Hip-Hop past all your tall social hurdles
It's ten p.m., where your seeds at? What's the deal?
"Check it out!"
Numbers is hardly real and they never have feelings
Three for the fourth comin' live, future shock
Booka-booka-booka-booka-booka-booka
Like I got, sixteen to thirty-two bars to rock it
That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack
"Check it out!"
"What are we talking about here?"
Full of hard niggaz, large niggaz, dice tumblers
And end up in the global jail economy
Streets too loud to ever hear freedom ring
Songwriters: Dante Beze, David Gates, Christopher E Martin
Say evacuate your sleep, it's dangerous to dream
Eight year olds gettin' found with nine mill's
When the average minimum wage is five fifteen
Some numbers game, but shit don't add up somehow
But you push too hard, even numbers got limits
Sixty-nine billion in the last twenty years
Join the other five million under state supervision
Four M.C's murdered in the last four years
It's five dimensions, six senses
"I revolve around science"
Ha hah, you know the deal, it's just me Dog
It's mathematics
Killin' fields need blood to graze the cash cow
So they can hear everything that you say when you ain't home
Working class poor, better keep your alarm set
He on the hill puffin' krill to keep their bellies filled
The system break man, child and women into figures
Publishers: EMI APRIL MUSIC INC., EMI BLACKWOOD MUSIC INC., EMPIRE INTERNATIONAL MUSIC, INC, GIFTED PEARL MUSIC INC, MEDINA SOUND MUSIC, SONY/ATV TUNES LLC
But only fifteen percent of profits, ever see my pockets like
Light in the ass with heavy steel, sights on the pretty shit in life
"The mighty Mos Def"
"It's simple mathematics"
The body of my text possess extra strength
"What are we talking about here?"
With the probable tenth, the universe expands length
Seven firmaments of heaven to hell, eight million stories to tell
"What are we talking about here?"
Beats by su-primo for all of my people
Bubblin' crack, jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty
Negroes and Latinos and even the Gringos
"Do your math"
My ink so hot, it burn through the journal
You best believe you gotta find a new grind to get cream
"I revolve around science"
Budget cutbacks but increased police presence
"One, t-t-two, three, four"
"Check it out!"
Nine planets faithfully keep in orbit
"It's simple mathematics"
Yo, it's one universal law but two sides to every story
Like the nationwide projects, prison-industry complex
The're million other straws underneath it, it's all mathematics
Two columns for who is and who ain't niggaz
Yo, check it, one for Charlie Hustle, two for Steady Rock
Power-liftin' powerless up, out of this towerin' inferno
"I revolve around science"
Young bloods can't spell but they could rock you in playstation
Spent on national defense but folks still live in fear like
And even if you get out of prison still livin'
Forty percent of Americans own a cell phone
"The mighty Mos Def"
Nearly half of America's largest cities is one-quarter black
Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence
Yo it's six million ways to die, from the seven deadly thrills
This new math is whippin' motherfuckers ass
I guess, Michael Jackson was right, 'You are not alone'
"It's simple mathematics"
"The mighty Mos Def"
A five minute sentence hearing and you're no longer free
Young soldiers tryin' to earn they next stripe
"I revolve around science"
So frontliners got their gun in your back
"The mighty Mos Def"
"What are we talking about here?"
Rock your hardhat black 'coz you in the terrordome
I ain't tryin' to be the fifth one, the millennium is here
From your phone, your zip code, to S S I digits
You wanna know how to rhyme you better learn how to add
Three strikes and you be in for life, mandatory
Sixteen ounces to a pound, twenty more to a Ki
"Do your math"
Mathematics
"It's simple mathematics"
The white unemployment rate is nearly more than triple for black
For cha-ching cats get tha cha-pow, who dead now
Young teens and prison greens facin' life numbers
This is business, no faces just lines and statistics
Crack mothers, crack babies and aids patients
"Check it out!"
I'm blacker than midnight on broadway and myrtle
Why did one straw break the camel's back? Here's the secret
"What are we talking about here?"