You can call it hell…
But I say it’s below the heavens.

- Blu, “The World Is…(Below the Heavens),” from Blu & Exile’s Below the Heavens, 2007

What’s up with this nonsense?
Wack ass jams with a built-in dance?
Rappers snap they fingers in a b-boy stance?
Radio play it all day, but real rap no chance?
Real rap don’t mean “take ‘em to school.”
I like bitches, cars and money, but I use my brains too.

- Bishop Lamont, “Without You,” from Little Brother and Mick Boogie’s …And Justus For All, 2007

My genes tie me to those that despised me.

- Brother Ali, “Daylight,” The Undisputed Truth, 2007

Fuck jewels: I think my soul glows bright enough.
And fuck whips: I learn more when I ride the bus.
And fuck, it’s bad enough that we fight for bucks.
And fuck hoes: cause in the end I need a wife to love.

- Blu, “Show Me the Good Life,” Below the Heavens, 2007

You gotta try hard to be yourself…
Cause you can’t go to heaven being anybody else.

- Blu, “Below The Heavens, Pt I,” Below The Heavens, 2007

If you’re crying under fire, then you wasn’t built for war.
If a pimp took your girl, then your girl was never yours.

- MF Grimm, “Fame,” Hunt for the Gingerbread Man, 2007

Burn a Bush cause for peace he no push no button.
Killing over oil and grease, no weapons of destruction,
How can we follow a leader when this a corrupt one?

-

Common, “A Letter to the Law,” from Def Poetry Jam, 2007

Sean Hannity’s latest race-baiting “controversy” stems from the invitation that First Lady Michelle Obama extended to Common for a White House poetry event tonight. Up next, a complementary quote from Nas’ “Sly Fox.”

Survive the droughts? I wish you well.
How sick am I? I wish you health.
I wish you wheels, I wish you wealth,
I wish you insight so you could see for yourself.

- Jay-Z, “American Dreamin,” American Gangster, 2007

I believe in heaven more than hell, lessons more than jail.
In the ghetto, let love prevail with a story to tell.
My eyes see the glory, and well,
The world waiting for me to yell, “I Have A Dream!

- Common, “A Dream,” from Freedom Writers Soundtrack, 2007

Live each day like your last…one day you’ll be right.

- MF Grimm, “See No Evil,” The Hunt for the Gingerbread Man, 2007

E I K F M N
I just rocked the eye chart,
So if you can’t see it, now you know it by heart.

- MC Paul Barman, “$Doe$”, 2007