If we gotta dumb down our style and ABC it, then so be it,
Cause nowadays these kids just don’t give a shit ‘bout lyrics.
All they wanna hear is a beat and that’s it,
Long as they can go to the club and get blitzed,
Pick up some chicks and get some digits.
And the DJs playing them hits, “Oh, this my jam, this my shit!”
We don’t know a word to a verse, all we know is the chorus,
Cause the chorus repeats the same four words for us.

Eminem, “Syllables," 2010

They say that love is powerful as cough syrup and Styrofoam.
All I know is I fell asleep and woke up in that Monte Carlo
With the ugly Kardashian…
Lamar, oh, sorry. Yo, we done both set the bar low.

Eminem, “Berzerk,” The Marshall Mathers LP 2, 2013

Know the shit I don’t write be the illest shit that’s ever been recited in the game,
Word to the hyphen in my name!

Jay Z, “The Watcher 2,” The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse, 2002. Jay Z dropped the hyphen today.

I been in the game for 10 years making rap tunes…
Ever since honeys was wearing Sassoons.

Dr. Dre, “California Love,” from 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me, 1996

Eminem • “Rock Bottom” • 1999

My life is full of empty promises and broken dreams…
I’m hopin’ things look up; but there ain’t no job openings.
I feel discouraged, hungry and malnourished,
Living in this house with no furnace, unfurnished.
And I’m sick of workin’ dead end jobs with lame pay,
And I’m tired of bein’ hired and fired the same day.
But fuck it, if you know the rules to the game play,
Cause when we die, we know we all going the same way.

Eminem, “Rock Bottom,” Slim Shady LP, 1999

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

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

Since I’m stereotyped to kill and destruct
Is one of the main reasons I don’t give a fuck.

MC Ren, “100 Miles and Runnin’” from N.W.A.’s 100 Miles and Runnin’ EP, 1990

It’s kinda hard bein humble in the belly of the struggle,
Doin things that probably get you in trouble.

Busta Rhymes, “Been Through the Storm,” The Big Bang, 2006

In this lifetime, you got two things:
Bad and good, and ain’t nothin’ in between.

Cold 187um, “Untouchable,” from Above the Law’s Livin’ Like Hustlers, 1990

Don’t quote me boy, cause I ain’t said shit.

Eazy-E, “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” N.W.A. & The Posse, 1987

Hip-hop is universal now, it’s all commercial now.
It’s like a circle full of circus clowns up in the circuit now.

Eminem, “If I Get Locked Up,” from Funkmaster Flex and Big Kap’s The Tunnel, 1999

Dr. Dre (N.W.A.) • “Express Yourself” • 1988

I’m expressin’ with my full capabilities,
And now I’m livin in correctional facilities.
Cause some don’t agree with how I do this,
I get straight and meditate like a Buddhist.

Dr. Dre, “Express Yourself,” from N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton, 1988

Sick, sick dreams of picnic scenes:
Two kids, sixteen with M-16’s and ten clips each,
And them shits reach through six kids each,
And Slim gets blamed in Bill Clint’s speech to fix these streets?

Eminem, “Remember Me?” The Marshall Mathers LP, 2000. More from Em…