Breakdown Lyrics - Mos Def

Yo! 

(1st verse) 

Good evening ladies and gents, close and distant fam 

Let me break it down for yall exactly who I am (cav) 

That brother straight off of myrtle ave 

That dude that make the other dude say that's my man, (cav) 

It ain't nothin' I want I can't have 

The haters know it's real and that's why they mad 

They struggle so hard while I just lay back 

They sound under pressure, sweaty and straight wack 

I rock like this because I ain't that, (cav) 

Tell the players I'm taking the game back 

Matter fact tell the coaches, the gms, and owners 

Shut down the stadiums, it's ova 

I make the cat's in the back draw closer 

Get the comp choked up like white folks on oprah 

Yeah you dope, but (cav) is more doper 

Mo skill, mo style than mo folkas 

I hit the lab with good shit to smoke up 

And tell the sound man where I want to go from 

Blow up, skit sheet across the notepad 

School em' all from the drop out to post grads 

What history book you do or don't have 

There's only two eras of rap, pre and post cav 

Now you know that 

Stop the train, there's no place for the game left to go at 

Cav is my name but you can call me, (cav) 

It's all the same abbreviated or whole 

Shout it out so it don't be a secret to folk it go, (cav) 

Short for cave but I'm not from Cali 

I'm from the rotten apple, dirty streets and alleys 

Bed-stuy Brooklyn doin' it exactly, get at me! 

Holla! like missy and ja rule 

Ain't a crowd in the world that cav cannot move 

Hot dude, cats was thinkin' it's not true 

But come front row at show, I got proof 

I went from sellin' candy in junior high school 

To servin' spoony g for the fiends, to gnaw to 

Got sent upstate on bus, (not cool) 

In the yard thinkin' damn should've listen to ma duke 

Come home in 99, what the fuck I'm gonna do 

I won't move bundles, I got a new hustle 

I quit pie baking, started rhyme makin' 

Buildin' up my rep to be one of the five greatest 

And I ain't saying cav the best nigga out there 

But until he appear, I'm sittin' in his chair 

And I'ma need a few moments just to get in yall ear 

To make you forget the duke was eva even here 

I got two words for the world, be prepared! 

I got three words for your girl, don't be scared! 

And when they ask where the real hip-hop, it's ova here! 

And when they ask where Brooklyn at, hold ya ear! 

It's like yeah! Chris Antoine Vashon 

Capricorn hit em' off with the classic bong and then I'm gone 

Ridin' back to brook-lan, boy