Music Video

Featured In

Credits

PERFORMING ARTISTS
Mos Def
Mos Def
Vocals
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Vocals
Boogie Down Productions
Boogie Down Productions
Sampled Artist
COMPOSITION & LYRICS
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Songwriter
Tony Cottrell
Tony Cottrell
Songwriter
Dante Smith
Dante Smith
Songwriter
PRODUCTION & ENGINEERING
Hi-Tek
Hi-Tek
Producer
Chris Athens
Chris Athens
Mastering Engineer
Ken "Duro" Ifill
Ken "Duro" Ifill
Mixing Engineer
Kwame Harris
Kwame Harris
Engineer
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Co-Producer

Lyrics

[Chorus]
One, two, three
Mos Def and Talib Kweli
We came to rock it onto the tip-top
Best alliance in hip-hop, Y-O!
[Chorus]
I said, one, two, three
Black Star shine eternally
We came to rock it onto the tip-top
And Hi-Tek make the beat drop, Y-O!
[Verse 1]
RE: DEFinition, turnin' your play into a tragedy
Exhibit level degree on the mic passionately
**** is sweet, o I bet if I bsit I'd get a cavity
Livin' to get high, you ain't flyer than gravity
We die hard like the battery thrown in the back of me by the mad MC who think imitation is the highest form of flattery, actually
Don't be mad at me, I had to be the one to break it to you
You get kicked into obscurity like judo
No, Menudo 'cause you pseudo
Tryin' to compete with reality like Xerox
Towards destruction you spiralin' like hair locks, wipe them teardrops
Chasin' stars in your eyes, playin' games with your lives
Now the wives is widows, soakin' up pillows, weepin' like willows
Still more blacks is dyin' 'cause they live and they tryin'
"How to Make a Slave" by Willie Lynch is still applyin'
Regardless, the Mos is one of my closest partners
Rockin' ever since before Prince was called The Artist
Rockin' before Funkmaster Flex was rockin' Starter
When 'Pac and Biggie was still cool, before they was martyrs
Life or death, if I'm choosin', with every breath I'm enhancin'
Stop, there comes a time when you can't run
[Verse 2]
What?
Lyrically handsome, call collect a king's ransom
Jams I write, soon become the ghetto anthem
Way out like Bruce Wayne's mansion
Move like a phantom
You'll talk about me to your grandsons
Cats who claimin' they hard be mad fags, so I run through 'em like flood water through sandbags
Competition is mad, what I got, they can't have
Sinkin' they ship, like Moby Dick to Ahab
Son, I'm way past the minimum
Enterin' millennium
My raps, they hold a gut to your back like Palestinians
Ancient Abyssinia
Sure to hold the Gideon, official B-boy gentlemen, long term, never the interim
Born inside the winter wind
Day after December 10
These simpletons, they mentionin' the synonym for feminine
Sweeter than some cinnamon, the Danish rings by Entenmann's
Rush up on adrenaline, they get they asses sent to them (Gentlemen)
You got a tenement? Well, then assemble it
Leave your unit tremblin' like herds of movin' elephant
Intelligent embellishment
Follow for your element from Flatbush settlement
Skin possesses melanin
Hotter than tales of crack peddlin'
Makin' 'em WOOP like blue gelatin, swing like Duke Ellington
Broader than Barrington Levy, believe me
The hot Apache red who burn down your chief teepee, you see me?
[Chorus]
One, two, three
Mos Def and Talib Kweli
We came to rock it onto the tip-top
Best alliance in hip-hop, Y-O!
[Chorus]
I said, one, two, three
Black Star shine eternally
We came to rock it onto the tip-top
Because we rulin' hip-hop
Yes, we is rulin' hip-hop
Talib Kweli is rulin' hip-hop
Say we Black Star, we rule hip-hop, whoa
Written by: Dante Smith, Talib Kweli, Tony Cottrell
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