[Verse 1: JAY-Z]
The allure of breaking the law
Was always too much for me to ever ignore
I've got a thing for the big-body Benzes, it dulls my senses
In love with a V-Dub engine
Man, I'm high off life, fuck it, I'm wasted
Bathing Ape kicks, Audemars Piguet wrist
My womenfriends get tennis bracelets
Trips to Venice, get their Winters replaced with
The sun...it ain't even fun no more, I'm jaded
Man, it's just a game, I just play it to play it
I put my feet in the footprints left to me
Without saying a word, the ghetto's got a mental telepathy
My brother hustled so - naturally -
Up next was me...but what perplexes me
Shit, I know how this movie ends! yet still I play
The starring role in "Hovito's Way"

[Chorus: The Independents, JAY-Z]
In the valley of my world
You'll be my only girl
Once again it's the life, oh, no!
In the valley of my world
You'll be my only girl
Once again it's the life, oh, no!
[Verse 2: JAY-Z]
I'm like a Russian mobster, drinking distilled vodka
Until I'm under the field with Hoffa...it's real
Peel the top up like a toupée
Mix the water with the soda
Turn the pot up, make a soufflé
All of y'all can get it like group-page on your 2-way
I'm living proof that crime do pay
Say "hooray" to the bad guy, and all the broads
Putting cars in their name, for the stars of the game
Putting 'caine in their bras and their tomorrows on the train:
All in the Name of Love
Just to see that love locked in chains and the family came
Over the house to take back everything that they claimed
Or even the worse pain is the distress
Learning you're the mistress only after that love gets slain
And the anger and the sorrow mixed up leads to mistrust
Now it gets tough to ever love again
But the allure of the game, keeps calling your name
To all the Lauras of the world, I feel your pain
To all the Christies in different cities and Tiffany Lanes:
We all hustlers in love with the same thing

[Chorus: The Independents, JAY-Z]
In the valley of my world
You'll be my only girl
Once again it's the life, oh, no!
In the valley of my world
You'll be my only girl
Once again it's the life, oh, no!
[Verse 3: JAY-Z]
I'm like Pookie in New Jack, cleaned up with the roof back
On the other side of the tracks I produce crack
Still a fiend no less, for the green i just
Go through a thing I guess, brings out my best
Brings out my worse, just the gift and the curse
No one said it would be easy, n***a livin is work
It's hard to not style in the Arnage, or fuck the Arnage
When the Benz doors lift up from the floor
And every night fake willies wanna match ya ball
But I'm far out of reach like Abdul-Jabbar
I'm so into this life, you know who I are
Every corner, every hood, n***a ghetto superstar
It's the life

[Chorus: The Independents, JAY-Z]
In the valley of my world
You'll be my only girl
Once again it's the life, oh, no!
In the valley of my world
You'll be my only girl
Once again it's the life, oh, no!