Mos Def - Brooklyn(1999)

[00:03.98] *Part one*
[00:05.15] (Mos Def)
[00:06.44] Hey hey, ha ha say what say what
[00:08.40] Ha ha bust it yo
[00:11.19] Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner
[00:15.62] Sometimes I feel like my only friend
[00:20.48] Is the city I live in, is beautiful Brooklyn
[00:26.55] Long as I live here believe I'm on fire hey
[00:31.52] Cuz it's the B-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
[00:34.41] L-Y-N is the place where I stay
[00:37.02] The B-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
[00:39.79] Best in the world and all USA
[00:42.37] It's the B-to-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
[00:45.15] L-Y-N is the place where I stay
[00:47.74] The B-to-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
[00:50.51] Place where I rest is on my born day
[00:53.15] Bust it, sometimes I sit back and just reflect
[00:55.50] Watch the world go by and my thought connect
[00:58.28] I think about the time past and the time to come
[01:00.86] Reminesce on Bed-Stuy when I was pride and young
[01:03.58] I used to try and come, to the neighborhood function
[01:06.24] Throw on my Izod, say a little something
[01:09.18] When I was just a youngin, before the days of thuggin
[01:11.72] How me and Charlie Chims (aiyyo what?) I'm only buggin
[01:14.45] Fast forward, Nine-Now I gotta team my seed
[01:17.06] I must proceed at God's speed to perform my deed
[01:19.41] Livin the now space and time, round the nine to five
[01:22.35] For as long as I'm alive, paw I got to strive
[01:24.95] I ain't sittin roadside, that ain't harder to plan
[01:27.63] I'm out here for my fam doin all that I can
[01:30.18] I love my city, sweet and gritty in land to outskirts
[01:32.94] Nickname Bucktown cuz we prone to outburst
[01:35.69] Philosophy redefine us, touch mines I touch back
[01:38.22] Walk the streets like a sweet and get beat like drum tracks
[01:40.84] Catch no shakes over jakes (boomp-boomp!) we bust back
[01:43.48] Bring the marty to your face wit no place to run back
[01:46.25] I'm from the slums that created the bass that thump back
[01:48.93] This ain't a game clown, play ya James Brown and jump back
[01:51.63] What you want, Jack? Young cats stash they jums at
[01:54.38] Draw they guns back, momma screams where she sons at
[01:56.85] Tryin to hunt that, recurring dream of high stakes
[01:59.45] The fourth largest, first hardest, Brooklyn is the place
[02:02.17] Settled by the Dutch many years ago,
[02:04.72] Three million strong, and here we go
[02:08.11] *Part two*
[02:09.11] (Mos Def)
[02:12.94] GOOD MORNINNNNNNNNNGG VIETNAM!
[02:20.36] Ha (back up back up back up back up back up)*repeated in background*
[02:32.12] Yo sometimes I sit back, reflect on the place that I live at
[02:34.52] Unlike any place I ever been at
[02:36.63] The home of big gats, deep dish hammer rim caps
[02:39.61] Have a mishap, push ya wig back
[02:41.57] Where you go to get the fresh trim at
[02:43.82] Four on the jake got the Timb rack
[02:45.63] Blue collars metro carding it
[02:47.43] Thugs mobbin it, form partnership
[02:49.28] Increase armorment, street pharmacist
[02:50.85] Deep consequence, when you seek sleek ornaments
[02:53.39] You get caught, rode the white horse and can't get off
[02:55.74] Big dogs that trick off just get sent off
[02:58.29] They shoebox stash is all they seeds gotta live off
[03:00.67] It's real yo but still yo, it's love here
[03:03.38] And it's felt by anybody that come here
[03:05.68] Out of towners take the train, plane and bus here
[03:08.20] Must be something that they really want here
[03:10.73] One year as a resident, deeper sentiment
[03:12.77] Shoutout "Go Brooklyn!", they representin it
[03:15.06] Sittin on they front stoop sippin Guinesses
[03:17.56] Usin native dialect in they sentences
[03:20.11] >From the treeline blocks to the tenaments
[03:22.54] To the Mom & Pop local shop menaces
[03:24.82] Travel all around the world in great distances
[03:27.47] And ain't a place that I know that bear resemblance
[03:29.61] That's why we it The Planet
[03:32.15] Not a borough or a province, it's our style that's uncommon
[03:34.58] >From? sun? to the? to the Lafayette Gardens
[03:36.73] Wycoff, Gowanus in they army jacket linings
[03:39.39] Yo this goes out to my cats in Coney Isle
[03:41.95] Friday night out in front The Himalaya goin wild
[03:44.06] This goes out to Crown Heights and Smurv Village
[03:46.51] The nighties, and all my? yarda trenny? Brown's Village
[03:48.88] Parkside tennis court, thirties, forties, and the fifties
[03:51.27] The cats out in Starrett City gettin busy
[03:53.79] To the Hook, to the East, to the Stuy
[03:55.51] Bushwick and Canarsie, Farragut, Fort Green, and Marcy
[03:58.40] My Flatbush posse, generals of armies
[04:01.32] When it's time to form, just call me
[04:03.69] And let this song be, playin loud in Long B
[04:06.66] If you love Bucktown STRONGLY!
[04:09.32] RAISE IT UP!
[04:11.93] *Part three*
[04:12.95] (Mos Def)
[04:13.50] Brooklyn my habitat, the place where it happen at
[04:15.51] Live sway and the sharp balance of the battle axe
[04:18.44] Irons is brandished at, thugs draw they hammer back
[04:20.90] It's where you find the News 2 crew cameras at
[04:23.45] It's where my fam is at, summertime jam is at
[04:26.12] They play Big and get you open like a sandal back
[04:28.67] Hotter than candle wax, hustlin you can't relax
[04:31.31] The crack babies tryin to find where they mamma's at
[04:33.93] It's off the handle black, wit big police scandals that
[04:36.42] Turn into actions screenplays sold to Miramax
[04:39.03] The type of place where they check your appearance at
[04:41.41] And cats who know where all the hot 'lo gear is at
[04:44.24] The stompin grounds, where you find a pound, smoke is that
[04:46.68] Be blazin charm that have your wave cap floatin back
[04:49.20] The doorstep where the disposessed posted at
[04:51.88] Dope fiends out at Franklin Ave sellin zovarax
[04:54.78] You big ballin better keep your money folded back
[04:57.05] Cuz once the young guns notice that it's over, black
[04:59.74] Brooklyn keep on takin it, worldwide we known for that
[05:02.19] Flossy cats get it snatched like the local tax
[05:04.74] The place I sharpen up my baritone vocals at
[05:07.21] Where one of the greatest MC's was a local cat
[05:08.60]