(feat. RZA)



Ayyo, I think it's time we give them a sign

Take it back to seventy-nine when hip-hop would shine

Of a good times and the hood felt fine

I mean, we came from pro kegs, to Bally's to afrocentric dreads

From nappy heads, to now we being prawled by the feds

From low-top fades, to baldheads to braids

To doo rags with tilted hats

And cats carrying razor blades inside their mouth

Before we was gettin crunk and going dirty dirty south

Know what I'm sayin, It was all about what a nigga would spit from his mouth

How much weight to a hole

Back when the Cold Crush Brothers was fresh, fly, wild and bold

Kool Moe Dee versus Busy Bee, Force MC's and the Fantastic Freaks

Mc Spoony G, on the wheels of steel Grandmaster D

Or Flash and DST, sparking their wild style

With that spinback that made the other cats go wild

Let me tell you son, we goin back to porce tapes to four tracks

when we always wanted more tracks

From the SP-1200 with two point five seconds per sampling pack

That was all we had but niggaz was glad

They could loop the beat, so maybe they could scoop the street

This is back when Marley Marl first dropped the "Symphony"

The eighty-six MC era, when Rakim struck all y'all crap MC's with terror

And Kool G Rap and Kane flipped track to argue who was better

And yes, some would stress it was KRS from the Bronx

And he proved that MC Shan from Queens was no conte

Then we flash to the nineties, when shit got all grimey

And everybody was claimin they was thug, gansta or crimey

When WTC just appeared on the scene

This was the first time when everybody start to make some real cream

And New York niggaz walked around with fronts in their teeth

The next thing you know, east coast and west coast caught beef

And noone knew how far it would go

'Till we lost two great soldiers and now we cherish their souls

Two heroes, hip-hop industry now resorted down to numbers of ones and zeroes

From mono to stereo, from analog to digital

Now hip-hop life support's stuck on critical

Let's take it back before MTV and BET

Before the commercials by KFC, ATT and Mickey D's

Before all you gangstas and G's, pimps and hoes

Let's take it back to the original flows

Of an MC, his DJ, the mic and the show

The crowd yelling Hoooo

And off on the way we go

Let's take it out of the matrix

Ayyo Tech, yo Sway, let's get back to the basics



[Heavy breathing]