Music just ain’t what it used to;
We used to have songs that you could shoplift or boost to.
Jadakiss, “Hip-Hop (Remix),” from Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack, 2008
My Mind on My Money…
Wear this tee while you are rolling down the street, smokin indo, and/or sippin on gin & juice. Or just to work, school, wherever.
Shop NowYou’ve got to realize that the world’s a test,
You can only do your best and let Him do the rest.
You’ve got your life, and got your health,
So quit procrastinating and push it yourself.
Cee-Lo, “In Due Time,” from Soul Food Soundtrack, 1997
I wonder, who do you believe in? I know it ain’t me,
I hope it ain’t a priest, or who you seen on TV.
I hope it ain’t your poppa, potna, he only raised you.
And I know it ain’t your mom, even though that’s who you came through…
Blu, “A Man,” from Blu & Exile’s Maybe One Day, 2012
I got a ill gift, I’m real swift
They be like, ‘Damn, he’s still rich.’
When I send my Men in Black,
Listen, none of them niggas named Will Smith.
Cam’ron, “60 Rackz (Remix)”, 2012
Hood forever, I just act like I’m civilized.
Really what’s in my mind is organizing a billion Black motherfuckers
To take over JP Morgan, Goldman and Sachs
And teach the world facts and give Saudi they oil back.
Nas, “No Introduction,” Life is Good, 2012
Ronald Reagan was an actor. Not at all a factor,
Just an employee of the country’s real masters.
Just like the Bushes, Clinton and Obama,
Just another talkin’ head tellin’ lies on teleprompters.
If you don’t believe the theory, then argue with this logic:
Why did Reagan and Obama both go after Gaddafi?
We invaded sovereign soil, goin’ after oil
Takin’ countries as a hobby paid for by the oil lobby,
Same as Iraq and Afghanistan.
And Ahmadinejad sayin’ they comin’ for Iran…
Killer Mike, “Reagan,” R.A.P. Music, 2012
I show more blind rage than Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles wrestling in a steel cage.
Chino XL, “Freestyle Rhymes,” Here to Save You All, 1996
If rhyme is a crime, my mic is my co-defendant.
Cormega, “Focused Up,” from Large Professor’s Professor @ Large, 2012
So why you pushin’ it? Why you lyin’ for? I know where you live,
I know your folks, you was a sucka as a kid.
Your persona’s drama that you acquired in high school in actin’ class,
Your whole aura is plexiglass.
What’s-her-face told me you shot this kid last week in the park;
That’s a lie, you was in church with your moms.
O.C., “Time’s Up,” Word…Life, 1994
I had a cigarette for breakfast, just for beginners,
Cried for my lunch, and sleep for dinner.
G. Dep, “Everyday,” Child of the Ghetto, 2001
I don’t like a girl that be hanging with a slut crew,
I can’t sport a female who’s crossed-eyed with a buck tooth.
I need a female I can sport when I’m outdoors.
I’m not choosy…I got a rep to look out for.
Lord Finesse, “I Like My Girls With a Boom,” Return of the Funky Man, 1992
It’s a thin line between paper and hate,
Friends and snakes, nine millis and thirty-eights,
Hell or the pearly gates…I was destined to come,
Predicted, blame God, He blew breath in my lungs.
Nas, “Hate Me Now,” I Am…, 1999
EPMD in effect, I’m clockin’ mad green
Like Kermit the Frog, sloppy like Boss Hog,
Girl was runnin’ wild…ate her like a corn dog.
Parrish Smith, “Chill,” from EPMD’s Business Never Personal, 1992
For underground metaphors, you can scrape an inch below the turf.
For what it’s worth, my style’s been developed in the core of the Earth.
The exhale’s volcanic, the inhale is seismic…
J-Live, “Braggin’ Writes,” 12", 1995
Sunny days wouldn’t be special…if it wasn’t for rain.
Joy wouldn’t feel so good…if it wasn’t for pain.
Death gotta be easy, ‘cause life is hard,
It’ll leave you physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred.
50 Cent, “Many Men (Wish Death),” Get Rich or Die Tryin’, 2003
It’s ninety-six degrees in the shade…
Before I catch blood on my blade.
Keith Murray, “Hostile,” from Erick Sermon’s No Pressure, 1993
The route to all evil…daily I chase it.
Blow it on weed and drink, and hustle to replace it.
Eight Ball, “Where Ya From,” from Mobb Deep’s Murda Muzik, 1999
I put the great Mother Nature on a pedestal.
She always fly, but today, she’s exceptional.
Dead Prez, “Happiness,” Let’s Get Free, 2000
On the square…I’m not riffin’ like Andy Griffith,
Just fed up, goin’ head up, with competition.
Positive K, “Step Up Front,” 12", 1988. Legendary television actor Andy Griffith died of natural causes today at the age of 86.
Went from most hated to the Champion God Flow,
I guess that’s a feelin’ only me and LeBron know.
Kanye West, “New God Flow,” Cruel Summer, 2012
If you ain’t never been to the ghetto,
Don’t ever come to the ghetto,
‘Cause you wouldn’t understand the ghetto,
So stay the fuck out of the ghetto.
Treach, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright (Ghetto Bastard),” from Naughty By Nature’s Naughty By Nature, 1991
Keep my planets in orbit,
Never forfeit or quit,
Move forward…
I talk with the awkward slang,
I walk with the Wu-Tang.
RZA, “Tragedy,” from Rhyme & Reason soundtrack, 1997
Fuck a blog, dog, cause one day we gon’ meet.
Rick Ross, “Ima Boss,” from Maybach Music Group’s Self Made Vol. 1, 2011
This generation lacks true knowledge of how the past has trapped you with psychological lassos over Adam’s apples.
