[Intro]
You say "one for the treble, two for the time"
Come on, y'all, let's rock this!
You say "one for the treble, two for the time"
Come on!
Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape
Now let it fall, (huh!)
[Verse 1]
My restlessness is my nemesis
It's hard to really chill and sit still
Committed to page, I write a rhyme
Sometimes won't finish for days
Scrutinize my literature from the large to the miniature
I mathematically administer
Subtract the wack
Selector, wheel it back, I'm feeling that
From the core to the perimeter black
You know the motto
Stay fluid even in staccato
Full blooded, full throttle
Breathe deep inside the drum hollow
There's the hum, young man where you from
Brooklyn number one
Native son, speaking in the native tongue
I got my eyes on tomorrow (there it is)
While you still tryin to find where it is
I'm on the Ave where it lives and dies
Violently, silently
Shine so vibrantly that eyes squint to catch a glimpse
Embrace the ba** with my dark ink fingertips
Used to speak the King's En-g-lish
But caught a rash on my lips
So now my chat just like dis
Long range from the base-line (swish)
Move like an apparition
Float to the ground with ammuntion (chi-chi-POW)
Move from the gate, voice cued on your tape
Putting food on your plate
Many crews can relate
Who choosing your fate (yo)
We went from picking cotton
To chain gang line chopping
To Be-Bopping, to Hip-Hopping
Blues people got the blue chip stock option
Invisible man, got the whole world watching
(where ya at) I'm high, low, east, west
All over your map
I'm getting big props, with this thing called hip hop
Where you can either get paid or get shot
When your product in stock
The fair-weather friends flock
When your chart position drop
Then the phone calls....
Chill for a minute
Let's see who else hot
Snatch your shelf spot
Don't gas yourself ock
The industry just a better built cell block
A long way from the shell tops
And the bells that L rocked (rock, rock, rock, rock...)
[Scratching]
Hip Hop is prosecution evidence
An out of court settlement
Ad space for liquor
Sick without benefits (hungh!)
Luxury tenements choking the skyline
It's low life getting tree-top high
It is a back water remedy
Bitter and tender memory
A cla** E felony
Facing the d**h penalty (hungh!)
Stimulant and sedative, original repetitive
Violently competitive, a school unaccredited
The break beats you get broken with
On time and inappropriate
Hip Hop went from selling crack to smoking it
Medicine for loneliness
Remind me of Thelonius and Dizzy
Propers to B-Boys getting busy
The war-time snap shot
The working man's jack-pot
A two dollar snack box
Sold beneath the crack spot
Olympic sponsor of the black Glock
Gold medalist in the back shot
From the sovereign state of the have-nots
Where farmers have trouble with cash crops (woooo)
It's all-city like Phase 2
Hip Hop will simply amaze you
Praise you, pay you
Do whatever you say do
But black, it can't save you