Mos Def - Hip Hop Lyrics






You say one for the trebble, two for the time
Come on y'all let's rock this!
You say one for the trebble, two for the time
Come on!

Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape
Now let it fall... (Hungh!!)
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 ammuntion (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 whoelse 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...)

[scratching]

Hip Hop is prosecution evidence
The out of court settlement
Ad space for liquor
Sick without benefits (hungh!)
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 (hungh!)
Stimulant and sedative, original repetitive
Violently competitive, a school unacredited
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 spnosor 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 (woooo)
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





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Mos Def Hip Hop Comments
  1. J.... ....

    Diamond D on the beat!

  2. a.... s....

    Dayum!! that beat

  3. E.... ....

    Medicine for lonilesss

  4. B.... B....

    DIAMOND D!

  5. L.... L....

    Walked in on 7 yr old son playing this..I cried tears of pride

  6. r.... ....

    Medicine for loneliness

  7. A.... I....

    When this beat drops after Fear Not Of Man, man that shit is HYPE.

  8. Y.... X....

    Bodie and Stringer Bell talking in the car reminded me how i almost forgot about this classic track!!

    Y.... X....

    shit me too!

  9. T.... A....

    Mos def is a lyrical beast.and this beat is fire.he rode this track like a Cadillac 🔥🔥

  10. A.... G....

    Who’s here cause of Mychal Denzel Smith?

  11. r.... ....

    :38 mos def

  12. F.... G....

    THIS IS THE BEST SONG IN THE HISTORY OF THE CULTURE

  13. d.... m....

    This is so good

  14. G.... G....

    One of the beat hip hop songs

  15. t.... j....

    The Great Diamond 💎 D Producing.

  16. F.... D....

    What about you? You built for this shit?

  17. m.... ....

    20 year's ago 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🔥🔥🔥 #WhatATimeToBeAlive #YouHadToBeThere

  18. A.... A....

    Mos Def left this planet with this one

  19. e.... ....

    KNOWLEDGE is POWER! power from the Legend Mos Def!

  20. b.... 2....

    "Hip hop is prosecution evidence"
    That's some real shit, every rapper talking about guns, catching bodies, selling or doing drugs etc. Look at rappers like tay-k who rapped about his crimes and now the system using it against him

  21. T.... M....

    Do yall remember how great it was to be browsing at your local music store and come across a gem? RIP 90's you're sorely missed.

    T.... M....

    #WhatATimeToBeAlive 🙏🏾🔥

  22. A.... G....

    HERE IT IIIIS!!!

  23. G.... G....

    real shit

  24. D.... W....

    I’ve listened to this song at least once a month for nearly 20 years, in England it’s the greatest hip hop record nobody has heard of

  25. A.... R....

    Getting big props off this thing called Hip Hop

  26. a.... ....

    One of my favorite mos def songs. This is real hip hop. That mainstream shit today isn’t hip hop.

  27. H.... B....

    fluid even in staccato

  28. A.... P....

    sample from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN3Zrb8rAF0&index=3&list=PLgnCL2Nnp6kI06nH-7gCIKzdl8VTqI-Wv

  29. D.... A....

    Diamond D oh yeh!!

  30. B.... W....

    Boom bap, while kush blesses my soul. Head banger boom boom bap...hypnotized thc

  31. m.... ....

    Yasiin Bey 🔥🔥🔥 #WhatATimeToBeAlive " Hip hop went from selling crack to smokin it " 💯

  32. C.... D....

    Damn near fractured my neck

  33. R.... l....

    2018 and this one still legit Hip Hop

  34. N.... K....

    Legendary!

  35. M.... K....

    From Comics Explained!

  36. 1.... O....

    Song has some of the best lyrics of any hip hop song ever. If anyone unfamiliar with hip hop wants to understand the potential of the genre, this song is it.

  37. J.... M....

    diese lied gute

  38. D.... L....

    1999 till infinity

  39. 8.... 4....

    Huuuuuuuuh!

  40. J.... C....

    My uncle give me the black on both sides album and was hooked ever since I was 16, 22 now and still enjoying this, one of the best true hip hop MCs of all time no question.

  41. O.... S....

    bmx...huuuuuuh

  42. E.... ....

    My favorite song from Mos Def

  43. P.... ....

    you don't know what was happening back in the 80s

  44. K.... o....

    Brooklyn #1

  45. k.... ....

