Whatever happened to the time when it was all about the rhyme, and the beats on the streets get your rep'
Because nowadays people only rap for the money or the fame,
Tell me, whatever happened to respect'

I'm feeling frustrated frequently, by flows being fed to me on FM frequencies,
Formats of raps that lack energy, destiny, originality, and it be stressing me to the point where my feelings are violent,
But I chose to operate in compliance to your actions that took place somewhere in between reality and your perception of what you feel is real,
Since you're too young to really remember where it began, you can never truly understand where I am, or where I'm coming from, or where I'm going,
How does it feel not knowing what it's like to hike up a mountain of emcees'
Ripped; can't you see that it's me the SUP'
Always on a tip with a tight grip,
The congenital of hip-hop is inside of me, so it's a must, I flee from a dead poet society.

Whatever happened to the time when it was all about the rhyme, and the beats on the streets get your rep'
Cause nowadays people only rap for the money or the fame,
Tell me, whatever happened to respect'
Whatever happened to the time when it was all about the rhyme, and the beats on the streets get your rep'
Cause nowadays people only rap for the money or the fame,
Tell me, whatever happened to respect'

My waterfalls words spill, and yet mind remains filled with pages of clever phrases,
Colorful for all description, leaving nasty inscription of diction,
Purified seven times, my rhymes can only be described as logical insanity,
I never hit a noble person because I spend my time rehearsing,
The everyday schedule of a rebel, and because I'm not a clone, and I'm known for thinking on my own,
I's inevitable for my to attract an uprising of put downs, but still yet I am able, with ease, to puncture then rupture the interior of inferior emcees,
In a world where clarity cannot be seen through the eyes of youth,
I's the truth that we got more pull than a loose tooth, for the simple fact that we attract,
All others ring now cause all they wanna do - this sound,
So we made a pact, in the black,
And when we look back, all of as had failed,
We don't focus on the hocus-pocus in fact,
Instead we chose to collect the sustaining and maintaining power of respect,
No matter the form we take on, we still remain of the same kind,
Tattooing our name on your brain, so that we'll always be on your mind,
We could say we'll stay real to the end, and just don't stop,
Still we rising up for when our record drops.

Whatever happened to the time when it was all about the rhyme, and the beats on the streets get your rep'
Cause nowadays people only rap for the money or the fame,
Tell me, whatever happened to respect'

I come of the head like black,
This picks on black panther cliques,
Being snatched by white police with nightsticks, in 1966,
I'm talking about stalking, about the mental plane searching for the tangible,
To drive pencil or paper where blue lines divide the lanes,
My train of thought is caught on rail, and links me to the metro where vocabulary is petrol,
This is how it began,
We ran rap jargon when chumps tried to talk the walk,
We see these living outlines of chalk,
Through eyes of Andre Dawson, playing basketball in Atlanta,
Since the first foot prints in the sands of time, I've been finger-painting with the hands of rhyme,
Sounds pound the mind down; words as stakes,
But when they pitch their tents, journey, big rains, lakes,
Drowning you in watercolors, and you wonder why your career is washed up,
Yup, drugs be evil like lip backwards, but my words backbite when I babble,
So whether they be squabble or scrabble, winning is my nature.

Whatever happened to the time when it was all about the rhyme, and the beats on the streets get your rep'
Cause nowadays people only rap for the money or the fame,
Tell me, whatever happened to respect'
Whatever happened to the time when it was all about the rhyme, and the beats on the streets get your rep'
Cause nowadays people only rap for the money or the fame,
Tell me, whatever happened to respect'