Hip Hop

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

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 add-minister, subtract the wack

Select the winner back, I'm feeling that

From the core to the perimeter black

You know the motto, stay fluid even in staccato (Mos Def)

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 tryna follow where it is

I'm on the Ave where it lives and dies

Violently but silently

Shine so vibrantly that eyes squint to catch a glimpse

Embrace the bass with my dark ink fingertips

Used to speak the King's English

But caught a rash on my lips

See now my chat just like this

Long range from the bass line (Swish)

Move like an apparition

Low to the ground with ammunition

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 beat bopping, to hip hopping

Blues people got the blues chip stock option

Invisible man, got the whole world watching (Where you 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

Hip hop is prosecution evidence

That out of court settlement

Ad space for liquor

Sick without benefits

Luxury tenements choking the skyline

It's low life getting tree top high

It is a backwater remedy

Bitter intent to memory

A class C felony

Facing the death penalty

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 jackpot, 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

It's all city like phase two

Hip hop will simply amaze you

Praise you, pay you, do whatever you say do

But, black, it can't save you