Hip Hop Lyrics - Black On Both Sides - Mos Def

You say one for the treble, two for the time 

Come on y'all let's rock this! 

You say one for the treble, two for the time 

Come on! 

Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape 

Now let it fall, 

My restlessness is my nemesis 

It's hard to really chill and sit still 

Committed to page, I write rhymes 

Sometimes won't finish for days 

Scrutinize my literature, from the large to the miniature 

I mathematically add-minister 

Subtract the wack 

Selector, wheel it back, I'm feeling that 

(Ha ha ha) From the core to the perimeter black, 

You know the motto 

Stay fluid even in staccato 

(Mos Def) Full blooded, full throttle 

Breathe deep inside the trunk hollow 

There's the hum, young man where you from 

Brooklyn number one 

Native son, speaking in the native tongue 

I got my eyes on tomorrow (there it is) 

While you still try to follow where it is 

I'm on the Ave where it lives and dies 

Violently, silently 

Shine so vibrantly that eyes squint to catch a glimpse 

Embrace the bass with my dark ink fingertips 

Used to speak the king's English 

But caught a rash on my lips 

So now my chat just like dis 

Long range from the base-line (switch) 

Move like an apparition 

Float to the ground with ammunition (chi-chi-chi-POW) 

Move from the gate, voice cued on your tape 

Putting food on your plate 

Many crews can relate 

Who choosing your fate (yo) 

We went from picking cotton 

To chain gang line chopping 

To Be-Bopping 

To Hip-Hopping 

Blues people got the blue chip stock option 

Invisible man, got the whole world watching 

(where ya at) I'm high, low, east, west, 

All over your map 

I'm getting big props, with this thing called hip hop 

Where you can either get paid or get shot 

When your product in stock 

The fair-weather friends flock 

When your chart position drop 

Then the phone calls, 

Chill for a minute 

Let's see who else tops 

Snatch your shelf spot 

Don't gas yourself ock 

The industry just a better built cell block 

A long way from the shell tops 

And the bells that L rocked (rock, rock, rock, rock) 

Hip Hop is prosecution evidence 

The out of court settlement 

Ad space for liquor 

Sick without benefits 

Luxury tenements choking the skyline 

It's low life getting tree-top high 

Here there's a back water remedy 

Bitter intent to memory 

A class E felony 

Facing the death penalty 

Stimulant and sedative, original repetitive 

Violently competitive, a school unaccredited 

The break beats you get broken with 

on time and inappropriate 

Hip Hop went from selling crack to smoking it 

Medicine for loneliness 

Remind me of Thelonius and Dizzy 

Propers to B-Boys getting busy 

The war-time snap shot 

The working man's jack-pot 

A two dollar snack box 

Sold beneath the crack spot 

Olympic sponsor of the black glock 

Gold medalist in the back shot 

From the sovereign state of the have-nots 

Where farmers have trouble with cash crops 

It's all city like phase two 

Hip Hop will simply amaze you 

Craze you, pay you 

Do whatever you say do 

But black, it can't save you