[KatchPhraze]

"It's like nowadays all this hip hop is all about getting paid

and letting everyone else know about it. (It's wack.)

We forgot where it all started, where it's supposed to be going

But I'm here to change all that... because it has to be done.

So without further adieux.."



[Pharoahe Monch] "Lemme introduce myself"



When this mic's in my hand it's like grains for sand

Time is ticking so I'm moving 'to bigger and better plans

With my name up in lights scrolled across billboards

While gun clappin' happy crowds are doing rounds of applause

Emcees flap their jaws and still reep the bennifits

Since 95' and they're the reason that hip hops turned to shit

From the moment that I stepped on the stage I got my wreck on

Expressing what up until now wsa getting slept on

I opened up your eyes to late sessions in the parks

when the only light we had was off the Blunts that we sparked

Moved on to new misions between the fake and the real

Record deal hungry artists 'got the wrong crowd appeal, in they' sights

Ain't it funny dirty money's turnin' Honest Ed

into a thief, sleepin' on my record release

Date, wait till your putting down a sound of your own

Then vacate cause this ain't home no more, so get gone

It's all wrong and Bass Akwards

These wack rappers want a tip?go off roading in a Geo Tracker

It's hip hop

It's mic turntables and beat box

It's the breakers in the circles pumping up they' reebox

In my name in grafitti scrolled across the walls

And it's the love that I'm gettin' from all of ya'll

Keep the thugs in the clubs , we'll keep the image legit

I dedicate this song to everyone who said you ain't shit, word up



[Chorus]

[L da Head Toucha] "Holler For a Dolla"

[Juice] "Shut the Hell Up"

[Planet Asia] "Half these rappers started rappin' a couple a' gold chains ago"

[Akbar] "It's Hip Hop"

[Mad Skillz] "So who the fuck are you?"

[J-Live] "exploited by many, understood by few"



This is my life

This is what I strive for

The only thing I'd die for

The reason that I opened up my eye for'

I live it, breath it, feel it, need it, fall asleep to it

Wake up in the morning with my clock bumpin' music

Frequent my job's bathroom, HandyCap Stalls

Writin' songs down on toilet paper pressed against the wall

Or recitin' rhymes at three in the morn' on school nights

with the system thumpin on my way to meet you in the park fights

Hit up shows left and right to get my name known

Rhyming in the basement on a 20 dollar microphone

I drove my parents nuts with my walk man, head nodding

Trailing off during the lectures while they're still talking

At times in life I wrote songs of broken hearts

And battles won by reputation 'fore the verse even starts

And I...put my heart into it when I press it to wax

Forever, I keeps it baggy with my hat to the back

Finally the long awaited let tha whole world peep it

And Lemmie let you in on a secret yo



[Chorus]



[L da Head Toucha] "Holler For a Dolla"

[Juice] "Shut the Hell Up"

[Planet Asia] "Half these rappers started rappin' a couple a' gold chains ago"

[Akbar] "It's Hip Hop"

[Mad Skillz] "So who the fuck are you?"

[J-Live] "exploited by many, understood by few"



I remember back in the days when I was first starting out

Writing songs not even I knew what the fuck they' about

Oh how I've come along since over other's instrumentals

Paying for open mics so I could boost my credentials

Like a basement chemist, making moves independent

It's slow as hell, especially when your face is blemished

And with candy coated bullshit flooding our magazines

That's the furthest thing from hip hop I've ever seen

I hate to crush dreams like castles of plastacine

But trends go up and down like kids on trampolines

Stand on the finest green and watch my neighbours starrin' jealous

While fellow emcees fall behind because they acted over zealous

I grew up on the right side of town left handed

Stuck here to fend for my own, left stranded

Spending overtime with this shit just like you

Hate on me, I dedicate this right back to spite you

A brand new jack rappin for the does? I'm not

I'm gettin' slept on for lack of dreadlocks when I rock

Who woulda' thought all this talk would play out to real life?

Maybe the time in that basement wasn't wasted with a mic

In my hand it's precise where it happens son

Come one day, gone the next like fashion

Whatcha gonna' do when your computer starts crashin'?

Or someone sees through your weak threats with lack of action

Shit that don't matter, your topics are too soft?

I release my bloated bladder the moment I'm pissed off

I'm sick of hearing circa early 80's ripped off

By these corny mutherfuckers too scared to lip off

My soul is not for sale, I don't need to hear the cost

Katch me rhyming over beats that's produced by ambiance...there you go