Definition

English translation

Hello everybody, they're calling live from somewhere

Lawd, lawd have mercy

All nice and peace and true, follow me now, we say

Say hi-tek yes you're ruling hip-hop

Say J. Rawls yes you're ruling hip-hop

Redefinition say you're ruling hip-hop

Say Black Star come to rock it non...

Yo, from the first to the last of it, delivery is passionate

The whole and not the half of it, vocab and not the math of it

Projectile that them blasted with, accurate assassin shit

Me and Kweli close like, Bethlehem and Nazareth

After this you be pressing rewind on top your master disk

Shining like an asterisk for all those that be gatherin'

Connected like a roundhouse from the townhouse to the tenaments

'Cause all my Brooklyn residents? Heavy regiments

Don't believe, here the evidence, where Brooklyn?

See that? Bound to take it all kid, believe that

From where they sellin' tree at, to where the police be at

Talib Kweli e-kweli-ty, yo tell them where we be at

Brooklyn, New York City where they paint murals of Biggie

In cash we trust cause it's ghetto fabulous, life look pretty

What a pity, blunts is still fifty cents, it's intense

Tree scents is dominant can't be covered with incense

My presence felt my name is Kweli from the eternal reflection

People thinkin' mc is short hand for misconception

Let me meditate, set it straight, came to the conclusion

That most of these cats is featherweight, let me demonstrate

Walkin' the streets is like battlin', be careful with your body

You must know karate or think your soul is bulletproof like sade

Stop actin' like a bitch already, be a visionary

And maybe you can see your name in the column of obituaries

Third rate teacher readin' and talkin about, "I knew he'd amount to nothin"

Neighbors like, "He was the quiet type, who'd have thought they was frontin? "

Talkin' loud like you in RCA, get carted away

With body parts and treys, what a way to start your day

Yo it's like

One two three

Mos Def and Talib Kweli

We came to rock it on to the tip-top

Best alliance in hip-hop

I said one two three

It's kind of dangerous to be a emcee

They shot Tupac and Biggie

Too much violence in hip-hop

I said Manhattan keep on makin' it, Brooklyn keep on takin' it

So relax we're takin' it back, Red Hook where we're livin' at

Plenty cats be strugglin', not hustlin' and bubblin'

It ain't about production and- what else we discussin'?

So when the cock crows, my crop grows, enable me to rock flows

Strivin' for perfection ever since I was a snot-nosed

Colossal, true original b-boy apostle

Standin' on the rooftop with the Zulu Gestapo

You think you the shit

Somebody in the wings'll force you to quit

It could be your crew or click

Or some random kid you smoked buddha with

Consider me the entity within the industry without a history

Of spittin' the epitome, of stupidity, livin' my life

Expressin' my liberty, it gotta be done properly

My name is in the middle of e-kweli-ty

People follow me and other cats they hear him flow

And assume I'm the real one with the lyrics like I'm Cyrano

Still sippin' wishin' well water, imported, from Pluto

Three hundred and sixty milliliters for all our believers

In miles or kilometers, most cats, cannot proceed us

In the jungle with the leaders we the lions you the cheaters

A cypher, will complete us if we come through your receivers

You can play us and repeat us and then take us home and read us

(Line for line) Good Jesus, Mos Def and Kweli just

Make a pussy freeze up, thinkin' we will ease up

One two three

Mos Def and Talib Kweli

We came to rock it on to the tip-top

Best alliance in hip-hop

I said one two three

It's kind of dangerous to be a emcee

They shot Tupac and Biggie

Hold your head when the beat drop