"RE:Definition" by Talib Kweli and Mos Def

RE:DEFINITION

[Chorus]
One two three, Mos Def and Talib Kweli
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Best alliance in hip-hop, wayohh
I said, one, two, three, Black Star shine eternally
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
And Hi-Tek make the beat drop, wayohh

[Talib Kweli]
RE:DEFinition, turning your play into a tragedy
Exhibit level degree on the mic, passionately
Niggas is sweet, so I bet if I bit I'd get a cavity
Livin to get high, you ain't flyer than gravity
We Die Hard like the battery done in the back of me by the mad MC
Who think imitation is the highest form of flattery, actually
Don't be mad at me, I had to be the one to break it to you
You get kicked into obscurity like judo--no, Menudo
'Cause you pseudo, tryin to compete with reality like Xerox
Towards destruction you spiraling like hairlocks, wipe them teardrops
Chasing stars in your eyes, playing games with your lives
Now the wives is widows soakin up pillows, weepin like willows
Still mo' blacks is dyin, kids ain't livin, they tryin
"How to Make a Slave" by Willie Lynch is still applyin
Regardless, the Mos is one of my closest partners
Rockin ever since before Prince was called The Artist
Rockin before Funkmaster Flex was rockin Starter
When 'Pac and Biggie was still cool, before they was martyrs
Life or death, if I'm choosin, with every breath I'm enhancin
Stop, there comes a time when you can't run

[Mos Def]
What, lyrically handsome, call collect a king's ransom
Jams I write soon become the ghetto anthem
Way out like Bruce Wayne's mansion, move like a phantom
You'll talk about me to your grandsons
Cats who claimin they hard be mad fag
So I run through 'em like flood water through sandbags
Competition is mad, what I got, they can't have
Sinkin they ship like Moby Dick did Ahab
Son, I'm way past the minimum, enter a millennium
Where rap stars hold a gat to your back like Palestinians
Ancient Abyssinia, shorn a horn of Gideon
Official b-boy gentlemen won't turn off at the interim
Born inside the winter wind, day after December 10
These simpletons, they mentionin the synonym for feminine
Sweeter than some cinnamon in Danish rings by Entenmann's
Rush up on adrenaline, they get they asses sent to them
(Gentlemen) you got a tenement, well then assemble it
Leave your unit tremblin like herds of movin elephant
Intelligent embellishment, follow for your element
From Flatbush settlement, skin posseses melanin
Hotter than tales of crack peddlin, makin 'em WOOP
Like blue gelatin, swing like Duke Ellington
Broader than Barrington Levy, believe me
The hot Apache red who burnt down your chief teepee
You see me?

One two three, Mos Def and Talib Kweli
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Best alliance in hip-hop, wayohh
I said, one, two, three, Black Star shine eternally
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Because we rulin hip-hop, yes we is rulin hip-hop
Talib Kweli is rulin hip-hop
Say we Black Star we rule hip-hop-ah-ahh-ah-ahh-ahh
Whoahhhh!


Source of the text - The Anthology of Rap, edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 661-663.

Bourguignomicon: Juicy assonance. A few unspeakably great lines [flood water through sandbags! intelligent embellishment!] lay on a bed of self-introduction.