[Intro: Lauryn Hill]



Yo, this is the Fugees

Refugees

About to take you on a journey

Into the dimensions of the Booka basement

The basement, word

Uhh



Hey yo, one two three!  The crew is called Re-Fu-Ge-ee-es

An if yu come fa tes the rap stylee

Stop the violence and just bring it on, willld



[Verse One: Lauryn Hill]



Hey yo I, feel kind of melancholy people think they really know me

I keep a wrap about me while I'm driving daddy's Audi

I pay the toll fighting for my own soul

Cause the bourgeoise type of mental sucks like a flat comb

But I be baitin the rebel base to bass distort the EQ

The devil's wishin they could send me back to Mogadishu

Cause I've been wild since I was a juvenile

Afro-centric profile, back when righteous rap was your style

Now kids are whylin so I ask the bad black

Boogie bandit, what's the damage, gimme the estimate then

pray tell me when's the revolution will begin?

I turn on my TV I check out Farrakhan on CNN see

I'm like the phantom that's flying like the bird do

And things you never heard plus I come from the suburbs

Word to God, I heard you're acting kind of hard

And you got your skin scarred when they was shootin on the boulevard



[Lauryn Hill]



(You got the vocab) I got the vocab

(On the real got the vocab)     You know we got the vocab

(All my peeps got the vocab)    Yeah, we got the vocab

[Lauryn] Aiyyo Praz, grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab



[Verse Two: Prazwell]



Then cast off from here to Mexico

You see my four-five-six a-be my Celo

And when I rest my head is on a pillow

Be-ba-dee-be, be-dee-be, be-dee-be-bo

You see the skills I manifest is very tho-rough

And if you don't believe me ask Freres Ja-cques

Mmmm, Freres Jacques, Freres Jacques

A dorme vous?  A dorme vous?

WATCH OUT NOW!  When I choose to speak

I'm forming the cipher fly East to the Five Percenter

Knowledge is born, to all beginners

Cast the first stone, if you feel you ain't a sinner, ahh

Say o-ur father, who art in heaven

Forgive the foolish rapper for he not know how Fugee be steppin

Correct and, stopped and kept in, nuff respect to the

DJ, that be selectin, the type of record ahhh



[Prazwell]



(You got the vocab) I got the vocab

(The click's got the vocab) You know they got vocab

(Brooklyn got the vocab) We got the vocab

[Lauryn] Aiyyo Clef grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab



[Verse Three: Wyclef]



Check it out, here we go

Back in Eighty-TREE, no one wanted to be NAPPY

I turn on my TV, it's a dreadlock for FREE

Kill the gimmick

It's nonsense, it's no sense or value

a rapper, disaster, nobody ever told me that

"Roxanne, you don't got to work for money no more!!"... and...

Back in the days I used to listen to Kool G Rap

Way back when before guns became gats and

Run-D.M.C. used to ask Mary was she buggin?

I loved P.E., they kept me concious of what I was saying

Afrika Bambaata, Poor Righteous Teacher

Got within myself so it made me a Five Percenter

Say La-Di-Da-Di, UHH! we like to party but

my jam was BDP, with My Philosophy

Say Grandmaster Flash, MC Melle Mel

Then LL Cool J came with Rock the Bells!

See I'm the one for the crew, like a Jew is a Jew

Like Apollo got the moon, like the men who got the blue

Like the Fu got the Manchu, Chaka got the Zulu

Hawaii got the Honolulu

I got the rap lieu, so skippedy-de-bop-bop you don't stop

You do the rock-rock from hip-hop through be-bop

from be-bop to bee-bee



[Lauryn Hill]



(You got the vocab) I got the vocab

(Boogie Down got the vocab) You know they got the vocab

(Black people got the vocab) Word, we got the vocab

[Lauryn] Aiyyo peeps, grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab



(You got the vocab) Yeahh, we got the vocab

(Queens got the vocab) You know y'all got the vocab

(Uptown got the vocab) Yeahh, they got the vocab

[Lauryn] Aiyyo, bros grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab



(DC got the vocab) Word, y'all got the vocab

(Virginia got the vocab) Aiyy, I know y'all got the vocab

(Oakland got the vocab) Word, they got the vocab

[Lauryn] Aiyyo, sisters grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab