Raw Hip Hop

(albüm: I M A M C R U 1 2 - 2022)

Let's go back (Let's go back, let's go back)
Back into time (Back into time, back into time)

Back in seventy-three in the borough of Bronx
Man, you couldn't be weak, man, you had to be smart
See, we talking 'bout streets, now we talking 'bout art
When we talking 'bout beats, man, we talking 'bout heart
We was rocking a hard beat live in the park
Guns spark in the dark, it was all just a part
Of the eighties Bronx scene that created all
"How you know, KRS?" 'Cause I was there from the start
Sixteen-hundred Centric Avenue, that was the spot
Fifteen-twenty, hip-hop started right on my block
This original hip-hop whether you like it or not
I'm reminding through this rhyming 'cause you might have forgot

Drop on the spot, b-boys start pop
Live on the block, this is raw hip-hop
Drop on the spot, graf writers don't stop
Bottom to the top, this is raw hip-hop
Drop on the spot, MCs make it hot
Microphone pop, this is raw hip-hop
Drop on the spot, DJs on the chop
Cut, mix, scratch, this is raw—

See, when we would begin, think where the heroin in
They was really determined that we was never gon' win
But by looking within, we began to believe
That we was breakers and writers, DJs and MCs
We was so damn poor, we was eating free cheese
But that made us raw, we started eating MCs
This before the fees and the MTVs
When you walked in New York and your ears would freeze
Wilding beats and [?], my necks and Ts
Night-long BVDs, we was fucking with these
We was fucking with this, we was fucking with that
But when the eighties came in, we started fucking with crack
And along with the crack came a big ol' gat
And along with the gat came a big ol' stack
'Cause if you ain't had that, you was the next to get jacked
This the way that it was, I'm just taking it back

Drop on the spot, b-boys start pop
Live on the block, this is raw hip-hop
Drop on the spot, graf writers don't stop
Bottom to the top, this is raw hip-hop
Drop on the spot, MCs make it hot
Microphone pop, this is raw hip-hop
Drop on the spot, DJs on the chop
Cut, mix, scratch, this is raw—

This the way that it was, this the way that it went
Man, you had to survive, caught up with the rent
When the nineties arrived, eighties' money was spent
All them dudes that was live? To the prison they went
And the dudes that survived? They began to repent
Then they realized in rap, there was money to get
So gangstas became rappers, rappers became gangstas
Fake became the real for the payment