How I Get Down

Rakim

[Rakim]

Before the dough came, my whole aim, was blow like propane

Control the whole domain, and then show no shame

Make rappers go ? and they so lame, playin with no game

Put em on the lil plane til they can't claim no fame

I got, the range, better, stay in the slow lane

I make the flow change from hurricanes to a slow rain

Your thoughts are so plane, I rearrange your whole frame

until my whole name grow out your brain like Rogaine

Letter by letter, I put words together

Once merged, apart never, they be heard forever

and then I grab a pen and stab him in his abdomen

and smash him in, throw his mic like a javelin

Then I explain verses, that remain on the surface

At times it get deep, but I never defeat the purpose

Never go out, to go the dough route, forever hold out

I never sold out, for any amount, no doubt



Chorus: Rakim (repeat 2X)



That's how I get down, so tell me how you like that

I hit the town, hold it down on a tight track

I start a party now - everybody like rap

Haters are mad cause they gave the R the mic back



[Rakim]

I like to hang where e'rythang seem to happen at (y'know?)

It's Ra's habitat, I'm like that czar Arafat

And yes I have a gat, snap like a Israeli

A terrorist I never miss blowin up kids daily

I step to writers, and let my virus hurt the closest

I'm sick as hepatitis and worse than tuberculosis

Pull out a pen, like a grenade, and drop it quick

I strike again and I'ma get paid, exotic shit

You know the God ra be, hot as the Mojave

Swing like King Usabi, my posse be kamikaze

On the corners like I'm homeless and I, don't know where home is

The bonus, is where the next open microphone is

Me and my team, vision like a radar screen

Intervene and yo, cut the mic off, cause Ra fiend

to show the whole world some of the things I seen

then blow it up, like Edi Amin, yaknahmean?



Chorus



[Rakim]

I do a thang thang, I write the songs they sing

Make sure that they swing, from New York to Beijing

Put your thoughts in the sling and your brain is gangrene

Pull in the ring, repeatin and sayin the same thing

Xerox, zero, no match, you ditto

copy machine, couldn't reprint my ??

My new style, that I produce now's beyond two-thou'

I knew how, since a juvenile, to make a ka-pow

When the night's fallin, I can hear the mic callin

I like ballin, I cut back like Mic Jordan

This is for y'all while I'm spittin literatures

Lyrics'll ball like Allen Iverson dribble the ball

They hopeless - whoever approaches my high explosives

My vision sadicious, and freestyle's ferocious

I wrote this, words flew over my head like a locust

I turned the beat up, sat back, and stayed focused



Chorus