I ain't no joke, I used to let the mic smoke
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Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke
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When i'm gone no one gets on cuz I won't let
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Nobody press up and mess up to scene I set
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I like to stand in a crowd and watch the people wonder damn
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But think about it then you'll understand
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I'm just an addict addicted to music
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Maybe it's a habit, I gotta use it
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Even if it's jazz on the quiet storm
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I hook a beat up convert it in a hip-hop form
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Write a rhyme in graffitti in every show you see me in
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Deep concentration cuz I'm no comedian
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Jokers are wild if you wanna be tame
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I treat you like a child then you're gonna be named
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Another enemy, not even a friend of me
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Cuz you'll get fried in the end if you pretend to be
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Competing cuz I just put your mind on pause
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And I can beat you when you compare my rhyme wit yours
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I wake you up and as I stare in your face you seem stun
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Remember me, the one you got your idea from
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But soon you start to suffer but you only get rougher
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When you start to stutter that's when you had enuff of
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Biting it, I make you choke, you can't provoke
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You can't cope, you should of broke cuz I ain't no joke
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I got a question, it's serious as cancer
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Who can keep the average dancer
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Hyper as a heart attack nobody smiling
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Cuz you're expressing the rhyme that I'm styling
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This is what we all sit down to write
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You can't make it so you take it home, break it and bite
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Use pieces and bits of all the hip-hop hits
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Get the style down pack then it's time to switch
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Put my tape on pause and add some more to yours
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Then you figure you're ready for the neighborhood chores
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The E-M-C-E-E don't even try to be
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When you come up to speak, don't even lie to me
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You like to exaggerate, dream and imaginate
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Then change the rhyme around, that can aggravate me
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So when you see me come up, freeze
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Or you'll be one of those 7 MC's
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They think that I'm a new jack but only if they knew that
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They who think wrong are they who can't do that
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Style that I'm doing, they might ruin
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Patterns of paragraphs based on you and
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Your offbeat DJ, if anything he play
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Sound familiar, I'll wait til E say
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Play 'em, so I'ma have to dis and broke
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You could get a smack for this, I ain't no joke
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I hold the microphone like a grudge
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B'll hold the record so the needle don't budge
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I hold a conversation cuz when I invent
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I nominated my DJ the presdient
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When I'm senile, people freestyle, going steadily
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So pucker up and whistle my melody
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But whatever you do, don't miss one
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They'll be another rough rhyme after this one
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Before you know it, you're following and fiending
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Waiting for the punchline to get the meaning
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Like before the middle of my story I'm telling
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Nobody beats the R so stop yelling
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Save it, put it in your pocket for later
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Cuz I'm moving the crowd and be a record fader
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No interruptions and the mic is broke
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When I'm gone, then you can joke
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Cuz everything is real on a serious tip
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Keep playing and I varies quick
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And take you for a walk through hell
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Feed your dome then watch your eyeballs swell
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Guide you out of triple stage darkness
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When it get dark again then I'ma spark this
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Microphone cuz the heat is on, you see smoke
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And I'm finish when the beat is gone, I'm no joke
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-----------------
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I Ain't No Joke
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| Rakim |
