[Intro]
We've come to the end of this journey, but I know everybody remembers when they first fell in love with hip hop music
See I do. It's been a long time, but when I think about how far we came, I feel like...
[Verse 1]
If I could turn back the hands of time, I would
Take you back to the 80's where it was all good
KRS, Scott La Rock [?]
And the whole wide world represented the Bronx
Around the same time crime was evident
Rakim was the god MC, Eric B. was president
Hip Hop gave us reason to fight
With Public Enemy had the remedy
Don't believe in the hype
Set the streets [?] something to lead us
Run-D.M.C.had them b-boy steady rockin' the [?]
Remember it like it was yesterday
See I was just a kid, snotty nose, clothes, left the house to play
Walking through the dirty streets of Accra
I heard the sound pumping through the speakers from the backseat of a car
I could've sworn I heard it before
But this was something new
Run to my older brother, asked if he heard it too
Told me this is hip hop music, and don't confuse it
Cause when you grow old you choose it
Never imagined these words to be
The older version of me
A quiet child until I hopped on the beat
It transformed my whole live, it's like my destiny found me
I'm too young to understand hip hop is not about me
[Bridge]
Yo, see when I think about it
See I grew up in Ghana man
Hip Hop music was my only escape
Like, you know, I remember late nights
Just listening to my boombox, you know
And just wishing I was part of this culture
[Verse 2]
If I could turn back the hands of time, I would
Take you back to the 90's where it was all good
Biggie Smalls was the king of New York
Ready To Die had his eye on the number one spot on the charts
With Queensbridge birthed the legend of Nas
Illmatic straight cla**ic, hood poet that's ahead of his cla**
Traveling to Shaolin, introduced the crew
With 36 Chambers, had they entered the Wu
But hip hop was mainstream and above
2Pac had the whole world showing California some love
Remember it cause it was just a dream
I was just a teen, writing rhymes with the rest of my team
Until my boombox soon popped, eating the tape
Then I grabbed the pen, rewinding it back in the place
Finally finished my very first song with my crew
Decided to spit at the open mic night at the school
I caught the worst case of stage fright, going off first
My knees shaking, palms sweating, I'm forgetting my verse
Finally the crowd starts booing, we were arguing
Embara**ed, I walked off the stage ruined
Swore it would never happen again, how could they doubt me?
I'm too young to understand hip hop is not about me
[Bridge]
Yo, see what's really ill?
It's like I'm waking up one day man, and I'm on tour
Like I got all these people out here lining up to hear me spit
And it's like I wonder
Like while you make this transition from being a fan to an artist
But I stay the fan though
[Verse 3]
Cause if I could turn back the hands of time, no I couldn't
Cause we already here, it's two thousand and something
Jay-Z ruled the world, when he faded to black
Hip Hop is big business, and less about rap
And everybody started getting the iPod
But nobody pushed the pop's boundaries, forever the OutKast
And Missy Elliott held it down for the females
And Myspace pages became the new e-mails
The east coast lost his clout
It all changed when T.I. crowned himself the king of the south
I can remember cause it's happening now
The Amba**ador sound
I'm on stage steady rocking the crowd
I can't believe how little we profit
I graduated from college with ease and I could've incorporate
But hip hop lives in my blood
On tour sleeping on floors
Real what we do for the love
But the pain is getting hard to ignore
Two cla**ic albums at stores
And neither one charted at all
So when I'm feeling low after the show
I hear the fans go: "We need another Kweli, Common and Mos"
Then it hits me, I carried a torch so we can all see
Hip Hop is always for us, never about me