My Favorite Songs

Eric B & Rakim- I Ain't No Joke

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[Verse 1]
I ain't no joke, I used to let the mic smoke

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

When I'm gone no one gets on 'cause I won't let

Nobody press up and mess up the scene I set

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

But 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 into hip-hop form

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

Deep concentration 'cause 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

'Cause you'll get fried in the end when you pretend to be

Competing 'cause I just put your mind on pause

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

I wake you up, and as I stare in your face, you seem stunned

Remember me? The one you got your idea from?

But soon you start to suffer, the tune'll get rougher

When you start to stutter, that's when you had enough of

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

You can't cope, you should've broke because I ain't no joke

[Verse 2]
I got a question as serious as cancer:

Who can keep the average dancer hyper as a heart attack?

Nobody smiling

'Cause 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 my hip-hop hits

Get the style down pat, then it's time to switch

Put my tape on pause and add some more to yours

Then you figure you're ready for the neighborhood tours

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 seven emcees

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 off-beat DJ, if anything he play sound familiar

I'll wait 'til E say, "Play 'em"

So I'mma have to diss and broke

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

[Verse 3]
I hold the microphone like a grudge

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

I hold a conversation 'cause what I invent

I nominated my DJ for president

When I emcee, I'll keep a freestyle going steadily

So pucker up and whistle my melody

But whatever you do, don't miss one

There'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 moral of my story I'm telling

Nobody beats the R, so stop yelling

Save it, put it in your pocket for later

'Cause I'm moving the crowd, and B'll wreck the fader

No interruptions, and the mic is broke

When I'm gone, then you can joke

'Cause everything is real, on a serious tip

Keep playing and I get furious quick

And I'll take you for a walk through hell

Freeze your dome, then watch your eyeballs swell

Guide you out of triple-stage darkness

When it get dark again, then I'ma spark this microphone

'Cause the heat is on, you see smoke

And I'm finished when the beat is gone— I'm no joke

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