Mos Def, Talib, Common - "Respiration"
[Mos Def]
The new moon rode high in the crown of the metropolis
Shinin, like who on top of this?
People was tusslin, arguin and bustlin
Gangstaz of Gotham hardcore hustlin
I'm wrestlin with words and ideas
My ears is picky, seekin what will transmit
the scribes can apply to transcript, yo
This ain't no time where the usual is suitable
Tonight alive, let's describe the inscrutable
The indisputable, we New York the narcotic
Strength in metal and fiber optics
where mercenaries is paid to trade hot stock tips
for profits, thirsty criminals take pockets
Hard knuckles on the second hands of workin class watches
Skyscrapers is collosus, the cost of living
is preposterous, stay alive, you play or die, no options
No Batman and Robin, can't tell between
the cops and the robbers, they both partners, they all heartless
With no conscience, back streets stay darkened
Where unbeliever hearts stay hardened
My eagle talons STAY sharpened, like city lights stay throbbin
You either make a way or stay sobbin, the Shiny Apple
is bruised but sweet and if you choose to eat
You could lose your teeth, many crews retreat
Nightly news repeat, who got shot down and locked down
Spotlight to savages, NASDAQ averages
My narrative, rose to explain this existance
Amidst the harbor lights which remain in the distance
So much on my mind that I can't recline
Blastin holes in the night til she bled sunshine
Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine
Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline
Heard the bass ride out like an ancient mating call
I can't take it y'all, I can feel the city breathin
Chest heavin, against the flesh of the evening
Sigh before we die like the last train leaving
[Talib Kweli]
Breathin in deep city breaths, sittin on shitty steps
we stoop to new lows, hell froze the night the city slept
The beast crept through concrete jungles
communicatin with one another
And ghetto birds where waters fall
from the hydrants to the gutters
The beast walk the beats, but the beats we be makin
You on the wrong side of the track, lookin visibly shaken
Taken them plungers, plungin to death that's painted by the numbers
with Krylon applied pressure, cats is playin God
but havin children by a lesser baby mother but fuck it
we played against each other like puppets, swearin you got pull
when the only pull you got is the wool over your eyes
Gettin knowledge in jail like a blessing in disguise
Look in the skies for God, what you see besides the smog
is broken dreams flying away on the wings of the obscene
Thoughts that people put in the air
Places where you could get murdered over a glare
But everything is fair
It's a paradox we call reality
So keepin it real will make you casualty of abnormal normality
Killers Born Naturally like, Mickey and Mallory
Not knowing the ways'll get you capped like an NBA salary
Some cats be emceeing to illustrate what we be seeing
Hard to be a spiritual being when shit is shakin what you believe in
For trees to grow in Brooklyn, seeds need to be planted
I'm asking if y'all feel me AND THE CROWD LEFT ME STRANDED
My blood pressure boiled and rose, cause New York ******
actin spoiled at shows, to the winners the spoils go
I take the L, transfer to the 2, head to the gates
New York life type trife the Roman Empire state
[Mos Def and crew]
So much on my mind I just can't recline
Blastin holes in the night til she bled sunshine
Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine
Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline
Yo don't the bass ride out like an ancient mating call
I can't take it y'all, I can feel the city breathin
Chest heavin, against the flesh of the evening
Sigh before we die like the last train leaving
[spanish speaking woman] Escuchela.. respirando ??
