Ain’t no tellin’ what I’d do for a dollar…
I’m not your father, but guess what I’mma do to ya mama.

- Sean P, “Murder,” from DJ JS-1’s No Sellout, 2009

You’re lookin’ at the Fridge, I’m the rookie.
I may be large, but I’m no dumb cookie.
You’ve seen me hit, you’ve seen me run,
When I kick and pass, we’ll have more fun.
I can dance, you will see,
The others, they all learn from me.
I don’t come here lookin’ for trouble,
I just came here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle.

- William “The Refrigerator” Perry, “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” Chicago Bears, 1985

I call you once…you never dialed back.
Twice…you never dialed back.
Saturday morning, live, I’m on Soul Train, talkin’ to Don Cornelius.

Saturday night, my phone rings…
Saturday night, I won’t answer.
Saturday night, my phone rings again…
Saturday night, I don’t answer.

- Kool Keith, “Stop Jockin Me,” from Ultramagnetic MC’s Funk Your Head Up, 1992. Donald Cortez “Don” Cornelius (September 27, 1936 – February 1, 2012) Rest in peace.

When I hit the skins they all say, ‘Damn Kane…
You knock out the Bush like a presidential campaign!’

- Big Daddy Kane, “How U Get a Record Deal?” Looks Like a Job For…, 1993

I don’t feel pain cause it’s all in the mind,
And what’s mines is mines and yours is mine!

- Sticky Fingaz, “Throw Ya Gunz,” from Onyx’s Bacdafucup, 1993

I find it’s distressin’, there’s never no in-between:
We either niggaz or kings,
We either bitches or queens.
The deadly ritual seems immersed in the perverse,
Full of short attention spans, short tempers, and short skirts.

- Mos Def, “Thieves in the Night,” from Black Star’s Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, 1998

When I need bread, I grab the toaster and stick niggas for they crumbs.

- Akinyele, “The Robbery Song,” Put It in Your Mouth EP, 1996

I’m from Jerz, the home of: “I could’ve swore I parked my car right here!

- Chino XL, “B-Boy Gangsta,” Poison Pen, 2006

Pull down the shades on the windows of your soul,
And gaze into your mind and watch the wisdom unfold…

- Beanie Sigel, “Hypnotic,” from Memphis Bleek’s M.A.D.E., 2003

It don’t make sense: either you a soldier from the start,
Or a actor with a record deal tryin’ to play the part.

- Xzibit, “Paparazzi,” At the Speed of Life, 1996

Fuck a moment of silence…I need a moment of violence.

- Immortal Technique, “Toast to the Dead,” The Martyr, 2011

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

A forty and a blunt, that’s all she really wants.

- Grand Puba, “Slow Down,” from Brand Nubian’s One for All, 1990

Life is real, reality is not a dream.
Those who chose to sleep…I wake em up,
Cause you’re sleepin with your mouth open hummin deez nuts.

- King Sun, “Humm Deez Nuts,” Strictly Ghetto EP, 1994

Look past the garbage, over the trains,
Under the ruins, through the remains,
Around the crime and pollution,
And tell me…where I fit in?

- Grandmaster Caz, “South Bronx Subway Rap,” from Wild Style Soundtrack, 1983