Raw Hip Hop

[Intro]

Let's go back (Let's go back, let's go back)

Back into time (Back into time, back into time)

[Verse 1]

Back in seventy-three in the borough of Bronx

Man, you couldn't be weak, man, you had to be smart

See, we talkin' 'bout streets, now we talkin' 'bout art

When we talkin' 'bout beats, man, we talkin' 'bout heart

We was rockin' 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 Sedgwick 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 remindin' through this rhymin' 'cause you might have forgot

[Chorus]

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—

[Verse 2]

See, when we would begin, think where the heroin in

They was really determined that we was never gon' win

But by lookin' within, we began to believe

That we was breakers and writers, DJs and MCs

We was so damn poor, we was eatin' free cheese

But that made us raw, we started eatin' MCs

This before the fees and the MTVs

When you walked in New York and your ears would freeze

Wildin' beats and [?], my necks and Ts

Night-long BVDs, we was fuckin' with these

We was fuckin' with this, we was fuckin' with that

But when the eighties came in, we started fuckin' 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 takin' it back

[Chorus]

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—

[Verse 3]

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