I think it’s worth considering that the “two cities” are in fact one city (Fayetteville, NC), considering that there is no allusion to New York City in the first verse or hook of the song as suggested by the contributors. In fact, the first verse alludes to Fayetteville when Cole picks up the paper to learn about a local murder; someone in New York will not pick up a paper to find an article on the murder of someone in North Carolina without media traction–which I’m sure this one, isolated incident did not make mainstream, national news. This one city, becomes “a tale of two cities” because the two speakers have contrasting experiences growing up in the same place. And no mention of, “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickenson? You can observe the parallel between these two works with the following quote (copied and pasted from Wikipedia via a quick google search):

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

j cole changes side and talks from the perspective of someone who accepts there situation in the Gentoo and makes money from it.

“Listen up I’m about to go and get rich. Fuck with me my nigga” Cole is announcing that he’s going to get rich, and if you want to get rich you better stick with him. “We gon' circle around the Ville and hit a lick” Circling around the Ville and go commit a crime.

He’s saying that they will commit a robbery (lick) and that will make them rich

he is talking about the other side of him going to rob people and get rich

We gonna circle around the ville and hit a lick “lick” is slang for commit a robbery