Hip means to know
It's a form of intelligence
To be hip is to be up-date and relevant
Hop is a form of movement
You can't just observe a hop
You got to hop up and do it
Hip and Hop is more than music
Hip is the knowledge
Hop is the movement
Hip and Hop is intelligent movement
Or relevant movement
We selling the music
So write this down on your black books and journals
Hip Hop culture is eternal
Run and tell all your friends
An ancient civilization has been born again
It's a fact

Sentence begins indented, with formality
My duration's infinite, money-wise or physiology
Poetry, that's a part of me, retardedly bop
I drop the ancient manifested hip-hop, straight off the block

Verse One: BIG (Puffy)

Uhh, I go, on and on and on and
Don't take her to the crib unless you bone-in
Easy, call em on the phone and
Platinum Chanel cologne and
I stay, dressed, to impress
Spark these bitches interest
Sex is all I expect
If they watch TV in the Lex, they know (they know)
They know, quarter past four
Left the club tipsy, say no mo' (say no mo)
Except how I'm gettin home, tomorrow (tomorrow)
Caesar drop you off when he see his P.O., uh
Back of my mind I hope she swallow (uh-huh)
Man She split a drink on my cream Wallows
Reach the gate, hungry just ate
Riffin, she got to be to work by eight
This must mean she ain't tryin to wait
Conversate, sex on the first date I state
"You know what you do to me"
She starts, "Well but I don't usually"
Then I, whipped it out, rubber no doubt (ow)
Step out, show me what you all about (yea)
Fingers in your mouth, open up your blouse
Pull your G-string down South, aoowww (aoowww)
Threw that back out, in the parking lot
By a Cherokee and a green drop-top
And I don't stop, until I squirt
Jeans skirt butt-naked it all work

I remember we, went to Tennessee (uh-huh)
Then we came home, mad messages was on my phone
Bitch named Symone
Screamin, she feenin for the semen
Me being the man that I am
Took it to her condo, pronto (uh-huh)
Half Indian, I called her Tonto


Ladies, my Mercedes
Hold four in the back two if you fat
Keep a gat, cause cats (This, Is, the Remix), try to test me

[Talib Kweli]
Yo Dee (What?)
Come on (Yeah..)
What? What? Come on
(Yeah)

"Give me the fortune, keep the fame," said my man Louis
I agreed, know what he mean because we live the truest lie
I asked him why we follow the law of the bluest eye
He looked at me, he thought about it
Was like, "I'm clueless, why?"
The question was rhetorical, the answer is horrible
Our morals are out of place and got our lives full of sorrow
And so tomorrow comin later than usual
Waitin' on someone to pity us
While we findin beauty in the hideous
They say money's the root of all evil but I can't tell
YouknowhatImean, pesos, francs, yens, cowrie shells, dollar bills
Or is it the mindstate that's ill?
Creating crime rates to fill the new prisons they build
Over money and religion there's more blood to spill
The wounds of slaves in cotton fields that never heal
What's the deal?
A lot of cats who buy records are straight broke
But my language universal they be recitin my quotes
While R&B singers hit bad notes, we rock the boat
of thought, that my man Louis' statements just provoked
Caught up, in conversations of our personal worth
Brought up, through endangered species status on the planet Earth
Survival tactics means, bustin gats to prove you hard
Your firearms are too short to box with God
Without faith, all of that is illusionary
Raise my son, no vindication of manhood necessary

[M.D.]   Not strong
[T.K.]   Only aggressive
[M.D.]   Not free
[T.K.]   We only licensed
[M.D.]   Not compassioniate, only polite
[T.K.]   Now who the nicest?
[M.D.]   Not good but well behaved
[T.K.]   Chasin after death
   so we can call ourselves brave?
[M.D.]   Still livin like mental slaves
[both]   Hidin like thieves in the night from life
   Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
[both]   Hidin like thieves in the night from life
   Illusions of oasis makin you look twice

[Mos Def]
Yo, I'm sure that everbody out listenin agree
That everything you see ain't really how it be
A lot of jokers out runnin in place, chasin the style
Be a lot goin on beneath the empty smile
Most cats in my area be lovin the hysteria
Synthesized surface conceals the interior
America, land of opportunity, mirages and camoflauges
More than usually -- speakin loudly, sayin nothin
You confusin me, you losin me
Your game is twisted, want me enlisted -- in your usary
Foolishly, most men join the ranks cluelessly
Buffoonishly accept the deception, believe the perception
Reflection rarely seen across the surface of the lookin glass
Walkin the street, wonderin who they be lookin past
Lookin gassed with them imported designer shades on
Stars shine bright, but the light -- rarely stays on
Same song, just remixed, different arrangement
Put you on a yacht but they won't call it a slaveship
Strangeness, you don't control this, you barely hold this
Screamin brand new, when they just sanitized the old shit
Suppose it's, just another clever Jedi mind trick
That they been runnin across stars through all the time with
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
Long barrel automatics released in short bursts
The length of black life is treated with short worth
Get yours first, them other niggaz secondary
That type of illin that be fillin up the cemetary
This life is temporary but the soul is eternal
Separate the real from the lie, let me learn you
Not strong, only aggressive, cause the power ain't directed
That's why, we are subjected to the will of the oppressive
Not free, we only licensed
Not live, we just excitin
Cause the captors.. own the masters.. to what we writin
Not compassionate, only polite, we well trained
Our sincerity's rehearsed in stage, it's just a game
Not good, but well behaved cause the ca-me-ra survey
most of the things that we think, do, or say
We chasin after death just to call ourselves brave
But everyday, next man meet with the grave
I give a damn if any fan recall my legacy
I'm tryin to live life in the sight of God's memory
Like that y'all

[Mos Def]
A lot of people don't understand the true criteria of things
Can't just accept the appearance
Have to get the true essence

[Talib Kweli]
They ain't lookin around

[M.D.]   Not strong
[T.K.]   Only aggressive
[M.D.]   Not free
[T.K.]   We only licensed
[M.D.]   Not compassioniate, only polite
[T.K.]   Now who the nicest?
[M.D.]   Not good but well behaved
[T.K.]   Chasin after death
   so we can call ourselves brave?
[M.D.]   Still livin like mental slaves
[both]   Hidin like thieves in the night from life
   Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
[both]   Hidin like thieves in the night from life
   Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
[both]   Hidin like thieves in the night from life
   Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
[both]   Hidin like thieves in the night from life
   Illusions of oasis makin you look twice

[Mos Def (singing)]
Stop hidin, stop hidin, stop hidin yo' face
Stop hidin, stop hidin, cause ain't no hidin place
* repeat 2X*