Sometimes I look up at the stars and analyze the sky,
And ask myself: was I meant to be here…why?
Tag Archives: 1996
I got to keep it tight like seams,
Cause ain’t no fiends
Comin’ in between me and my dreams,
See what I mean, black?
And through our travels we get separated, never forget:
In order to survive, got to learn to live with regrets.
Now who done passed you a diaper and got you thinkin’ you the shit?
A thug changes, and love changes,
And best friends become strangers.
It seems to me like all these people claim to be the victim,
Acting like the whole entire world is out to get them.
Stand up on your own,
And prove that you are grown,
Because the life that you save may be your own.
Life is something you can’t borrow and give back;
Here today and gone tomorrow…just like that.
Two wrongs don’t make it right, but it damn sure makes us even.
Now on the first day of Christmas, my homeboy gave to me
A sack of the krazy glue and told me to smoke it up slowly.
Now on the second day of Christmas, my homeboy gave to me
A fifth of Hendog and told me to take my mind off that weed.
Now by the third day of Christmas, my big homeboy gave to me
A whole lot of everything, and it wasn’t nuthin’ but game to me.
I never fronted, you can get it if you want it…
Won’t say I’m the best, but I’m not that far from it.
Make a radio hit: heads criticize it.
Underground classic? Nobody buys it.
So, rap is fucked…
And everything blowing up sounds redundant,
But money talks and bullshit does 9 flat in the 100.
I know the feelin, when you feelin like a villain,
You be havin good thoughts but the evils be revealin’.
And the stresses of life can take you off the right path,
Jealousy and envy tends to infiltrate your staff…
We gotta hold it down so we can move on past
All adversities, so we can get through fast.
I circumnavigate the globe with a one-liner like latitude.
I live by the beat like you live check to check.
If you don’t move your feet then I don’t eat,
So we like neck to neck.
I been in the game for 10 years making rap tunes…
Ever since honeys was wearing Sassoons.
Bitch, you ain’t got nothin on the rich,
Every other day my whole dress code switch.
You keepin it real, but ain’t got a clue what reality really be;
See, the diameter of your knowledge is the circumference of your activity.
What’s when you rap and don’t appreciate the art?
What’s when you sell out just to get a start?
What’s when you make bullshit just for the charts?
What’s when you rap, but it’s not from the heart?
What’s when you’re hardcore, then you turn pop?
When you steal ideas to get props?
When you sell out to be on top?
What’s when you front like you’re hard, but you’re not?
That’s a gimmick.
All we want in this life is peace, prosperity and a little paper.
We got to stay awake for all these lizards and snakes;
Some of them come as friends, some of them come as Jakes.
I bet you never heard of a playa with no game,
Told the truth to get what I want, but shot it with no shame.
Take this music dead serious while others entertain.
I see they makin’ they paper so I guess I can’t complain…or can I?
I feel they disrespectin’ the whole thang.
Them hooks like sellin’ dope to black folks,
And I choke when the food they serve ain’t tastin’ right,
My stomach can’t digest it even when I bless it…
There’s a million ways to live on this thing called a planet,
I’mma live everyday, I ain’t takin’ nothing for granted.
I will endanger your species like an ostrich,
Hold you hostage, and crazy feed you swine sausage!
I show more blind rage than Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles wrestling in a steel cage.
Set me up, wet me up, niggas stuck me up…
Heard the guns bust, but you tricks never shut me up.
The principles of true hip-hop have been forsaken,
It’s all contractual and about money makin’.
Shakespeare’s gone, don’t even think about it.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been a hip-hopper from birth.
Try to disrespect, and get your ass played up like a Smurf.
Of course it’s much greater than your Benz or your Lex
The engine to my comprehension is just too complex
I’d rather die enormous than live dormant.
Your whole vocabulary’s played out, admit it.
Still wack if it came out my mouth and I spit it.
When I need bread, I grab the toaster and stick niggas for they crumbs.
It don’t make sense: either you a soldier from the start,
Or a actor with a record deal tryin’ to play the part.
If I should fall asleep and death takes me away,
Don’t be surprised son, I wasn’t put here to stay.
Doin forever shit: like pissin out the window on turnpikes,
Robbin niggaz for leathers, high swipin on dirt bikes.
Ayo, shout out to Mobb Deep, the Extra P
Busta Rhymes, De La, the J Beez, so don’t sleep
Life’s a bitch, but God forbid the bitch divorce me…
Fuck you, losers. While you fake jacks, I makes maneuvers.
