✺

Hip Hop
by Yasiin Bey
(aka Mos Def)

You say
one for the treble
two for the time
come on, y'all
let's rock this
You say
one for the treble
two for the time
come on—
Speech is my hammer
bang the world into shape
now let it fall—
My restlessness
is my nemesis
It's hard to really chill
and sit still
Committed to page
I write a rhyme
sometimes won't finish for days
Scrutinize my literature
from the large to the miniature
I mathematically add-minister
Subtract the wack
selector, wheel it back
I'm feelin that
From the core to the perimeter
Black
You know the motto
stay fluid even in staccato
Full-blooded, full throttle
Breathe deep inside
the drum hollow
There's the hum
young man
where you from?
Brooklyn
Number one
Native Son
Speakin in the native tongue
I got my eyes on tomorrow
(There it is)
While you still tryna find
where it is, I'm on the Ave
where it lives and dies
violently but silently
Shine so vibrantly that
eyes squint to catch a glimpse
Embrace the bass
with my dark ink fingertips
Used to speak the King's English
But caught a rash on my lips
so now my chat just like dis
Long range from the baseline
(swish)
Move like an apparition
low to the ground
with ammunition
Move from the gate
voice cued on your tape
puttin food on your plate
many crews can relate
who choosing your fate
We went from picking cotton
To chain-gang line choppin
to Be-Boppin
to Hip-Hoppin
Blues people got the blue
chip stock option
Invisible Man
got the whole world watchin
(Where ya at?)
I'm high, low
east, west
all over your map
I'm gettin big props
with this thing called Hip Hop
Where you can either get paid
or get shot
When your product in stock
the fair-weather friends flock
When your chart position drop
then the phone calls....
chill for a minute
let's see who else hot
snatch your shelf spot
Don't gas yourself, Ock
The industry just a
better built cell block
A long way from the shell tops
and the bells that L rocked
(rock, rock, rock, rock...
The more emotion I put into it,
the harder I rock)
Hip Hop is
prosecution evidence
an out of court settlement
ad space for liquor
sick without benefits
luxury tenements
choking the skyline
it's low life getting
tree-top high
it is a back water remedy
bitter and tender memory
a class E felony facing
the death penalty
stimulant and sedative
original
repetitive
violently competitive
a school unaccredited
(There it is)
The breakbeats
you get broken with
on time
and inappropriate
Hip Hop went
from selling crack
to smoking it
Medicine for loneliness
remind me of Thelonius
and Dizzy, propers to B-Boys
gettin busy
The war-time snap shot
the working man's jack-pot
a two dollar snack box
sold beneath the crack spot
Olympic sponsor of the black Glock
Gold medalist in the back-shot
From the sovereign state
of the have-nots
where farmers have trouble
with cash crops
It's all-city like Phase 2
Hip Hop will simply amaze you
praise you
pay you
Do whatever you say do
but, Black
it can't save you

~

Hip Hop America

Hip Hop

✺