Step Up

(album: Hybrid Theory - 1999)

[Mike Shinoda:]
Yo

Watch as the room rocks
Mentally moonwalk
Mixed media slang
Banging in your boom box verbal violence
Lyrical stylist
In a time when rock hip-hop rhymes are childish
You can't tempt me with rhymes that are empty
Rapping to a beat doesn't make you an MC
With your lack of skill and facility
You're killing me
And a DJ in the group just for credibility
I heard that some of you are getting help with your rhymes
You're not an MC if someone else writes your lines
And rapping over rock doesn't make you a pioneer
'Cause rock and hip-hop have collaborated for years
But now they're getting randomly mixed and matched up
All after a fast buck and all the tracks suck
So how does it stack up? None of it's real
You want to be an MC you've got to study the skill

[Mike Shinoda:]
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up

[Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington:]
So you pick up a pen and write yourself a new identity
But mentally you don't have the hip-hop energy
With a tendency to make up stories
Sounding like the only hip-hop you've heard is top 40
And your record company is completely missing it
All the kids are dissing it for not being legitimate
So in a battle you can't hack it
React with whack shit
And get smacked with verbal back flips
Get your ass kicked by fabulous battle catalysts
It's taken decades for MCs to establish this
You're new to hip-hop and welcome if you're serious
But not on the mic
Leave that to the experienced

Using the waves of sound the true master paralyzes his opponents, leaving him vulnerable to attack

[Mike Shinoda:]
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up
[2x]

After years of pain-staking research by the world's leading sound scientists, we here at the sound institute have invented a reliable audio weapons system. Actual movement of musical sound in space used to carefully attack and neutralize the cellular structure of the human body, and the question must be asked.

[Mike Shinoda:]
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up! [2x]

Mix media [3x]
Step up the microphone
And you do it like this
And you do it like
Step up the microphone
Mix media
And you do it like this
Mix media
Step up the microphone
And you do it like this
Mix media
Step up the microphone
And you do it like this