[Spoken Dialogue]
When I was little, my father was famous
He was the greatest samurai in the empire
And he was the Shogun's decapitator
He cut off the heads of a hundred and thirty-one lords
It was a bad time for the empire
The Shogun just stayed inside his castle and he never came out
People said his brain was infected by devils
My father would come home, he would forget about the k**ings
He wasn't scared of the Shogun, but the Shogun was scared of him
Maybe that was the problem
Then, one night, the Shogun sent his ninja spies to our house
They were supposed to k** my father but they didn't
That was the night everything changed...
[Intro: RZA]
See, sometimes
You gotta flash em back
See n***as don't know where this sh** started
Y'all know where it came from
I'm saying we gonna take y'all back to the source
Do the knowledge... yo!
[Hook: RZA, GZA]
When the MCs came to live out the name and to perform
Some had to snort c**aine to act insane before he rocked it on
Now on with the mental plane to spark the brain with the building to be born
Yo RZA flip the track with the what to cut...
[Verse 1: GZA]
Fake n***as get flipped
In mic fights I swing swords and cut clowns
sh** is too swift to bite you record and write it down
I flow like the blood on a murder scene, like a syringe
On some wild out sh**, to insert a fiend
But it was your op to shop stolen art
Catch a swollen heart from not rolling smart
I put mad pressure, on phony wack rhymes that get hurt
sh**'s played like zodiac signs on sweatshirt
That's minimum, and feminine like sandals
My minimum table stacks a verse on a gamble
Energy is felt once the cards are dealt
With the impact of roundhouse kicks from black belts
That attack, the mic-fones like cyclones or typhoon
I represent from midnight to high noon
I don't waste ink, n***a I think
I drop megaton bombs more faster than you blink
Cause rhyme thoughts travel at a tremendous speed
Clouds of smoke, of natural blends of weed
Only under one circumstance that's if I'm blunted
Turn that sh** up, my Clan in the front want it
[Hook]
[Verse 2: GZA]
I'm on a mission that n***as say is impossible
But when I swing my swords they all choppable
I be the body dropper, the heartbeat stopper
Child educator, plus head amputator
Cause n***as styles are old like Mark 5 sneakers
Lyrics are weak like clock radio speakers
Don't even stop in my station and attack
While your plan failed, get derailed like Amtrak
What the f** for? Down by law, I make law
I be justice, I sentence that a** two to four
Round the clock, that state pen time check it
But the pens I be sticking with, you can't state the crime
Came through with the Wu, slid off on the DL
I'm low-key like seashells, I rock these bells
Now come aboard, it's Medina bound
Enter the chamber, and it's a whole different sound
It's a wide entrance, small exit like a funnel
So deep it's picked up on radios in tunnels
n***as are fascinated how the sh** begin
Get vaccinated, my logo is branded in your skin
[Hook]