"To MC requires skills, I demand some shown"

background: Kristine sent me this post on some gossip thing vibe magazine 15 greatest verses. after reading these i thought, maybe i could post some of MY favorite verses.

1. song: what they do by: the roots

"Lost generation, fast paced nation
World population confront they frustration
The principles of true hip-hop have been forsaken
It's all contractual and about money makin
Pretend-to-be cats don't seem to know they limitation
Exact replication and false representation
You wanna be a man, then stand your own
To MC requires skills, I demand some shown
I let the frauds keep frontin
And roam like a celluar phone far from home
Givin crowds what they wantin
Offical hip-hop consumption, the 5th thumpin
Keepin ya party jumpin with an original somethin
Yo, I dedicate this to the one dimension-al
No imagination, excuse for perpetration
My man came over and said, "Yo we thought we heard you"
Joke's on you; you heard a bitin-ass crew but um.."

as a new jack, learning the hip hop culture was hard to come by when you had no one guiding you. Then I was introduced to The Roots by my cousin, and it was when i heard this song i started to understand what hip hop meant, sorta.

2. song: microphone fiend by: eric b and rakim

"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, Cuz 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 coin-
cide, my thoughts to guide,
48 tracks to slide
The invincible, microphone fiend Rakim
Spread the word, 'cause I'm in
E-F-F-E-C-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..."


this is, and will always be on top of my list as one of my favorite verses, why?. listen to the track, rakim's flow on that verse is just sick, real cool, calm and collected, mos definitely one of smoothest when it comes to rockin the M-I-C.

3. song: keep ya head up BY: 2pac (rip)

"...You know it's funny when it rains it pours
They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor
Say there ain't no hope for the youth and the truth is
it ain't no hope for tha future
And then they wonder why we crazy
I blame my mother, for turning my brother into a crack baby
We ain't meant to survive, cause it's a setup
And even though you're fed up
Huh, ya got to keep your head up"

okay okay, so it wasn't the whole verse, i might as well had put the whole damn song on here but, this is a blog about my favorite verses, so ill stick with the theme. Truth is, this song is one of my faves from Mr. shakur, this track and "me against the world".

4. song:Sound of da police By: KRS-one

"Now here's a likkle truth
Open up your eye
While you're checking out the boom-bap, check the exercise
Take the word "overseer," like a sample
Repeat it very quickly in a crew for example
Overseer
Overseer
Overseer
Overseer
Officer, Officer, Officer, Officer!
Yeah, officer from overseer
You need a little clarity?
Check the similarity!
The overseer rode around the plantation
The officer is off patroling all the nation
The overseer could stop you what you're doing
The officer will pull you over just when he's pursuing
The overseer had the right to get ill
And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill
The officer has the right to arrest
And if you fight back they put a hole in your chest!
(Woop!) They both ride horses
After 400 years, I've _got_ no choices!
The police them have a little gun
So when I'm on the streets, I walk around with a bigger one
(Woop-woop!) I hear it all day
Just so they can run the light and be upon their way"

why? because KRS-one is just the fuckin man, if you don't agree, then i think you'll agree he can take on ANYONE in a freestyle battle. KRS-ONE IS THE FUCKIN MAN!, the n****a got longevity man.

5. song: Set it off By: Big daddy kane

"Let it roll, get bold, I just can't hold
Back, or fold cos I'm a man with soul
In control and effect, so what the heck
Rock the discotheques and this groove is what's next
Attack, react, exact, the mack'll move you with
A strong song, as long as you groove to this
I keep the crowd loud when you're hype
Do damage onstage and injure the mic
As I shoot the gift MC's stand stiff
While my rhymes stick to you like Skippy and Jif
Feel my blood fist, or my death kiss
The rap soloist, you don't want none of this
Supreme in this era, I reign with terror
When I grab the mic believe you're gonna hear a
Fascinatin' rhyme as I enchant them
So let's all sing the Big Daddy anthem
Go with the flow, my rhymes grow like an afro
I entertain again and Kane'll never have no
Problem, I can sneeze, sniffle and cough
E-e-e-even if I stutter Imma still come off
Cos rappers can't understand the mics I rip
They sure enough ain't equipped, that's why they got flipped
But my apparatus is up to status
Don't ask who's the baddest, of course that is
The maker, breaker, taker, my rhymes ache the head
Put it to bed, so watch what is said
Save the bass for the pipe and rearrange your tone
Or take a loss and be forced in the danger zone
Cos I get ill and kill at will
Teachin a skill that's real, you're no frill
So just stand still and chill as I build
Science I drill until my rhymes fill
Your head up...don't even get up
The teacher is teachin', so just shut up"

listen to the track, it just screams 1988. the track is fire, and his flow is fire on this track, if you ever want me to just break out of no where, put this song on and ill do it, haha.


