
Performance Rights
Recorded At
High Tech Studios
Release Date
September 23, 1997
State to State Samples
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