Hip Hop-Mos Def

[00:02.345] You say "one for the treble, two for the time" [00:05.951] Come on, y'all, let's rock this! [00:08.396] You say "one for the treble, two for the time" [00:11.299] Come on! [00:12.236] Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape [00:14.252] Now let it fall, (huh!) [00:16.301] My restlessness is my nemesis [00:18.715] It's hard to really chill and sit still, committed to page [00:21.670] I write a rhyme, sometimes won't finish for days [00:24.277] Scrutinize my literature from the large to the miniature [00:27.326] I mathematically add-minister, subtract the wack [00:30.321] Selector, wheel it back, I'm feeling that [00:33.022] From the core to the perimeter black [00:34.912] You know the motto, stay fluid even in staccato (Mos Def) [00:38.380] Full blooded, full throttle [00:39.912] Breathe deep inside the drum hollow... There's the hum [00:43.093] Young man, where you from? Brooklyn number one! [00:45.767] Native son, speaking in the native tongue [00:48.375] I got my eyes on tomorrow (there it is) [00:50.375] While you still tryin to find where it is [00:52.338] I'm on the Ave where it lives and dies, violently but silently [00:55.637] Shine so vibrantly that eyes squint to catch a glimpse [00:59.231] Embrace the bass with my dark ink fingertips [01:01.756] Used to speak the King's En-ga-lish [01:03.643] But caught a rash on my lips, so now my chat just like dis [01:07.119] Long range from the base-line (swish) [01:09.127] Move like an apparition, float to the ground with ammunItion [01:12.576] (Chi-chi-pow) Move from the gate, voice cued [01:15.059] On your tape, putting food on your plate [01:16.990] Many crews can relate, who choosing your fate (yo) [01:19.942] We went from picking cotton [01:21.485] To chain gang line chopping, to Be-Bopping, to Hip-Hopping [01:25.050] Blues people got the blue chip stock option [01:27.629] Invisible man, got the whole world watching [01:30.162] (Where ya at?) I'm high, low, east, west, all over your map [01:33.494] I'm getting big props, with this thing called hip hop [01:36.316] Where you can either get paid or get shot [01:38.356] When your product in stock, the fair-weather friends flock [01:40.953] When your chart position drop, then the phone calls.... [01:43.880] Chill for a minute, let's see who else hot, snatch your shelf spot [01:47.273] Don't gas yourself, akh' [01:49.008] The industry just a better built cell block [01:51.491] A long way from the shell tops [01:53.687] And the bells that L rocked (rock, rock, rock, rock...) [02:16.304] The more emotion I put into it, the harder I rock [02:20.240] Hip Hop is prosecution evidence [02:22.002] An out of court settlement, ad space for liquor [02:24.498] Sick without benefits (hungh!) Luxury tenements [02:27.129] Choking the skyline, it's low life getting tree-top high [02:30.825] It is a back water remedy [02:32.528] Bitter and tender memory, a class E felony [02:35.120] Facing the death penalty (hungh!) [02:36.965] Stimulant and sedative, original repetitive [02:39.352] Violently competitive, a school unaccredited [02:42.936] The break beats you get broken with on time and inappropriate [02:45.841] Hip Hop went from selling crack to smoking it [02:47.849] Medicine for loneliness remind me of Thelonius and Dizzy [02:51.157] Propers to B-Boys getting busy [02:53.073] The war-time snap shot, the working man's jack-pot [02:56.473] A two dollar snack box sold beneath the crack spot [02:59.215] Olympic sponsor of the black Glock [03:01.134] Gold medalist in the back shot [03:03.064] From the sovereign state of the have-nots [03:05.084] Where farmers have trouble with cash crops (woooo) [03:07.646] It's all-city like Phase 2 [03:09.047] Hip Hop will simply amaze you, praise you, pay you [03:12.222] Do whatever you say do, but, black, it can't save you