6. song: RE:definition by: BLACK STAR (MOS DEF & TALIB KWELI)

[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, it's a verb millenium
My rap's hold a gat to your back, like Palestinians
Ancient Abyssinia, sure to hold the Gideon
Official b-boy gentlemen, long term, never the interim
Born inside the winter wind, day after December 10
These simpletons they mentionin the synonym for feminine
Sweeter than some cinnamon from 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 oppresion rent who burn down your chief teepee
You see me?"

I WANT A BLACK STAR REUNION!!!

7. song: Da graveyard by: Big L (RIP) f/ Lord Finesse, Mic Nut, Jay-Z, Party Arty, Y.U.

Jay-Z:
"The way I rock
No way you could stop
I shock pop and drop when Jay gets hot
When I'm in the zone better hold ya own
Cause I like to break when I finish a poem
Pound for p-p-pound the best around
No way you can get up when I get down
I shake rattle and roll and wreck shit like none
And beat a niggas ass half silly on da one
Fuckin' A fuckin' Jay ill with skill
So ladies step up I get around like a wheel
I'm never chokin' off chronic skills are bonic
Bitches will treat me like Onyx
Respect that I'll peel a punks cap back and sign it
Creep through your block fuck a glock I step
Through your neighborhood armed with nothing but a rep
I'm giving these ladies something they can feel cause I'm real
Ya man get outta line and it's kill kill kill"

yeah yeah yeah, thats right, a Jay-z verse. HE KILLED IT ON THIS TRACK, this was before his rocafella thing, and reasonable doubt. fuck it, the whole "lifestylez of the poor and dangerous" album is ill, thank you ray for introducing me to BIG L(rip)

8. song: G.O.D (gaining ones definition) by: common f/ cee-lo

"As a child, given religion with no answer to why
Just told believe in Jesus cuz for me he did die
Curiosity killed the catechism
Understanding and wisdom became the rhythm that I played to
And became a slave to master self
A rich man is one with knowledge, happiness and his health
My mind had dealt with the books of Zen, Tao the lessons
Koran and the Bible, to me they all vital
And got truth within 'em, gotta read them boys
You just can't skim 'em, different branches of belief
But one root that stem 'em, but people of the venom try to trim 'em
And use religion as an emblem
When it should be a natural way of life
Who am I or they to say to whom you pray ain't right
That's who got you doin right and got you this far
Whether you say "in Jesus name" or "Al hum du'Allah"
Long as you know it's a bein' that's supreme to you
You let that show towards others in the things you do
Cuz when the trumpets blowin, 24 elders surround the throne
Only 144,000 gon get home"

i could loop this song all day and wouldnt get tired of it. just listen to it.


9. song: The Honerable By: Little Brother f/ Chaundon


[Chaundon]
"I ain't both of us but I can smell your feminine flagrance
So foul, rappers started callin me flagrant
Bein South dog is my duty
And I agree with Teddy Riley, when you on the mic I see booty
All your TV sounds obsolete
Why would I need BET when I got hits on the street?
Fuck who I offend when I say this
Cause your name show the first with an asterisk on Wendy Willaims gay list
You're so wack I can't stand it
Your rap book is holdin onto more junk than Fred G. Stanford
You nicer than me? Nigga please
You can battle like samurai and still take an L in Japanese
If my name's in your mouth, every time the wind blows
I toss your Microsoft ass out of ninety-eight windows
Tough talk niggas be scared on the low
Every time I come around they speak in binary codes
Got em wishin all day that I disappear
Cause I keep startin new shit like freshman air
I'm about to climb the charts like "Pardon me dogs"
I keep motherfuckers jumpin like lottery boards motherfucker..."

The chittlin circuit 1.5, is an ill album, but this verse for some reason stuck out to me. peep the track, the honerable on the chittlin circuit 1.5 album