Mos Def - Hip Hop

[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]