...what?

 New York life... type trife...
 That's why I'm tryin to shine the light  yo
 Here it come  here it come  here it come  y'all

 Mos Def  blessed with the breath of life so arise and give praises
 Turn my face to where the mighty sun raises
 My book of rhyme pages  filled with phrases that amaze
 I could go on for days
 First name Dante, last name Beze
 Build the house of tomorrow with bricks of today
 My foundation rests on Allah corner stone
 Shine the light throught the mic to radiate your zone
 See, the world that we know is about to get finished
 I'm watching last days wind down to final minutes
 Got dreams of paradise and my whole fam in it
 So I ain't got time to play no crime lieutenant
 Do you got time to play the crime lieutenant?
 See time is the asset, how you gonna spend it
 The way you handle yours will be well documented
 It's the raw authentic, sandalwood scented
 To make you bump the joint and in beyond city limits
 Twenty-first, no time to, approach a thing timid
 My name is Mos Def and this is how I get in it

 Chorus:

 Hey yo, my man (huh?)....
 Somethin tight comin through the pipe (what?)
 You heard the first time, the rhyme is designed
 to incline throughout space and time (yeah)
 You don't believe, lend a ear, yo my man (huh?)
 Somethin tight comin on your right (what?)
 You heard the first time, the rhyme is designed
 To incline, I hold the fold to shine (yeah)
 If you can huh, you can hear it...
 If you can huh, you can hear it, we in your atmos'

 Shine like black gold, burn like black coal
 Make a old timer roll up her sleeves, now that's cold
 Behold, the one and only has blessed my testimony
 Approach the ceremony authentic, never phony
 For delf, but never lonely, keep the kinfolk close
 Watch me rip it on Pacific and Atlantic coasts
 with the antidote, for the poisonous snake lies wit
 Only wimps put the hiss on tape
 You can't get on straight, this is dead on tape
 Accompanied by Shawn J. with the bid on bait
 Put the grid on plate, on the ear or tray
 Hot damn it captain Kirk and the Klingons say
 You can't sit on stage, you got to get on the M-O-
 T-I-V-A-T-E real life, ain't no freebie
 My seed can't be needy, no time for freaky-deaky
 I'm movin on up like George and Wheezy
 Who said that this was easy, they must have been treetop high
 Standin yieldin to our boldfaced lie, we all got to die
 So all got to try, to live life right
 in the sight of most high, to live life right
 in the sight of most high, to live life right
 in the sight of most high, to live life right in the sight

 Chorus:

 Hey yo, my man (huh?)....
 Somethin tight comin through the pipe (what?)
 You heard the first time, the rhyme is designed
 to incline throughout space and time (yeah)
 You don't believe, lend a ear, yo my man (huh?)
 Somethin tight movin on your right (what?)
 You heard the first time, the rhyme is designed
 To incline, I hold the fold to shine (yeah)
 If you can huh, you can hear it yo, my man (huh?)....
 Somethin tight comin through the pipe (what?)
 You heard the first time, the rhyme is designed
 to incline the pure genuine (yeah)
 You don't believe, lend a ear, yo my man (huh?)
 Somethin tight movin on your right (what?)
 You heard the first time, my rhyme is designed
 To incline, I hold the fold to shine (yeah)
 If you can huh, you can hear it...
 If you can huh, you can hear it, we in your atmos