I Ain't No Joke

Rakim

I ain't no joke, I use to let the mic smoke

Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke

When i'm gone I wrote this song cuz I won't let

Nobody press up and mess up to seen I set

I like to stand in a crowd and watch the people wonder damn

Bu think about it then you'll understand

I'm just an addict addicted to music

Maybe it's a habit, I gotta use it

Even if it's jazz or the quiet storm

I hook a beat up convert it in a hip-hop form

Write a rhyme in graffitti in every show you see me in

Deep concentration cuz I'm no comedian

Jokers are wild if you wanna be tame

I treat you like a child then you're gonna be named

Another enemy, not even a friend of me

Cuz you'll get fried in the end if you pretend to be

?Can be? cuz I just put your mind on pause

And I can beat you when you compare my rhyme wit yours

I wake you up and as I stare in your face you seem stun

Remember me, the one you got your idea from

But soon you start to suffer but you only get rougher

When you start to stutter that's when you had enuff of

Biting it, I make you choke, you can't provoke

You can't cope, you should of broke cuz I ain't no joke



I got a question, it's serious as cancer

Who can keep the average dancer

Hyper as a heart attack nobody smiling

Cuz you're expressing the rhyme that I'm styling

This is what we all sit down to write

You can't make it so you take it home, break it and bite

Use pieces and bits of all the hip-hop hits

Get the style down pack then it's time to ?swit?

Put my tape on pause and add some more to yours

Then you figure you're ready for the neighborhood chores

The E-M-C-E-E don't even try to be

When you come up to speak, don't even lie to me

You like to exaggerate, dream and imaginate

Then change the rhyme around, that can aggravate me

So when you see me come up, freeze

Or you'll be one of those 7 MC's

They think that I'm a new jack but only if they knew that

They who think wrong are they who can't do that

Style that I'm doing, they might ruin

Patterns of paragraphs based on you and

Your offbeat DJ, if anything he play

Sound familiar, I'll wait til E say

Play 'em, so I'ma have to dis and broke

You could get a smack for this, I ain't no joke



I hold the microphone like a grudge

B'll hold the record so the needle don't budge

I hold a conversation cuz when I invent

I nominated my DJ the presdient

When I'm see I'll, people freestyle, going steadily

So pucker up and whistle my melody

But whatever you do, don't miss one

They'll be another rough rhyme after this one

Before you know it, you're following and fiending

Waiting for the punchline to get the meaning

Like before the middle of my story I'm telling

Nobody beats the R so stop yelling

Save it, put it in your pocket for later

Cuz I'm moving the crowd and be a record fader

No interruptions and the mic is broke

When I'm gone, then you can joke

Cuz everything is real on a serious tip

Keep playing and I varies quick

And take you for a walk through hell

Feed your dome then watch your eyeballs swell

Guide you out of triple stage darkness

When it get dark again then I'ma spark this