Lateef, Cut Chemist, Blackalicious - Back to the Essence(1999)

[00:02.62] When I'm on the mic, I stand tall with gall
[00:03.58] Style worth more than anything you goin' find in mall
[00:06.35] The treasure of the mutiny is what keeps you all enthralled
[00:09.02] I lively up the people with the yes, yes, y'all
[00:11.71] Create, wait, watch and let the fake fall
[00:14.42] Employ my strategy like checkmate
[00:17.19] Call your bluff in that destruction, of all previous discussion
[00:19.87] When I hit like a concussion, your heart rate stall
[00:23.45] Recorders all stall, you jaw'll go slack
[00:26.14] I deliver makin' quivers and shivers all down your back
[00:28.81] Like a river flow the beat
[00:30.65] Bounces in Cadillacs, bumpin' that vicious Blackalicious
[00:33.40] Kick drum, that keeps punchin' through that speaker
[00:35.28] Countinously, meticoulously, etchin out the spaces in time
[00:38.86] For miles affecting rhymes that changing minds permanently
[00:41.58] Like mescaline, giving your whole perception, perspective
[00:44.34] A new design that wreck that misconception
[00:46.18] Now, we seeing, eye to eye yet?
[00:47.92] Can the MC speak? The suckas stay quiet
[00:50.75] The crowd can get rowdy like the party was a riot
[00:54.36] Try it and the ladies will, who ride your ass up out the spotlite
[00:57.01] "You crazy, don't you know that fool Lateef'll set it on you?
[00:59.75] He better than you", she telling you the truth due
[01:02.55] I give you the proof due
[01:04.33] Step you, end up getting cut up by the cornerstone's edge
[01:07.08] Down back, by the end I say, "Don't get contrary"
[01:08.84] 'Cause baby, I'm very highly motivated
[01:13.39] I'm trying to do that play and ownership thing like Isiah did
[01:16.02] Hope your vision ain't impaired
[01:17.94] But my prayers, you can hear what I'm saying to you
[01:20.68] Now, if you fakin' it, may sound strange to you
[01:22.45] Like some way under my breath, maybe I'm playing
[01:24.23] But I only do that murder rap shit, for those whose the cap fit
[01:27.83] As for the rest, I'm trying to you all, back to the essence
[01:31.48] Back to the essence, when we in the house feel the almighty presence
[01:34.15] Making MC's act humble like peasants
[01:37.85] Smoking the mic and leaving nothing but resin
[01:40.57] Making the spots, pop like pots full of wesson
[01:43.22] Making it hot cooking, your goose and your pheasant
[01:45.91] Taking your props leaving your ass, butt naked
[01:48.61] Soul exposed, no material protection
[01:51.34] Low and behold, we going back to the essence
[01:54.06] I be that G I to the F, when I get def up on that mic
[01:56.72] I swing that lefty, no discrepancy and effortlessly
[01:58.52] And in the right frame of mind
[02:00.33] Electricity combined with mind, soul and the way I flex the agility
[02:03.01] Focus, ability makes some heads quite restless in this vicinty
[02:06.67] Trying to fill me out but they just jesters in my vicinty stuck in my art
[02:10.22] Trying to feather my energy, I bless plenty of enemies
[02:12.93] Hittin' me with expressions that would, so would like to get rid of me
[02:15.63] In my quest to be the epitome, it'll be cold in hell
[02:18.48] 'Fore I feel stress from any of these illiterate
[02:21.15] Insecure about, they little insignificant contributions
[02:23.90] Infinitely I'm mocking yes and don't, whenever the gift put out a fly quote
[02:27.44] Yes, I'm doing my thing and leaving a cloud of cess smoke
[02:30.29] Wherever I go, whether I'm balling, whether I'm flat, dead, broke
[02:32.97] I'm heeding my call and leaving a ball of rappers with heads roast
[02:35.68] And bringing that universal dopeness to the East and West Coast
[02:39.29] And really no one the best, though is God
[02:41.00] Allowing you to harness the energy, within whoever feels the most
[02:43.73] At the moment, takes it the farthest
[02:45.57] So thank Him 'cause it's through you that he manifest artistry
[02:48.26] Like a painting with an infinite, beyond lifetime warranty
[02:50.96] And Satan is a wack diseased, that needs to be quarantined
[02:53.61] And caged in, I'm riding a boat of dopeness, come on aboard with me
[02:56.34] And engage in a tale of musical invention
[02:59.02] An MC lynchin', convention GA
[03:00.87] Lyrical fifth dimension miracles, all up in your system
[03:06.91] Back to the essence, when we in the house feel the almighty presence
[03:10.55] Making MC's act humble like peasants
[03:13.28] Smoking the mic and leaving nothing but resin
[03:15.93] Making the spots, pop like pots full of wesson
[03:19.59] Making it hot cooking, your goose and your pheasant
[03:22.25] Taking your props leaving your ass, butt naked
[03:24.96] Soul exposed, no material protection
[03:27.61] Low and behold, we going back to the essence
[03:30.38]