[Common]
Yo...on The Amen, Corner I stood lookin at my former hood
Felt the spirit in the wind, knew my friend was gone for good
Threw dirt on the casket, the hurt, I couldn't mask it
Mixin down emotions, struggle I hadn't mastered
I coreograph seven steps to heaven
And hell, waiting to exhale and make the bread leavened
Veteran of a cold war It's Chica-I-go for
What I know or, what's known
So some days I take the bus home, just to touch home
From the crib I spend months gone
Sat by the window with a clutched dome listenin to shorties cuss long
Young girls with weak minds, but they butt strong
Tried to call, or at least beep the Lord, but didn't have a touch-tone
It's a dog-eat-dog world, you gotta mush on
Some of this land I must own
Outta the city, they want us gone
Tearin down the 'jects creatin plush homes
My circumstance is between Cabrini and Love Jones
Surrounded by hate, yet I love home
Ask my God how he thought travellin the world sound
Found it hard to imagine he hadn't been past downtown
It's deep, I heard the city breathe in its sleep
Of reality I touch, but for me it's hard to keep
Deep, I heard my man breathe in his sleep
Of reality I touch, but for me it's hard to keep
[Mos Def and crew]
So much on my mind I just can't recline
Blastin holes in the night til she bled sunshine
Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine
Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline
Yo how the bass ride out like an ancient mating call
I can't take it y'all, I can feel the city breathing
Chest heavin, against the flesh of the evening
Kiss the Ide's goodbye, I'm on the last train leaving
Prodigy - "Genesis"
I'm bein watched by snake eyes
Peep them shed skin plenty times
Surrounded by crash dummies and empty minds
Get your shit together Dunn, see between the lines
Stay awoke, to the ways of the wickedest kind
Infamous - cause of the way, I write rhymes
Plus my story's more foul than your newborn eatin swine
(Stupid) Catch a seat, it's about to get deep
like squeezin flouride on your brush for your teeth
or, takin your seed to get shots every week
We need to pay more attention to our surroundings
Busy wildin, all for the wrong cause
Put that same strength into somethin that'll pay off
Don't forget your soul's involved
That same energy you put out, comes right back it revolves
I smash you, Dunn only if I have to
I would hate to, but I'll be more than glad to
The positive and negative war has now begun
P helps you seperate both the sides
Let the truth arise, black devil don't hide
You can't hide from me, you might from the others
I've been employed to pull your ass out from the covers
You walk like you got hooves and talk like you 'sposed to
Trickin my brothers into followin you? Yo
Potential energy is easily made kinetic
I turn 'em all back where they belong, don't wet it
What? Set it..
Nas - "Rewind"
Listen up gangstas and honeys with ya hair done
Pull up a chair hon' and put it in the air son
Dog, whatever they call you, god, just listen
I spit a story backwards, it starts at the ending
The bullet goes back in the gun
The bullet hole's closin this chest of a ******
Now he back to square one
Screamin, "Shoot don't please"
I put my fifth back on my hip
It's like a VCR rewindin a hit
He put his hands back on his bitch
My caravan doors open up
I jumped back in the van and closed it shut
Goin reverse, slowly prepared
My ****** Jungle utters out somethin crazy like, "Go he there"
Sittin in back of this chair, we hittin the roach
The smoke goes back in the blunt, the blunt gets bigger in growth
Jungle unrolls it, put his weed back in the jar
The blunt turns back into a cigar
We listen to Stevie, it sounded like heavy metal fans
Spinnin records backwards of AC/DC
I give my ****** dap, jump out the van back first
Back upstairs, took off the black shirt
I'm in the crib with the phone to my ear
Listen up so y'all can figure out the poem real clear
The voice on the phone was like, "Outside right we"
So with my mouth wide, holdin my heat
Bullets I had plenty to squeeze, plenty for ya
'Cause Jungle said, "Block your on enemies the"
Hung up the phone, then the phone rang <phone>
I'm laid in the bed thinkin 'bout this pretty young thing
Who left, she came back, her clothes just fell to the rug
She fell to my bed and gave me a hug
I told her, "No hell"
She talkin 'bout, "Me kiss"
Bobbed her head then spit the nut back in my dick
Started suckin with no hands, a whole lotta spit
Then got up and put her bra back on her tits
Got fully dressed and told me, "Stressed really I'm"
Picked up her Gucci bag and left her ****** behind
Walkin through the door, she rang the bell twice
I vomited Vodka back in my glass with juice and ice
The clock went back from three, to two, to one
And that's about the time the story begun
That's when I first heard the voicemail on the cell
It said, "Son we found that ****** we gotta kill"
<Message>
Ay yo son, ay yo son, you hear me, you hear me?
Listen man, this dude right on the block, right now, man
I found him, right now, I see him right now!
Let's kill him)
<Message>
"Yo, this Nas, leave it. Peace"
Nas - "Take It In Blood"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that, I'm livin like that"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that, I'm livin like that..
.. for, you wack MC's"
[Nas]
Currency is made in trust of the Messiah
I'm spending it to get higher
Earth, Wind, and Fire singing reasons why I'm
up early, trustworthy is a nine that bust early
Sunshine on my grill, I spill
Remi on imaginary graves, put my hat on my waves
Latter Day Saints say religious praise
I dolo, challenge any team or solo
You must be buggin out, new to my shit, home on a furlough
Ask around, who's laid up, sharp and straight up
Mafioso, gettin ****** wigs sprayed up
Skies are misty, my life's predicted by a gypsy
I'll one day walk into shots drunk off champange from Sicily
This be the drama, I'ma pause like a comma
in a sentence, paragraph's indented
Bloodshot red eyes, high, yellow envelopes of lye
Openin cigars, let tobacco fly
Condos are tuneproof, we're looking out the sky's moonroof
Shittin like gin and prune juice
Yo the system wants the coon's noose, hang em high
Courtrooms filled up, it's off the hook while I
just wrote a statement, like I'm facing twenty years
in the basement - chilling on the via with Mumia
for wearin chrome - I told the judge snakes slither
like Sharon Stone, but like Capone I'm thrown (yo)
"I made it like that, I bought it like that, I'm livin like that"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that, I'm livin like that..
