| I’m a real true artist
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| Put all of my heart in this
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| I live for the baselines and guitar riffs — But too modest
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| The music biz is a vast sea, and you know where the sharks is
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| I discovered hip-hop as a little tyke
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| Before I kissed a girl or ever rid a bike
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| There was nothin' about it the kid didn’t like
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| So an obsession was born for written rhymes ripping mics
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| My astute pursuit wasn’t about loot to boot I studied the game from root to
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| fruit
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| People gathered in flocks, Hip-hop, had the block locked
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| And had us thinking out of the box
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| The time we were living in it was a testament
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| For before the corporation would invest in it
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| And now they acting brand new
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| I’m waving a flag for the culture, they lookin' at me like I’m a damn fool
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| (When I was up
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| You would always come around)
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| Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop
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| You are my life
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| (But when I needed a friend
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| Oh you can never be found)
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| Hip-Hop Hip-Hop
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| You are my friend
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| What’s really relevant
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| Is it good in the hood if it ain’t selling
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| And what is you telling me
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| Back — When we was back spinning the party was packed
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| And it wasn’t nobody to stack digits
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| They did it for the kids on the block
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| Instead of banging they was hanging out doing that up rock flow rock
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| Hip-Hop was there — When nobody else cared
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| No education, no healthcare, or welfare
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| The Bronx burning we turning into an inferno
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| What do we learn to know when we ain’t earning dough
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| We got greedier when the media showed up
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| And got needier when the city disowned us
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| I guess it was tryna find a way out of the projects
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| And that gentrification is the process to progress
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| God bless the child with the heavenly trust fund
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| The heaviest lump sum that come from the slums
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| That’s the sound of the men
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| Banging on track not hanging on the corner slinging crack
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| Now that we got our backs up against the wall we gon' bring it back
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| We the entrepreneur keeping out dream in tact
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| The way I feel I don’t know if you can say the same
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| Look at what they became following the gravy train
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| And when it drips dry — Them little birds fly
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| Flocking for better weather while we keepin' it curbside
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| To have a cypher you’ve got to come around
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| While pop radio is telling you to dumb it down
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| But I’ve been initiated
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| And we gon' get this shit straight
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| And state it that Hieroglyphics the greatest
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| And I’m gonna be your friend even when I don’t got one
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| And when I give 'em the Rigramole to let 'em know we’re not done
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| Many rivers to cross
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| To deliver the loss
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| It’s destiny, yes, we gon' weather the cost |