You say one for the trebble, two for the time
  Come on y'all let's rock this!
  You say one for the trebble, two for the time
  Come on!
  
  Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape
  Now let it fall... (Hungh!!)
  My restlessness is my nemesis
  It's hard to really chill and sit still
  Committed to page, I write rhymes
  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 feeling that
  (Ha ha ha) From the core to the perimeter black,
  You know the motto
  Stay fluid even in staccato
  (Mos Def) Full blooded, full throttle
  Breathe deep inside the trunk hollow
  There's the hum, young man where you from
  Brooklyn number one
  Native son, speaking in the native tongue
  I got my eyes on tomorrow (there it is)
  While you still try to follow where it is
  I'm on the Ave where it lives and dies
  Violently, 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 base-line (switch)
  Move like an apparition
  Float to the ground with ammuntion (chi-chi-chi-POW)
  Move from the gate, voice cued on your tape
  Putting food on your plate
  Many crews can relate
  Who choosing your fate (yo)
  We went from picking cotton
  To chain gang line chopping
  To Be-Boppign
  To Hip-Hopping
  Blues people got the blue chip stock option
  Invisible man, got the whole world watching
  (where ya at) I'm high, low, east, west,
  All over your map
  I'm getting 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 whoelse tops
  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...)
  
  *scratching*
  
  Hip Hop is prosecution evidence
  The out of court settlement
  Ad space for liquor
  Sick without benefits (hungh!)
  Luxury tenements choking the skyline
  It's low life getting tree-top high
  Here there's a back water remedy
  Bitter intent to memory
  A class E felony
  Facing the death penalty (hungh!)
  Stimulant and sedative, original repetitive
  Violently competitive, a school unacredited
  The break beats 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 getting busy
  The war-time snap shot
  The working man's jack-pot
  A two dollar snack box
  Sold beneath the crack spot
  Olympic spnosor 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 (woooo)
  It's all city like phase two
  Hip Hop will simply amaze you
  Craze you, pay you
  Do whatever you say do
  But black, it can't save you