.. for, you wack MC's"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that, I'm livin like that"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that, I'm livin like that..
.. for, you wack MC's"
[Nas]
Lyrical, ly-lyrical mission..
Lyrical..
Yo the time is wastin, I use the mind elevation
Dime sack lacin, court pen pacin
Individual, lyrical math abrasion
Psychic evaluation, the foulest nation
We livin in, dangerous lives, mad leak and battered wives
A lifestyle where bad streets is patternized
Wise men build and destroy
While the real McCoy dopefiend, named Detroit is still dealin boy
Coke suppliers actin biased
Cause rumors say that ****** wear wires and we liars
But every night the gat's fired, and every day a rat's hired
I still remain the mack flyest in the phat Kani, it's --
-- just the killer in me, slash drug dealer MC
Ex-slug filler, semi mug peeler
Demi, bottles of Mo', yo simply follow me flow
Put poetry inside a crack pot and blow
rough holes for cracked out pussies and buttholes
Bring the G's and the D's roll, they can't touch those
Why shoot the breeze about it, when you could be about it?
My degrees are routed, toward the peasy haired brick houses
instead of the fake medallions
Rich ****** transport in thousands
Foreign cash exchange amountin to millions
Doors is locked, rocks is chopped, watch the cameras in the ceilings
Trick bitches catching mad feelings
Peelin off in the Lex Jeep, techniques is four-wheelin
I bet it be some shit when we connect with Stretch
When we catch them sex ****** with the tecs you blessed, word
So now it's on, never wasted a slug,
Time is money when it comes to mine, take it in blood
"I made it like that, I bought it like that, I'm livin like that"
"I made it like that, I bought it like that, I'm livin like that..
.. for, you wack MC's" (repeat in background to fade)
Yeah, Capone-N-Noreaga
Yeah, yo, offical Queensbridge murderers
Mobb Deep keep it real though
Motherfuckin AZ yo
'Mega, 'Mega, whatever
Scarlett O'Hara
Yo, Fox Boogie
East New York
Gambo, Brownsville
Wizard, Far Rockaway
Big Jersey
Connecticut, D.C., Sudan
V.A. ?? N.C., L.A.
So on and so on...
Big Ha, Houston Fifth Ward
Black Ed, keep it real Moe..
Kurupt - "Trylogy"
[Kurupt]
Rainstorm the back of the bank, bustin loose like Muggsy
Typhoons, Kurupt Calhoun
with a platoon of backwards ass buffoons
Ready to shoot anything that moves
Load to tunes from "The Blue Lagoon"
Mask on, khakis, ounced on house shoes
So I'ma start it off skitzin on the first ******
Saul hit the stack, heard me, hear me?
Heard that, word don't pass the front do'
before you gotta show em your heart and soul and Desert Eagle fo'
Explode then watch em fold, the other ****** froze
He knew better, mask in an all blue sweater
Two pumps ready for a riot
Full Baretta, six hostages with a loss of oxygen
Wet as a river, sixteen bricks to flip
After I flip these bitch ****** for they shit
I been down with the twist since eighty-six
Hyperactive with a automatic, snappin reaction
I'm sick of waitin, a thirty-eight, I'm jackin for Daytons
Kick the door in for sure, double four's rammin
Hollow bandit, ready to knock him off if he standin
Position the cannons, telegraph the whole parameter
Paralyze anything that walks through perimeter
Cervical veins lacerated lost to missiles
Interrogated and I paraded posted with pistols
Time for war this is when the heart's exposed
Change up the game, cockin and sparks explode
I'm a marksman, touch of death, ten steps to draw
And that's all, end to anything before
In a world war, off like a Concorde jet
But fool, D.P.G.'s the set
In a world war, this is when the heart's exposed
Change up the game, cock, sparks explode
Manic-depressive panic and then start skitzin
Not givin a fuck while all y'all bitchin
Dis is for all my G's, my ho-mies
Flippin birds and servin ki's
I'm with King T and Tha Liks, Alkahol-ed it up
like BITCH, get the fuck off my dick!
I got pistols, pills, acid, bomb, crank
Crystallized coke and limes, I don't give a fuck!
Random ones....I could go on all day
