"Surviving the Times" is a 2007 hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 song by Nas

Nas

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...

 from his Greatest Hits

Greatest Hits (Nas album)

Greatest Hits is a compilation album by rapper Nas released through Columbia Records on November 6, 2007. It features twelve of Nas' singles from his Columbia releases from Illmatic to Street's Disciple and two new tracks. Nas' 2006 studio album Hip Hop Is Dead was overlooked because it was...

album. The song's lyrics focus on Nas career before and just after Illmatic

Illmatic

Illmatic is the debut album of American rapper Nas, released April 19, 1994, on Columbia Records. Following his signing to Columbia with the help of MC Serch, recording sessions for the album took place during 1992 to 1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording...

. The song makes reference to Nas' signing with Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, being turned down by Russell Simmons

Russell Simmons

-External links:** * * * * * * from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum* *...

 for Def Jam and him meeting Prince Paul and Kool G Rap

Kool G Rap

Nathaniel Thomas Wilson , better known by his stage names Kool G Rap , Kool G. Rap, and Giancana , is an American rapper, from the Corona neighborhood of Queens, New York. He began his career in the mid-1980s as one half of the group Kool G Rap & DJ Polo and as a member of the Juice Crew...

 for the first time. The song also samples Nipsey Russell

Nipsey Russell

Julius "Nipsey" Russell was an American comedian, best known today for his appearances as a guest panelist on game shows from the 1960s through the 1990s, especially Match Game, Password, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth and Pyramid...

's song "What Would I Do If I Could Feel" in the intro and chorus. A different version of this song appeared on Nas and DJ Green Lantern

DJ Green Lantern

James D'Agostino , better known by his stage name DJ Green Lantern, is an American-Italian-Puerto Rican DJ and hip hop music producer from Rochester, New York. In 2002, D'Agostino was signed by Eminem to become the official DJ for Shady Records after DJ Head stepped down for undisclosed reasons...

's Nigger Tape. It contains the same lyrics but is produced by Cool & Dre

Cool & Dre

Cool & Dre are a team of hip hop producers from Miami, Florida, consisting of Marcello "Cool" Valenzano and Andre "Dre" Christopher Lyon.-Epidemic Records:...

.

Nas had this to say about the song: