Classic

I ain't no joke I use to let the mic smoke

Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke

When i'm gone I wrote this song 'cause I won't let

Nobody press up and mess up to seen I set

I like to stand in a crowd and watch the people wonder damn

Bu think about it then you'll understand

I'm just an addict addicted to music

Maybe it's a habit I gotta use it

Even if it's jazz or the quiet storm

I hook a beat up convert it in a hip-hop form

Write a rhyme in graffitti in every show you see me in

Deep concentration 'cause I'm no comedian

Jokers are wild if you want to be tame

I treat you like a child then you're gonna be named

Another enemy, not even a friend of me

'cause you'll get fried in the end if you pretend to be

?Can be? 'cause I just put your mind on pause

And I can beat you when you compare my rhyme wit yours

I wake you up and as I stare in your face you seem stun

Remember me, the one you got your idea from

But soon you start to suffer but you only get rougher

When you start to stutter that's when you had enuff of

Biting it, I make you choke, you can't provoke

You can't cope, you should of broke 'cause I ain't no joke



I got a question, it's serious as cancer

Who can keep the average dancer

Hyper as a heart attack nobody smiling

'cause you're expressing the rhyme that I'm styling

This is what we all sit down to write

You can't make it so you take it home, break it and bite

Use pieces and bits of all the hip-hop hits

Get the style down pack then it's time to ?swit?

Put my tape on pause and add some more to yours

Then you figure you're ready for the neighborhood chores

The E-M-see-E-E don't even try to be

When you come up to speak, don't even lie to me

You like to exaggerate, dream and imaginate

Then change the rhyme around, that can aggravate me

So when you see me come up, freeze

Or you'll be one of those 7 MC's

They think that I'm a new jack but only if they knew that

They who think wrong are they who can't do that

Style that I'm doing, they might ruin

Patterns of paragraphs based on you and

Your offbeat DJ, if anything he play

Sound familiar, I'll wait til E say

Play 'em, so I'ma have to dis and broke

You could get a smack for this, I ain't no joke



I hold the microphone like a grudge

be 'll hold the record so the needle don't budge

I hold a conversation 'cause when I invent

I nominated my DJ the presdient

When I'm see I'll, people freestyle, going steadily

So pucker up and whistle my melody

But whatever you do, don't miss one

They'll be another rough rhyme after this one

Before you know it, you're following and fiending

Waiting for the punchline to get the meaning

Like before the middle of my story I'm telling

Nobody beats the are so stop yelling

Save it, put it in your pocket for later

'cause I'm moving the crowd and be a record fader

No interruptions and the mic is broke

When I'm gone, then you can joke

'cause everything is real on a serious tip

Keep playing and I varies quick

And take you for a walk through hell

Feed your dome then watch your eyeballs swell

Guide you out of triple stage darkness

When it get dark again then I'ma spark this

Microphone 'cause the heat is on, you see smoke

And I'm finish when the beat is gone, I'm no joke

[Rakim]
Aiyyo.. what's goin on?
The Mic Lebanon Teflon Don..
I'm back baby
The year of the 9's
And I'ma have to make these motherfuckers a offer they can't refuse
y'know?

Ha, what's goin on? Yo c'mon, you know it's on
I wrote a song, test my flow on the Autobahn
Make sure the force is right, I floss all night
Get off the mic it'll smoke like an exhaust pipe
Keep em in the lie-bury, studyin my theory
Ra theory get translated in Swahili
From the lands as far as Zanzibar
They understand the are, the man Allah
It's obvious why the copiers, they copy this
Soon as my data processes Y2K they floppy disk
Now who the hottest is? How can it not be this?
Baby who the cockiest? Papi is? Gracias
Aiyyo, this be so, magnifico
Even my, typical, style difficult
Make a crowd go wild when I rip a show
Better stand back, this'll blow, you didn't know?

[Chorus]
They show me love when I'm come through
Yo any club that I come to
I hit a microphone check one two
And they know what I want to do - flow forever

[Rakim]
You ever witness rapport like this before?
It's cause y'all kiss the floor, say this my Lord
It's the chosen one, with the golden tongue
Flow for the old and young when I'm holdin one
In the front row sitty, we show no pity
Where kids get jiggy and girls are so pretty
The Wanderer, back from Casablanca
To stomp all, what next for Ra the Conqueror
So let's go, the best show will explode
No dress codes, they just pose in they best clothes
Girls get exposed when I show my rap expo
Will there be a next episode? I guess so
Those that halved out, wanted to have clout
What they mad about? Must be a cash route
MC's switch they style from they last bout
And I bet soon as they hear this they spaz out

[Chorus x 2]

[Rakim]
Wherever Rakim go, it's the God temple
It's simple, my M.O., no problemo
Been all over the map, even know where Hell is at
I did the welcome mat, and then welcome back
My flow is raw, they treat me like Mr. Know-it-All
They want me to show em all my brand new protocol
Excuse-a-moi, I make a move for Ra
You ain't soupin Ra, save the hoop-a-la
Let me find out you rhymed out designed out
Pullin dimes out then climb out, for time out
I'm at the free throw, playin ball, or cee-lo, I keep dough
Reloaded like Carlito, incognito
I be so, low key, women get nosy
I do a show they want to go see to get to know me
In the front row seat they cosy
Thinkin I'm givin them the bo-bo-bee until they O.D.

[Chorus x 4]

Planet Earth was my place of birth
Born to be the soul controller of the universe
Besides the part of the map I hit first
Any a rhyme that I can adapt when it gets worst

The rough gets going, the going gets rough
When I start flowing, the mic might bust
The next state, I shake from the power I generate
People in Cali used to think it was earthquakes

'Cause times was hard on the Boulevard
So I vote God and never get scarred and gauled
But it seems like I'm locked in hell
Looking over the edge but the are never fell

A trip to slip 'cause my Nikes got grip
Stand on my own two feet and come equip
Any stage I'm seen on, a mic I fiend on
I stand alone and need nothing to lean on

Going for self wit a long way to go
So much to say but I still flow slow
I come correct and I won't look back
'Cause it ain't where you're from, it's where you're at

Even the (ghetto)

I learn to relax in my room and escape from New York
And return through the womb of the world as a thought
Thinking how hard it was to be born
Me being queen wit no physical form

Millions have settled wit one destination
To reach the best part, it's life creation
9 months later, a job well done
Make way, 'cause here I come

Since I made it this far, I can't stop now
There's a will and a way and I got to know how
To be all I can be and more
And see all there is to see before

Called and go back to the essence
It's a lot to learn so I study my lessons
I thought the ghetto was the worst that could happen to me
I'm glad I listen when my father was rapping to me

'Cause back in the days, they lived in caves
Exile from the original man, a straight way
Now that's what I call hard times
I rather be here to exercise the mind

Then I take a thought around the world twice
From knowledge to born back to knowledge precise
Across the desert, that's how to store a radiant
But they couldn't cave me in 'cause I'm the Asiant

Reaching for the city, a Mecca, visit medina
Visions of Neffertiti then I seen a
Mind keeps traveling, I'll be back after I
Stop and think about the brothers and sisters in Africa

Return the thought through the eye of a needle
For miles I thought and I just fought the people
Under the dark skies on a dark side
Not only there but right here's an apartheid

So now is the time for us to react
Take a trip through the mind and when you get back
Understand you're third eye seen all of that
It ain't where you're from, it's where you're at

Even the (ghetto)
Even the (ghetto)

No more props, I want property
In every borough, nobody's stopping me
Because I'm thorough, rhymes are making real estate for me to own
Wherever I bless a microphone

007 is back and relaxing
On poignant reacting and ready for action
I'm so low key that you might not see me
Incognito and taking it easy

Quiet, it's kept on a hush hush
In front of a crowd, I get loud, there's a bumrush
Be calm, keep a low pro, and play the background
Over the wack rapper, put the mic back down

So rip it, break it in half, go head and slam it
'Cause when it's time to build, I'm a mechanic
I'm bonding and mending, attaching and blending
So many solos, there is no ending

People in my neighborhood, they know I'm good
From London to Hollywood, wherever I stood
Footprints remain on stage ever since
As I walk the street, I leave fossils and dents

When I had sex, I left my name on necks
My trademark was left throughout the projects
I used to get rich when I played celo
When I rolled 4, 5, 6, they go we know

So I collect my cash then slide
I got my back, my gun's on my side
It shouldn't have to be like that
I guess it ain't where you're from, it's where you're at

Even the (ghetto)
I'm from the (ghetto)
Word up, peace

I was a fiend before I became a teen
I melted microphone instead of cones of ice cream
Music orientated so when hip hop was originated
Fitted like pieces of puzzles complicated
'Cause I grabbed the mic and try to say " Yes y'all!"
They tried to take it and say that I'm too small
Cool 'Cause I don't get upset
I kick a hole in the speaker pull the plug then I jet
Back to the lab without a mic to grab
So then I add all the rhymes I had
One after the other one, then I make another one
To dis the opposite then ask if the brother's done
I get a craving like I fiend for nicotine
But I don't need a cigarette, know what I mean?
I'm raging, ripping up the stage and
Don't it sound amazing 'cause every rhyme is made and
Thought of, 'cause it's sort of...an addiction,
Magnatized by the mixing
Vocals, vocabulary, your verses, you're stuck in
The mic is a drano, volcanoes erupting,
Rhymes overflowing, gradually growing
Everything is written in the cold, so it can coincide,
My thoughts to guide,
48 tracks to slide
The invincible, microphone fiend Rakim
Spread the word, 'cause I'm in
E-F-F-E-see-T
A smooth operator operating correctly,
But back to the problem, I gotta habit,
You can't solve it, silly rabbit
The prescription is a hypertone that's thorough when
I fiend for a microphone like herion
Soon as the bass kicks, I need a fix
Gimme a stage and a mic and a mix
And I'll put you in a mood or is it a state of
unawareness? Beware, it's the reanamator!
A menace to a microphone, a lethal weapon
An assasinator, if the people ain't stepping
You see a part of me that you never seen
When I'm fiending for a microphone, I'm the microphone fiend

After 12, I'm worse that a Gremlin
Feed me Hip-hop and I start trembling
The thrill of suspense is intense, your horrified
But this ain't the cinemas of "Tales From the Darkside",
By any means necessary, this is what has to be done
Make way 'cause here I come
My DJ cuts material
Grand imperial.
It's a must that I bust any mic you're hand to me,
It's inherited, it's runs in the family
I wrote the rhyme that broke the bull's back,
If that don't slow 'em up, I carry a full pack.
Now I don't want to have to let off, you should of kept off
You didn't keep the stage warm, step off!
Ladies and Gentleman, you're about to see
A pastime hobby about to be
Take it to the maximum, I can't relax see, I'm
Hype as a hypochondriac 'cause the rap be one
Hell of a antidote, something you can't smoke
More than dope, you're trying to move away but you can't, you're broke
More than cracked up, you should have backed up
For those who act up need to be more than smacked up
Any entertainer, I got a torture chamber
One on one and I'm the remainder!
So close your eyes and hold your breath,
And I'm a hit'cha wit the blow of death
Before you go, you'll remember you seen
The fiend of a microphone, I'm the microphone fiend

The microphone fiend