[HOOK]
Thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
Thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
[VERSE 1]
I remember rocking mics on stages
Flipping through The Source pages
Wu Tang was my favorite
Camouflage pants and Tims for all occasions
Battling at parties, b-boys on the pavement
Before hiphop was owned by corporations
I remember dirty drums and ba** kits
Grimy-a** gangsters, no pretty faces
And you could only find rap on AM stations
Before Clearchannel bought up the market
And albums rated 5 Mics were sacred
I'd put the tape in, and let it play to the end
Trying to memorize every rhyme they spit
But sh**'s changing, all of this fake sh**
Glamour and glitz, and fake tits and agents
But this sound'll bring it back to the basics
Honestly, I just haven't been feeling hiphop lately
It's like
[HOOK]
Thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
Thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
[VERSE 2]
Remember freestyling, without people fighting
You'd take your time when you was writing
Remember when the verse you spit
Was more important than your shirt or your kicks
Before all of this circus sh**
I recall when all of this bullsh** was touring
And record companies wasn't calling
And you couldn't win a Grammy award for rap
Remember when they thought hiphop was just a fad
And now it's on every station, in every area
A billion-dollar industry in corporate America
Hiphops accepted now, everyone's doing it
But nobody's making good music
We used to rap for the block
Now we rap for the A&Rs
MTV TRL superstars
They took what's ours and turned it into a gimmick
Careful what you ask for 'cause you just might get it
And now
[HOOK]
Thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
Thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
[VERSE 3]
I remember when Public Enemy came on the scene
And everyone screamed, "Fight the powers that be"
And Spike Lee made that movie about Malcolm
The next year 2Pac dropped his best album
In '94 I was writing rhymes
And Nas had the world in a New York state of mind
Then Jay dropped Reasonable Doubt in '96
That's it, there's hasn't been a cla**ic album since
A lot of lights and cameras, no action
A lot of ice and dances, no rapping
It's like a minstrel show, they're all clapping
But you just a joke, there's no pa**ion
They stole rap like they stole the slaves
Like Elvis stole rock from Chuck Berry's page
Hiphop can change the world and they're afraid
Listen to the ancestors, I can hear them saying
[HOOK]
Thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
Thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away