We runnin around in thousand-dollar clown suits,
Better get some boots when Lucifer turn your city to Beirut.
The most beautifullest thing in the world is a .44 Desert Eagle.
Nigga, THAT SHIT IS DIESEL!!
These ante meridiem cats, insomniacs…
Four in the mornin’ we throwin back some Cognac juice.
Always exhale the facts, cause I don’t inhale lies.
Can you cook darlin? At the stove you’re revolvin’…
Bake macaroni, turkey wings, a nigga starvin
Here take my number, let me pull the chair from under
I had fun, plus your backyard speak with thunder!
See them Cubans don’t care what y’all niggas do,
Colombians ain’t never ran with your crew.
Why you acting all spicy and sheisty?
The only Italians you knew was ICEEs.
I come prepared with the white suit and stethoscope,
Listen to your heartbeat, delete beep beep BEEP.
Your insurance is high, but my price is cheap.
We got to mediate our greedy levels,
Cause the lust of currency can have us sleepin with the devil.
I ain’t Mary, so ain’t a damn thing Poppin’.
You need a bad operation.
Gimme the scissors, hammer, flame.
Now who done passed you a diaper and got you thinkin’ you the shit?
I smoked with a lot of college students…
Most of em wasn’t graduatin, and they knew it.
I got you open like supermarkets!
It’s Christmas time and my rhyme’s steady bumpin.
Everybody happy, hair still nappy,
Gonna steal a gift for my old grandpappy…
Mr. Man (Da Bush Babees) • “Gravity” • 1996
It’s time to invent the future, cause there ain’t nobody else
Who can make it happen right, so make it happen for yourself.
Mr. Man, “Gravity,” from Da Bush Babees’ Gravity, 1996
Q-Tip • “The Remedy” • 1996
There’s divinity within because we come from the divine,
A force that’s not seen, but you feel it every time:
When the wind blows, and the world turns,
And the rain drops, and the baby cries,
And the bird flies, and the ground quake,
And the stars gleam.
Q-Tip, “The Remedy,” from Get on the Bus Soundtrack, 1996
Juju (The Beatnuts) • Peace Akki • 1996
Reality’s really the individual’s mentality;
Some seek eternal life, while others seek fatality.
Juju, “Peace Akki,” from Al’ Tariq’s God Connections, 1996
Redman • “Da Ill Out” • 1996
I’m sautéing emcees with fried rice up in the wok without the MSG and chopped celery.
– Redman, “Da Ill Out,” Muddy Waters, 1996
Everlast (House of Pain) • “No Doubt” • 1996
Come on, let’s be real:
You only think you can deal.
That’s why i’m holdin’ the steel,
I rock shit to make you feel
Like, damn that looks easy! Maybe I can do it.
So you take a fat beat and put your wack rhymes to it.
And God only knows what can make you pursue it,
For those who can’t dance and clap your hands to it.
– Everlast, “No Doubt,” from House of Pain’s Truth Crushed to Earth Will Rise Again, 1996
From the bottom of my heart, that’s where the love starts:
The love for breakdancing, my love for the art.
And with this love, I do hip-hop from the soul,
A real MC, who never sweats how many copies are sold.
Yeah, I want to go gold, platinum, et ceteras,
But why put out some wackness when no one will respect ya?
I’m staying true, nuff respect to those that paved the way,
From Bambaata down to Shah (that be my DJ).
Without my peeps, I dont know how the hell I’d make it, word…
Sometimes I feel that my career is headed for the curb.
One love for the lendin’ hand and givin’ all your help,
Believing in me when I didn’t believe in my own self.
The Abstract, with whom I’m always making rugged tunes,
Kid Hood, restin’ in heaven, I hope to see you soon.
I dispense dope sentences without a prescription.
Prefixes asphyxiate bitches who flips linguistics,
Representin the West, relevant to relentless sentences.
If renegade rebels resent this wicked syntax,
Revert to revolution Ras reverse, reverberates,
Revolvin with written retalliation, rate repetitious.
My mental’s the bullet, my tongue’s the finger that pull it.
She claims she loves my mind, cause I’m so intelligent,
But fuck my mental…she was scheming on my mint.
The greatest lesson ever learned has yet to be taught.
Gun control means using both hands, in my land.
Drink Listerine, brush my teeth with amphetamine,
So I can sound fresh and say dope things in between.
You tried keeping it real, but you should try keeping it right.
More rhymes are funny now, happy and silly now.
Happy-go-lucky on the mic, and meanwhile,
You standin’ still, lookin out for a good rhyme,
Makin the wack junk, wastin’ my good time.