What's It All About?

(album: Back From Hell - 1990)

[Run] I would like to throw "Rock Box" in the start of this one..

[Jam Master Jay obliges with the cut.. "Run.. Dee.. Run.. D.. M.. C.." "Here we go again!" -> Chuck D]

"What's it all about?" [4X with stutter repeats]

[Run]
Livin in the city the crack the mack and all that
Easy does it, is it was it
the black or white that Friday night
in those racist places let's get it right
Ah to the maximum, and keep askin 'um
when the city gonna fix where the BLACKS are from
And every day around the way another one got
bucked in his head from a gunshot
No chance in advance for the ambulance
Cause he was just another victim of the circumstance
A brother died, the mother cried, it was a pity
But that's how it goes down when you're livin in the city

[Jam Master Jay cuts "What's it all about?" samples]

[D.M.C.]
Just a hard rock, call him a hard rock
in the metropolis there's no stoppin this
Can't agree with society poppin this
Disagree with the plea when they coppin it
Some men pretend the end will come soon
They gather what they can and them BOOM
You played yourself, you made your wealth;
the deal was dealt now your health is in question
Three Card Molly, hoodlums who are we?
Pollution, prostitution, In God We
need a solution, revolution, substitution
for the thing's that we're abusing
Pity the city, for the people livin out on the streets
Yo we homeless, the homeless need to eat
There's no progress for the rest
God bless for less

[Jam Master Jay cuts "What's it all about?" samples]
[musical breakdown]

[Run] What it is?
[DMC] What's it all about?
[Run] Whassup G?
[DMC] What it be?
[Run] How you livin HOMELESS PROBABLY
Mandela's free
[DMC] and they're rollin with D
[both] In history you cannot see em like they cannot see me
[Run] The Berlin Wall
[DMC] It all had to fall
[Run] They said no but..
[Jay] "Yo!" "Yes y'all!"
[Run] The people that spoke were never provoked
and now it's tumblin down
Freedom of speech for each
[DMC] Now how that sound?
[Run] Try to stop me from sayin what I want to say
My funky rhyme I never quit until the break of day
NOW HERE WE GO as I flow and show and kick
[DMC] Infor-mation, teach and ? reach inside the nation
and be a.. SEER CAUSE I'M REASON WITH RUN
[Run] And now that the point is out
Let the jam slam my man and tell me
what's it all about?

[Jam Master Jay cuts "What's it all about?" samples]
[musical breakdown]

[D.M.C.]
I flex my muscle, what I must do
is bumrush you, FUCK YOU I'll crush you
The Ku Klux Klan is fucked up
And every good man'll understand
Beginnin and winnin, from the first fuckin vocal
I spoke to you, I ain't no joke to you
I do what I want to do
If you don't like what me and my crew is doin then FUCK YOU
What I do and what I done with Jay and Run
None could ever become, to sum it up bum..
get off my DICK and out my KINGDOM
(Yo yo D tell em where you're from)
Straight from Hollis, Queens
I'm still eatin collard greens and I'm doin the same things
I ain't never goin out suckers..
punk motherfuckers!
What's it all about?

[musical breakdown]