    Young man, where ya from?

    k.... ....

    Brooklyn #1

  46. j.... t....

    My restlesness is my nemisis

    j.... t....

    Its hard to really chill and sit still, committed to page

  47. A.... G....

    For real doe

  48. M.... ....

    When someone asks what Hip Hop is this is the track you show them

  49. M.... d....

    My god this song.. Like if someone needs to know what Hip-Hop/Rap is.. They should listen to this song. Absolute mind blowing talent.

    M.... d....

    Michael de Tremaudan def 🔥🔥🔥

  50. S.... ....

    This is my childhood song I love this song it never gets old

  51. M.... C....

    Gold Track Mos Def is also a Muslim Rapper Yassin Bey it is best hearing a brother i heard this on the Wire as well Stringer Bell and Bodie arranging the Wallace hit

  52. A.... G....

    MOS DEF!!!

  53. a.... ....

    There's the hum, young man where you from? Brooklyn number ONE !

  54. D.... M....

    hands down one of the best hip hop songs ever fabricated

    D.... M....

    True indeed

  55. j.... b....

    Most Defiantly

  56. y.... t....

    The God Mos Def!!! Brotha man soooo underrated

  57. H.... L....

    Sounds like nas

    H.... L....

    Happy Life Inc. he sounds nothing like Nas

  58. c.... ....

    chills every time...

  59. u.... ....

    The tables have turned

  60. o.... ....

    Cause ain't nothing but sweat inside my hand

  61. T.... I....

    Black on both sides
    Classic album!

  62. P.... C....

    "Blues people got the Blue chip stock option/ invisible man got the whole world watching."

  63. B.... ....

    SO DOPE

  64. f.... ....

    NOTHING SHORT OF FUCKING EPIC

  65. s.... ....

    so underviewed

  66. C.... .....

    that ... hip hop

  67. A.... ....

    its never tooo late too saviorselves!

  68. A.... ....

    thisss song was in your rotation, and you felt like everything was gonna be ok

  69. q.... p....

    good song

  70. D.... A....

    the industry just a better build cell block

  71. r.... ....

    Hot fire for the centuries ;)

  72. T.... M....

    2 for the time

  73. s.... h....

    Hip Hop went from selling crack to smokin it

    s.... h....

    Your mom went jerkin ppl off to 5 dollar anal

    s.... h....

    Came here 4 that quote lol

    s.... h....

    He spoke some futuristic shit how niggas now a days is popping pills

    s.... h....

    I love crack it feels so good!!!!

    s.... h....

    @A. Rashad you like crack

  74. E.... B....

    I love this track. Mos Def is a living legend. <3

  75. B.... T....

    When music was real

    B.... T....

    they have it ALL at their fingertips whilst sat on their arses too, FOR FUCKING FREE, and yet they still need spoonfeeding.
    EVERYBODY is making music these days, there has NEVER been a better time to be listening to music (there has never been a WORSE time to be making music incidentally, because ppl demand to have it for free), everybody and their dog is a producer/in a band, there is so much experimentation these days, all you have to do is put a LITTLE bit of effort in, the mainstream media are NOT going to find the next Bob Dylan for you, but he probably has a youtube channel, so go and fucking find him/her ffs!!!

    B.... T....

    @illiterate thug people wanting access to music for free is not nearly so much of a problem as record labels having pretty much unrestricted freedom to fuck artists over.
    Hopefully, in a sharing economy, there is a good middle ground to reach where music is free/close enough to, while artists don't rely on major conglomerates that "own" them.

    B.... T....

    @Sonofa Preacherman yeah you are right, I think the advertising agencies, that claim to be 'legitimising' and 'monetising' the practice really just have the artists over a barrel too.
    However I think the ignorance and sense of entitlement of the masses, perfectly demonstrated by the OP here, is really an enabling factor here.
    Part of the problem is with this new shift, we have moved from being the consumer to the product. We are being sold to the advertising agencies by the artists, and our collective ignorance of this allows the agencies to rip of the artists, same as Wall Mart/Tescos do to the producers of foods and goods.
    Neo-Liberalism has basically broken the world in ways we haven't even comprehended yet.

    B.... T....

    illiterate thug complete truth

  76. E.... F....

    Real song!

  77. d.... d....

    nobody can fuck with that\

  78. d.... d....

    mos def.\

  79. F.... J....

    So CHill

    F.... J....

    @Flap Jack So Dope.