HIP-HOP is NOT DEAD
You are NOT HIP- HOP
I AM!
I am the harmony of Cold Crush and Caz
I am the ingenuity of Grandmaster Flash
I am Grand Wizard Theodore's scratch
You are Heineken
You tried to steal credit for that
I am your favorite emcee's favorite emcee
I gave you hope
You tempt me
You took what you needed and left me empty
I am pop
I am lock
I am dance in the form of hip hop
I am the wind from the foot of the
RSC
When B-Boys headspin and windmill
You are out in the crowd
You are an observer standing still
I am James Brown's cape
I am your first Sugar Hill tape
I am the Adidas shell toe
I am underground like Tubman's railroad
I fly up above
I am Mike Jack's glove
I am Run's Lees, I'm Jays Hat
I am the mic of Daryl Mac
I am
Clive Campbell finding that first breakbeat
I am LL's first rope, Slick Rick's eye patch
I am Rakim in his prime
I am Ambiodun and Bin Hassan
I am the
Last Poets giving birth to rhyme
I am the spinal tap that taught your mother patience
I am the patience that taught her
the virtuousness of the ancients
I am the doctor that birthed you
you were born an ass so I smacked you
Instead I should've murked you
You grew up to my beats, my words
I fed and burped you
I natured, I nurtured, I nourished and kept you
I am the song your mother wept to
when the judge's gavel came down
and found
you guilty
I am the clean
I am the filthy
When you were once again free
You realized that you missed me
Now you attempt to murder and diss me
You need to welcome and kiss my feet
Without me you are incomplete
Not whole, just a fraction
Your lack of action
Is my dis-satisfaction
I am the street
I am thugs
I am black on black hate
I am black love
I am Sly's Pusher man
I am pure
Blue Magic when I enter your veins
I am crack, I'm speed
I'm dope, I'm cocaine
I'm the weedsmoke in the project stairways
You're the piss in the elevator
You are the phlegm in my lungs airways
I am the Forty, the fifth
The spliff you put to your lips
I am your first gun
I am your first roll of the dice
I'm fresh, I'm dope, I'm nice
I am the African blood in your ice
I am the crack in the Liberty Bell
I represent the misrepresented
tenement dwelling residents
I put out that bitch's torch
In August in New York
I am the shackles at her feet
I symbolize hope for those not free
You lack structure
I'm trash i'm gutter
I'm bad meaning bad
I'm good I'm hood
I'm the nicest emcee
Even though I sold double wood
You an imitation
Hollywood
You a foreign interpretation
Bollywood
Wherever you from
I been there I didn't run
I did it big and when I was done
I left my mark
You are the pilot light
I am the spark
In the night
Watch the burner ignite
I incite the type of hype
that moves crowds to incite
riots
Don't try it!!
I am the African
I am the Arawak
I died, was reborn
And carried hope on my back
Yo soy muy caliente
Donde esta mi gente?
I am the light, I'm omnipotence
You are the darkness that is ignorance
I travel without moving
I communicate without speaking
I am just begining
you seem to be peaking
Outro:*
Her
Infinte
Power
Helping
Oppressed
People
We are unique and unequalled
Hip-Hop
Holy
Integrated
People
Having
Omnipresent
Power
The watchmen's in the tower of ...
Hip-Hop
Hydrogen
Iodine
Phosphorus
Hydrogen
Oxygen
Phosphorous
That's called ..
Hip-Hop
The response of cosmic consciousness
to our conditions as ...
Hip-Hop
Hip-Hop [begins to fade]
Hip-Hop
Hip-Hop
Hip-Hop
Hip-Hop
_________________________________
*-KRS-ONE & Marley Marl "Hip Hop Lives"