About This Track
"Concerto Of The Desperado (Live at Blue Note NYC)" is a track by The Roots, from the album The Roots Come Alive Too: DYWM30 Live at Blue Note NYC, released 28th November 2025. Full lyrics are available below.
Lyrics
[Intro: Black Thought] Oh, this a good one 'Member this? Huh [Chorus: Black Thought] Concerto of The Desperado R-double-O-T-S, rock the flow If you know like I know, then you know the motto That the fake shit gots to go [Verse 1: Black Thought] Yo, in the glow of the moon, over the melancholy metro My poetry ascend like a UFO The maestro, the lyricist concerto The physical play the role of a vessel The level of my lyrics law manifesto Thoughts wrestle and attack with the killer instincts Of a gorilla stronger than Samson without Delilah My soliloquy profess my ability to just Stimulate you like the best sensimilla The Halflife of Illadel' LP, no filler, proceed Hither my death, I will blow your tower to smithereens The fiends catch another rhyme river Deep as the meditations of a Hindu worshiper Unorthodox hip-hop minister Than a Serengeti cheetah, my thought's swifter You lose your balance when my sound hits ya Yo, fuck with the fifth militia Poet's under pressure, stressin' that you get the picture Even if it mean you gotta hang over the banister I pull a microphone on any pistol brandisher And take advantage of your crew if you amateur Styles that gun down your sound man and manager What? How we did it in the year of '96 Deliberate attack on all that fake rap shit Breakin' MCs down to fraction, tell your squadron Time to go to war, respond, react [Chorus: Black Thought] Concerto of The Desperado R-double-O-T-S, check the flow If you know like I know, then you know the motto That's the fake shit gots to go (The fake shit's got to go) It's called The Concerto of The Desperado R-double-O-T-S, check the flow If you know like I know, then you know the motto (Check it out) That's the fake shit's got to go [Verse 2: Black Thought] Yo, well, it's the emperor, the universe explorer Treat MCs like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah Leavin' 'em wide open like the box of Pandora My sound newer than the World Order Approximately three quarters of y'all are water, so I deport ya And orchestrate your torture with roots and culture And pilgrimage to the line of scrimmage against your image Where life is a heist and the strong get a percentage It's ill as a war, and within it, I'm the lieutenant Surrounds you like a peninsula, snatch the pennant You fold like Japan's futons and fans While I design a plan to make a rapper step like a pedestrian I crush a mountain into grains of sand Your pain stain the hand that held the mic I put into the stand The Desperado that refuse to follow The fifth aficionado break you up into parts like vibrato I'm deep like the dark of the night Y'all sweet and sound silly when you talk on the mic You use the simple back-and-forth The same old rhythm is plain I'd rather ultra-magnetize your brain Hip-hop purist Leave you lost like a tourist inside the chorus Y'all ain't bringin' nothin' for us We breakin' 'em down to fraction, tell your squadron Time to go to war, respond, react [Chorus: Black Thought] Concerto of The Desperado R-double-O-T-S, check the flow If you know like I know, then you know the motto And that's the fake shit gots to go (Check it out) It's called The Concerto of The Desperado R-double-O-T-S, check the flow (Yo) If you know like I know, then you know the motto And that's the fake shit gots to go (The fake shit's got to go)
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