| Renaissance… Razah Rubies…*
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| Let’s go, tell 'em
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| I was born in the era of kings, of heroin dreams
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| Now it be a Maccabee, spreading my wings (spread 'em)
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| I ain’t trippin' off material bling
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| I analyze off of Billie Holiday, the queen
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| What was Marvin Gaye thinking when he wrote that theme
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| A Trouble Man, why his pops had a gun his hand, damn
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| Hip hop go to way back then
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| Diddy used to sing doo-wop with two of his friends
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| I seen an oo-wop when I was like ten, excited by sin
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| I got my first gold front from Ben
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| Eighty-nine, I was into Rakim, for dropping gems
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| Most niggas learned a lot from him
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| Grandma used to cook with sounds of Sam Cooke
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| Mid-60's, my moms then moved to Red
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| Same hood Al Capone was put, and got his rep as a crook
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| In them criminal books, we don’t look
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| A crack hit I could never forget
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| In '92 Mr. Daily was hit by gun clips
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| You had to pump if you wanted some kicks
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| The best product on the block, it was quicker to flip
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| We had whips, but it wasn’t legit
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| I reminisce, Calvin Klein, he was running the shit
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| '76 came a heavenly prince, with one gift
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| To uplift, by the name Charon Smith
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| Dedicated to Miss Caroline Smith
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| Special love and respect
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| To real true pioneers (yeah), people like Ray Charles (we in here)
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| Barry White, let’s get back into the hall of fame, come on
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| Yo, yo, it’s like we all just beef and the strengths
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| Son is blind like a boxer that bleed in the ring
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| From a cut opened up above his right eye
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| Body all black and blue, like the Brooklyn nice guy, uh
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| Bobbing and weaving, and dodging the propaganda
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| My raps take it back like shopping at Alexander’s
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| My momma had the fly afro, my father cooked for a week and left all us with the
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| casarole
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| We didn’t have much, but with a little bit of love
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| Made due with the little bit we had, yo
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| We in a new millennium, Granny still singing Hem Slow
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| Jim Crow’s still keep the blacks po'
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| Look we blessed with the power to move people with music
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| It’s the natural resources, and we use it to broadcast and transmit live from
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| hell
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| What don’t kill you, make you stronger, I’m allowed to tell
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| Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, man
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| Yo, yo, make sure you write it on the wall
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| Make sure it say, Renaissance Child
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| Talib Kweli, MF Doom, written for the babies
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| Let’s go
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| Vik slick talk, with a cough full of North
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| Of course New York floss, don’t know and blew pork
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| Before you walk across, look both ways
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| The third and the fourth of them nowaday old phase
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| Kept a dog on a wooden leg and hustled all night in the fog on the red
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| Even dressed like a bum and could beg
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| Instead use the other on the strength, what a good head
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| Been bred to win, since headspins, ooh them gems
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| Spread too thin, depends on who’s losing
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| Heads do spin, it’s deaded, now who’s in?
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| Revenge all here, enough combined slang to bang all year
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| It’s on, like it ain’t never been on cordless before
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| Report for lawless, ports is off shore
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| With horses, hanging the tablets, mating with rappers
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| Habits til they hate 'em and had it, damn it
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| And it’s gone with the wind, dead wrong
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| A song, with a spin and a grin
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| Out of style, with the blow out for mild mannered smile
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| Like a foul wild Spaniard on the soul out
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| Vaughn, the one you trick-a-don
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| Why stick it, if you gotta slip a snicker on, Viktor Vaughn
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| Yeah, to all the Cadillac riders, and it’s on
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| As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end
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| All the fathers with the godfathers, hip hop lives forever and ever
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| And ever… this is something you gon' be able to pass down to your babies
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| From generation to generation, that’s right, aight?
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| One love… and we out of here |