What It Is

[Mos Def/Yasiin Bey] The way I feel Sometime it's just hard to sit still Life is too passionate, life is too real Sometime I gotta chill, mellow back, blow a smoke Smile on my face but it's really no joke You feel it in the street the people breathe without hope They going through the motion They dimming down the focus The focus get clear then the light turn sharp And the eyes get teary The mind grow weary I speak it so clearly sometime ya'll don't hear me I'll push it through a bass note maybe ya'll will feel me I feel it in my bones and I'm so wide awake I'm hardly ever sleep, my flow forever deep When there's volumes of scriptures for volumes of beats My presence speaks volumes before I say a word I'm everywhere: penthouse, pavement or curb Cradle to the grave tall cathedral or a shelf Universal ghetto life holler black and know it well Quiet storm, vital form Pen push the right across Line is a vital force High, low or right across Sure as a lion's roar Voice is a siren Then swing 'round, ring out, bring down a tyrant Chop a small axe and knock a giant lopsided The world is so DANGEROUS there's no need for frightin' Niggas try to hide like the struggle won't find them And the sun bust through the cloud to clearly to remind them It's everywhere: penthouse, pavement to curb Cradle to the grave tall cathedral or a shelf Universal ghetto life holler black and know it well What it is? You know, New York What it is? Chi-Town, get down What it is? Dirty south, work it out The west you are now rockin' with the best (What it is?) Mos Def, and Kweli - Black Star (What it is?) Keep shinin', perfect diamond, under pressure (What it is?) True and livin', got to give 'em, rythmn, blackness [Talib Kweli] It's the accurate assassin shit The tool that you get blasted with It's blacker than when the lights go off after disaster hits Drop in with it faster but I've mastered it You crash your whip Pass it in my lane cause my materials are hazardous (Whoa) These ain't just punchlines: I'll slap the shit out you You try to disrespect the style my people blacking out to This the, manual how to allow true Skill to flow out you So you the one that everybody bow to Money get off your knees, that ain't what I mean Cutting clean when I murder emcees the blood run inbetween The gutters so what I utter obscene like Butterbean Mean like Cinda Williams tight like the Flatbush Brothers in another scene I'm mo' betta, the flow wetter than an orgasm The word seize ya 'til ya rollin' on the floor with all sorts of spams I'm off the chain, off the hook, fuck it, off the wagon Get emcees mad like Jewish people when they saw The Passion This that Black Star shit, the Pharaoh with the Cuban cigar My people locked behind them so I spit bars Black music, you could ease back relax to it Pull out gats to it and clap to it Blow out a back to it Roll a bag or two or three to it Blow a tree to it It's that crack but we added a little poetry to it Lean back like a smack user, the rap Zab Judah Get you high without the side effects of your average juicer What it is? Kweli, like ODB I'm for the kids You know Black Star, Black Star (What it is?!) Shining like eight lights we bright This the cut give you a slice of life, think twice What it is? Mos Def, and Kweli The honorable and introduced properly (What it is?!) Black Star never burn out When we crash the party the whole ghetto turn out [DJ Clark Kent] [?]... alright here I go Yeah, Brooklyn's finest the God's favorite DJ BK DJ Clark Kent, ya heard me? And I'm shouting out to my man, my man, my man One of the nicest ever, one of the nicest to do it BK emcee Talib Kweli man With that new shit, man, I'm with you let's ride... You my nig-Yo Talib, for real, man, I really real- Your album dude? (Alright) Whoa And not for nothin' man I could've got on that album With some of that shit I had, man (*laughter*)