Mos Def - Hip Hop(1999)

[00:03.12] You say one for the trouble, two for the time
[00:05.97] Come on y'all let's rock this!
[00:08.11] You say one for the trouble, two for the time
[00:11.15] Come on!
[00:12.28] Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape
[00:14.23] Now let it fall... (Huh!)
[00:15.89] My restlessness is my nemesis
[00:18.55] It's hard to really chill and sit still
[00:20.37] Committed to page, I write rhymes
[00:22.11] Sometimes won't finish for days
[00:24.28] Scrutinize my literature, from the large to the miniature
[00:27.07] I mathematically add-minister
[00:29.39] Subtract the whack
[00:30.31] Selector, wheel it back, I'm feeling that
[00:31.70] (Ha ha ha) From the core to the perimeter black
[00:34.92] You know the motto
[00:36.00] Stay fluid even in staccato
[00:37.96] (Mos Def) full-blooded, full throttle
[00:39.72] Breathe deep inside the trunk hollow
[00:41.33] There's the hum, young man where you from
[00:44.15] Brooklyn number one
[00:45.80] Native son, speaking in the native tongue
[00:48.21] I got my eyes on tomorrow (there it is)
[00:50.34] While you still try to follow where it is
[00:52.60] I'm on the Ave where it lives and dies
[00:54.14] Violently, silently
[00:55.82] Shine so vibrantly that eyes squint to catch a glimpse
[00:58.97] Embrace the bass with my dark ink fingertips
[01:01.41] Used to speak the King's English
[01:03.13] But caught a rash on my lips
[01:04.93] So now my chat just like dis
[01:06.93] Long range from the base-line (switch)
[01:08.82] Move like an apparition
[01:10.34] Float to the ground with ammunition (chi-chi-chi-POW)
[01:12.99] Move from the gate, voice cued on your tape
[01:15.40] Putting food on your plate
[01:16.88] Many crews can relate
[01:18.48] Who choosing your fate (yo)
[01:20.15] We went from picking cotton
[01:21.44] To chain gang line chopping
[01:23.19] To Be-Bopping
[01:24.24] To Hip-Hopping
[01:25.41] Blues people got the blue chip stock option
[01:27.39] Invisible man, got the whole world watching
[01:29.85] (Where ya at) I'm high, low, East, West
[01:32.22] All over your map
[01:33.42] I'm getting big props, with this thing called hip hop
[01:36.24] Where you can either get paid or get shot
[01:38.18] When your product in stock
[01:39.64] The fair-weather friends flock
[01:41.08] When your chart position drop
[01:42.34] Then the phone calls
[01:44.34] Chill for a minute
[01:45.49] Let's see who else tops
[01:46.59] Snatch your shelf spot
[01:47.55] Don't gas yourself ock
[01:48.84] The industry just a better built cellblock
[01:51.31] A long way from the shell tops
[01:53.53] And the bells that L rocked (rock, rock, rock, rock)
[01:58.90]
[02:21.06] Hip Hop is prosecution evidence
[02:22.45] The out of court settlement
[02:23.25] Ad space for liquor
[02:24.40] Sick without benefits (huh!)
[02:26.26] Luxury tenements choking the skyline
[02:27.90] It's low life getting tree-top high
[02:29.89] Here there's a back water remedy
[02:32.06] Bitter intent to memory
[02:33.88] A class E felony
[02:34.97] Facing the death penalty (huh!)
[02:37.02] Stimulant and sedative, original repetitive
[02:39.32] Violently competitive, a school unaccredited
[02:42.17] The break beats you get broken with
[02:44.36] On time and inappropriate
[02:45.64] Hip Hop went from selling crack to smoking it
[02:47.36] Medicine for loneliness
[02:49.01] Remind me of Thelonius and Dizzy
[02:51.06] Propers to B-Boys getting busy
[02:52.98] The war-time snap shot
[02:54.86] The working man's jack-pot
[02:56.65] A two dollar snack box
[02:58.13] Sold beneath the crack spot
[02:59.24] Olympic sponsor of the black glock
[03:01.40] Gold medallist in the back shot
[03:03.18] From the sovereign state of the have-nots
[03:05.04] Where farmers have trouble with cash crops (woooo)
[03:07.99] It's all city like phase two
[03:09.33] Hip Hop will simply amaze you
[03:10.88] Craze you, pay you
[03:12.21] Do whatever you say do
[03:13.86] But black, it can't save you
[03:15.45]