You heard about, through word of mouth,
Big Bird is out, he’s in the house.
He’s turnin’ up, with Snuffleup,
They’re really gettin’ their hustle up.
They stick together like Velcro,
There Grover go, there’s Elmo.
And Cookie Monster there, look he likes
To take selfies with his cell phone.
They got a homegirl named Abby,
Her last name is Cadabby,
I showed her my report card,
She said, ‘Not too shabby!’
They got all types of cool kids there,
It’s lots of fun if you live there,
One thing I keep forgettin’ about Sesame Street…
How do you get there?
I chop ‘em into salad and my name ain’t Caesar.
Black Thought, “@15,” from The Roots’ Rising Down, 2008
The principles of true hip-hop have been forsaken,
It’s all contractual and about money makin’.
Black Thought, “What They Do,” from The Roots’ Illadelph Halflife, 1996
Leave MC’s blind with amnesia;
Chop ‘em into salad, and my name ain’t Caesar.
Black Thought, “@15,” from The Roots’ Rising Down, 2008
If there’s a heaven, I can’t find the stairway
Black Thought, “Make My,” from The Roots’ undun, 2011
Just think: what if you could just, just blink yourself away?
You can hear the seven sins
Blowin’ through the ghetto wind…
Rakim, “In the Ghetto (Wake Up!)” from J. Period’s
Wake Up Radio, 2011
Every day is like a blank canvas,
Carving my initials in the planet like I brand it.
Hand-picked to live this life we take for granted,
Like a child with an upright bass, we can’t stand it.
It’s only human to express the way you really feel,
But that same humanity is my Achilles’ heel.
A leopard can’t change his spots and never will;
So I’m forever ill…now I can never chill.
– Black Thought, “I Remember,” from The Roots’ undun, 2011
People ask for God, ‘till the day He comes,
See God’s face…turn around and run.
God sees the face of a man,
Shaking his head, says “He’ll never understand.”
Crazy frustration, about my lovin situation;
When patience was a virtue…but I wasn’t used to waitin.