More songs by Madlib
More songs by Wiz Khalifa
More songs by J A Y E L E C T R O N I C A
Description
Here, every line sounds like a note in the margins of a diary, hastily written between the road, the stage and the silence after the concert. Military metaphors, comparisons with superheroes, everyday details about taxes and the gym - all in one rhythm, like a stream of thoughts that doesn't stop even to the beat. It's not about pathos, but about honest work: keeping the pressure on, staying in shape and continuing to speak, even when the night is longer than the day.
There is a slight fatigue and irony - as if to say, ‘it's not hustle,’ but behind the words, you can feel how much discipline and weight there is in this craft. In the end, there is a feeling of an invigorating strong dose - as if instead of sleep, they gave you black coffee and sent you back to the city, where there is always something to say and someone to measure your rhymes against.
Lyrics and translation
Original
Here he comes again. Bright up folks, this is the one and only medicine show.
That's fine for you.
I said I'd take care of it.
Is that a hustle?
I'm still young, but I'm getting old fast.
First time I ever saw you, I said, "There's my man. "
Is -that a hustle? -We in like we began at the start lonely.
Viewing a cold body can make the heart stony.
It's a slow process, and I ain't got nothing but time. I gave everything to
Allah, I ain't got nothing but rhymes.
It's sure as the days get shorter and nights get colder, Allah will try you another burden to shoulder. Like Pastor
Dunn used to sing, I done got over.
Another war story from the universal soldier who stayed low and kept firing like B. I. G. told you. It's El Terremoto,
El Negro Loco. Spot me in El Centro, you might can get you a photo.
The haters always to my back, never to my eyeballs 'cause niggas is sheep dip like Lee Harvey
Oswald.
I never press scarecrows with threats of fireballs and never throw lit matches from houses of drywall.
If Drew laid a scaffold, then to uphold the structure, only thing electricity need is the conductor.
I'm cooling, but I'm on the war footing like Sergei Lavrov in Russia.
Six sextillion tons of unadulterated -pressure straight to your jugular.
-I'm still young, but
I'm getting old fast.
First time I ever saw you, I said, "There's my man. " Is that a hustle?
Check it out, yeah, uh-huh. Read the headline, my inventory got a deadline.
Gotta rap for a minute forty, then the bread mine.
Just yesterday you was a shorty with a bedtime. Next thing you know, you be forty drinking red wine.
Up in the casino letting dice fly. All for a slice of the pie, we get sheist, why?
I spy, that's why the price high. And why you talking spicy? You really a nice guy.
Rappers change in the booth like Superman. Catch me sweating on stage like Luther
Vandross. They shit ran its course. I'm esteemed and regarded and was supreme when
I started like Diana Ross. If rap was a broad, I got that hoe number.
My catalog stupid and I'm about to go dumber. About to have shit on smash the whole summer.
You disagree, then we can clash like Joe Strummer.
Sounding like flows when I was younger. One of them Kingsborough verses that I wrote under the rotunda.
The bags couldn't get more rotund-a. I rock a show, sixty minutes straight bars, no blunders.
Know what I'm saying?
And woke 'em up out of they slumber.
They said it was like drinking forty black coffees to the face.
Ba-dow.
I'm still young, but I'm getting old fast.
First time I ever saw you, I said, "There's my man. "
Is that -a hustle? -Ain't no falling for the trap.
That's a minor setback for a major comeback.
They say all my shit slap and it's all real rap. I already ran laps 'round you so you can't catch me.
It ain't properly, don't address me. Focused on property, more investing. House so big, looking for me,
I'm probably in the west wing.
Working out, I think it might be chest day.
Whether they say it or not, they fuck with me heavily. Khalifa breaking a sweat, something they'll never see.
No one on the guest list, just me. It's lonely at the top and I'm one deep.
Got a zip in my front seat.
The owner said don't smoke, but know a place if you wanna chief.
I'm high as fuck, who am I to preach?
Rolling up several times a week, but always there when it's time to speak.
These fools like they long-term goals out of reach.
Make sure these codes don't get breached, and bring some clothes for the beach.
English translation
Here he comes again. Bright up folks, this is the one and only medicine show.
That's fine for you.
I said I'd take care of it.
Is that a hustle?
I'm still young, but I'm getting old fast.
First time I ever saw you, I said, "There's my man. "
Is -that a hustle? -We in like we began at the start lonely.
Viewing a cold body can make the heart stony.
It's a slow process, and I ain't got nothing but time. I gave everything to
Allah, I ain't got nothing but rhymes.
It's sure as the days get shorter and nights get colder, Allah will try you another burden to shoulder. Like Pastor
Dunn used to sing, I done got over.
Another war story from the universal soldier who stayed low and kept firing like B. I. G. told you. It's El Terremoto,
El Negro Loco. Spot me in El Centro, you might can get you a photo.
The haters always to my back, never to my eyeballs 'cause niggas is sheep dip like Lee Harvey
Oswald.
I never press scarecrows with threats of fireballs and never throw lit matches from houses of drywall.
If Drew laid a scaffold, then to uphold the structure, only thing electricity need is the conductor.
I'm cooling, but I'm on the war footing like Sergei Lavrov in Russia.
Six sextillion tons of unadulterated -pressure straight to your jugular.
-I'm still young, but
I'm getting old fast.
First time I ever saw you, I said, "There's my man. " Is that a hustle?
Check it out, yeah, uh-huh. Read the headline, my inventory got a deadline.
Gotta rap for a minute forty, then the bread mine.
Just yesterday you was a shorty with a bedtime. Next thing you know, you be forty drinking red wine.
Up in the casino letting dice fly. All for a slice of the pie, we get sheist, why?
I spy, that's why the price high. And why you talking spicy? You really a nice guy.
Rappers change in the booth like Superman. Catch me sweating on stage like Luther
Vandross. They shit ran its course. I'm esteemed and regarded and was supreme when
I started like Diana Ross. If rap was a broad, I got that hoe number.
My catalog stupid and I'm about to go dumber. About to have shit on smash the whole summer.
You disagree, then we can clash like Joe Strummer.
Sounding like flows when I was younger. One of them Kingsborough verses that I wrote under the rotunda.
The bags couldn't get more rotund-a. I rock a show, sixty minutes straight bars, no blunders.
Know what I'm saying?
And woke 'em up out of they slumber.
They said it was like drinking forty black coffees to the face.
Ba-dow.
I'm still young, but I'm getting old fast.
First time I ever saw you, I said, "There's my man. "
Is that -a hustle? -Ain't no falling for the trap.
That's a minor setback for a major comeback.
They say all my shit slap and it's all real rap. I already ran laps 'round you so you can't catch me.
It ain't properly, don't address me. Focused on property, more investing. House so big, looking for me,
I'm probably in the west wing.
Working out, I think it might be chest day.
Whether they say it or not, they fuck with me heavily. Khalifa breaking a sweat, something they'll never see.
No one on the guest list, just me. It's lonely at the top and I'm one deep.
Got a zip in my front seat.
The owner said don't smoke, but know a place if you wanna chief.
I'm high as fuck, who am I to preach?
Rolling up several times a week, but always there when it's time to speak.
These fools like they long-term goals out of reach.
Make sure these codes don't get breached, and bring some clothes for the beach.