Reks, “Unlearn,” REBELutionary, 2012
The D’s for doin it all of the time.
M is for the rhymes, that are all mine,
C’s for cool, cool as can be,
And why you wear those glasses? So I can see!
D.M.C., “Here We Go,” Run-D.M.C., 1983
Bass! How low can you go?
Death row…what a brother know.
Once again, back is the incredible,
The rhyme animal, the uncannable “D!”
Public Enemy Number One.
Five-O said, “Freeze!” and I got numb.
Can I tell ‘em that I really never had a gun?
But it’s the wax that the Terminator X spun.
Chuck D., “Bring the Noise,” from Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 1988
Set me up, wet me up, niggas stuck me up…
Heard the guns bust, but you tricks never shut me up.
2Pac, “Against All Odds,” The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, 1996. James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond Implicated Himself in 1994 Tupac Shakur Attack.
When you say you love me, it doesn’t matter.
It goes into my head as just chit-chatter.
You may think it’s egotistical or just worry-free,
But what you say, I take none of it seriously.
MC Lyte, “Paper Thin,” Lyte as a Rock, 1988
So concisely, musically we are the herb
So sit back and light me.
Inhale…
My style’s kinda fat, reminiscent of a whale.
Q-Tip, “Sucka Nigga,” from A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders, 1993 (via egotripland)
A simple right or left can mean life or death,
Epic fail or nice success,
Days of pleasure or nights of stress.
Ka, “Decisions,” Grief Pedigree, 2012
Ayo, the arm bone connected to the hand bone,
Nigga, the hand bone connected to the damn chrome!
Sean P, “Don’t You Cross the Line,” from Boot Camp Clik’s The Last Stand, 2006
Fuck the car, I do a muthafuckin’ walk-by.
Eazy-E, “The Grand Finale,” from The D.O.C.’s No One Can Do It Better, 1989
Like my man Muhammad from Afghanistan:
Grew up in Iran, the nigga runs a neighborhood newsstand.
A wild Middle Eastern…bomb specialist,
Initiated at eleven to be a terrorist.
He set bombs in bottles of champagne
And when niggaz popped the cork, niggaz lost half they brains.
The Genius/GZA, “Killa Hills 10304,” Liquid Swords, 1995
Fuck a medic, we gon’ call yo ass a taxi cab,
Bleedin’ so hard you need a life-size maxi pad.
Ludacris, “We Got,” Chicken-N-Beer, 2003
I’m Ready to Die without a Reasonable Doubt
Smoke Chronic and hit it Doggystyle before I go out.
Until they sign my Death Certificate, All Eyez on Me
I’m still at it, Illmatic, and that’s The Documentary.
The Game, “The Documentary,” The Documentary, 2005
You know the wisdom is reflected in the knowledge when it’s manifested;
If not fed in due time, the mind is anorexic.
Cormega, “American Beauty,” The Realness, 2001
Nowadays rap artists coming half-hearted,
Commercial like pop, or underground like black markets.
Where were you the day hip-hop died?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Talib Kweli, “Too Late,” from Reflection Eternal’s Train of Thought, 2000
So you think that hip-hop had its start out in Queensbridge?
If you popped that junk up in the Bronx, you might not live!
KRS-One, “South Bronx,” from Boogie Down Productions’ Criminal Minded, 1987
You’re insecure and need a blanket like Linus.
King Sun, “It’s a Heat Up,” XL, 1989
A rap villain: chillin’ and I don’t give a fuck about a killin’ cause I’m still in effect when you’re illin’.
Kool G. Rap, “Jive Talk,” from Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo’s Wanted: Dead or Alive, 1990
Me and Frosted went to get a drink.
But she ordered somethin’ bugged, and I ain’t know what to think.
She ordered potassium, calcium,
Carbohydrate, scotch with sodium.
She took me to her crib, threw me on the couch…
I woke up the next morning with a spoon in my mouth.
LL Cool J, “Milky Cereal,” Mama Said Knock You Out, 1990
So lovers of life, don’t keep your hopes up high.
Why? Cause it’s just a matter of time before it’s your turn to die.
But until then, when you stop breathin’,
It’s time to stand up and fight for what you believe in!
Sticky Fingaz, “2 Wrongz,” from Onyx’s All We Got Iz Us, 1995
I remember when I fell from my first bike:
There were no ‘Are you okays?’ and rarely ‘Are you alrights?’
Just dirt in my pockets, handful of gravel…
That’s when I realized that getting up is only half the battle.
Big K.R.I.T., “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” Live from the Underground, 2012
Slim Shady: Hotter then a set of twin babies
In a Mercedes Benz, with the windows up
When the temp goes up to the mid 80’s.
Eminem, “Forgot About Dre,” The Chronic 2001, 1999
Fake MC’s – they always act hard
But won’t walk the streets without their bodyguards.
Guru, “Suckas Need Bodyguards,” from Gang Starr’s Hard To Earn, 1994
I’m not a sucka, so I don’t need a bodyguard.
Rob Base, “It Takes Two,” from Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock’s It Takes Two, 1988
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
Back in the days when I was a teenager,
Before I had status, and before I had a pager,
You could find The Abstract, listening to hip-hop,
My pops used to say it reminded him of be-bop.
I said, ‘Well daddy don’t you know that things go in cycles.
The way that Bobby Brown is just ampin’ like Michael.
It’s all expected, things are for the lookin’,
If you got the money, Quest is for the bookin’.
Q-Tip, “Excursions,” from A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, 1991
Rebel, renegade, must stay paid.
KRS-One, “I’m Still #1,” from Boogie Down Productions’ By Any Means Necessary, 1990