What is your favorite VERSE of ALL TIME (Only One)

***If you had to pick one that just sticks out to you over others.......POST IT. Lets dissect why its such a DOPE verse***

4th verse from The Message by Grandmaster Flash & Furious Five

Not only is the my favorite verse but its the best verse in Hip Hop History to me and the Greatest Most Important song in Rap to this day basically 30 years later. The verse is real, its vivid, its sad, its angry, its conscious,its gangster...all wrapped in one....

A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smilin' on you but he's frownin' too
Because only God knows what you'll go through
You'll grow in the ghetto livin' second-rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alleyway
You'll admire all the number-book takers
Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money-makers
Drivin' big cars, spendin' twenties and tens
And you'll wanna grow up to be just like them, huh
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers, even panhandlers
You say I'm cool, huh, I'm no fool
But then you wind up droppin' outta high school
Now you're unemployed, all non void
Walkin' round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did
Got sent up for a eight-year bid
Now your manhood is took and you're a Maytag
Spend the next two years as a undercover fag
Bein' used and abused to serve like hell
'til one day, you was found hung dead in the cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young so...

...I would like to here more verses like this...

What is yours?

Peace

At first, I just loved it stylistically. just how well it flowed. As years went by, the content really blew me away....


Through the lights, camera, and action, glamour, glitter and gold
I unfold the scroll, plans see the stampede the globe
When Im deceased, by then the beast'll rise like yeast
To conquer peace, leavin savages to run in the streets
Live on the run, police payin me to give em my gun
Tricked the system with the wisdom that imprisoned my son
Smoke a gold leaf, I hold heat, nonchalantly
Im raunchy, but things I do is real and never haunt me, while
Funny style niggas run in a pile
Rooster heads on a bus on they way to Rikers isle
Holdin weed inside they pussy with they mind on the pretty things in life
Props is a true thugs wife
Its like a cycle
Niggas come in, do a bid, do a bullet, come back, do the same shit again
From the womb to the tomb, assume the unpredictable
Gun salute life rapidly, its a ritual

short, sweet, explosive and mind blowing.

>Through the lights, camera, and action, glamour, glitter and
>gold
>I unfold the scroll, plans see the stampede the globe
>When Im deceased, by then the beast'll rise like yeast
>To conquer peace, leavin savages to run in the streets
>Live on the run, police payin me to give em my gun
>Tricked the system with the wisdom that imprisoned my son
>Smoke a gold leaf, I hold heat, nonchalantly
>Im raunchy, but things I do is real and never haunt me, while
>Funny style niggas run in a pile
>Rooster heads on a bus on they way to Rikers isle
>Holdin weed inside they pussy with they mind on the pretty
>things in life
>Props is a true thugs wife
>Its like a cycle
>Niggas come in, do a bid, do a bullet, come back, do the same
>shit again
>From the womb to the tomb, assume the unpredictable
>Gun salute life rapidly, its a ritual



And yea, it's one my alltime favorite Nas verses.

that verse is incredible.

All three were absolutely game-shattering, and might be my favorite lyrical display to this day.

From Rapgenius.com

Verse 1: Verbal intercourse verse

Verse 2:

Blunts, thugs and alcohol, what a mixture
Just picture, ya life as a whole judged in court they convict ya
They telling you your state of mind, like you worthless
So he curses, his mom’s saying Bible verses
That's all she works with
But miracles, never leave the churches
Instead, it hits the pockets of the Preacher just to purchase
A house, with a swimming pool
Labels me a sinning fool
I'm just a nigga who inherited a winning jewel
To be a trendsetter, whenever subject to respect
This and all respect through is the essential
To street life, hustlin’ the struggle-broke ghettos
Ballin’ coats settles, slowin’ inside a glass kettle
There's a Lee V on my T.V
Lifestyles of living easy
Got my crew tense, plottin’ to jips, to get whips, with V.V.'s
Pushing cakes, new and erect is what ten plates
Celebrating and Elevation in the seeds that we make

Verse 3:

Escobar life, gems and raw Tims
Gators for pretty boy haters
In Vegas with chicks trickin’ fortunes
I'm glistening, bells of cops whistling
Still I'm drifting in
In a high, blunts is like insulin
95-I, I drive high zoning
Stash box zoning my trunk, I flash not, teeth golden
Look at me now Ma
Blowin’ but for how far?
Cars, Cash, and Bitches got me out more
And things you never dreamed I can vouch for
Snake niggas, slither on the A of lights
I ain't a Christian, but I find that we pray alike
Never the one to ask for the time to a saint
A mask and Nine, I think, will make my problems sink
Down a canal, similar to how we drink
Distinct diamonds flooded, thank shines on my links
Drug money, snortin’ bitches, in the end’a times
Got my nine, till I flatline, nigga give me mine

Deck - CREAM

It's been twenty-two long hard years of still strugglin
Survival got me buggin, but I'm alive on arrival
I peep at the shape of the streets
And stay awake to the ways of the world cause shit is deep
A man with a dream with plans to make C.R.E.A.M.
Which failed; I went to jail at the age of 15
A young buck sellin drugs and such who never had much
Trying to get a clutch at what I could not... could not...
The court played me short, now I face incarceration
Pacin -- going up state's my destination
Handcuffed in back of a bus, forty of us
Life as a shorty shouldn't be so ruff
But as the world turns I learned life is hell
Living in the world no different from a cell
Everyday I escape from Jakes givin chase, sellin base
Smokin bones in the staircase
Though I don't know why I chose to smoke sess
I guess that's the time when I'm not depressed
But I'm still depressed, and I ask what's it worth?
Ready to give up so I seek the Old Earth
Who explained working hard may help you maintain
to learn to overcome the heartaches and pain
We got stickup kids, corrupt cops, and crack rocks
and stray shots, all on the block that stays hot
Leave it up to me while I be living proof
To kick the truth to the young black youth
But shorty's running wild smokin sess drinkin beer
And ain't trying to hear what I'm kickin in his ear
Neglected, but now, but yo, it gots to be accepted
That what? That life is hectic

Deck always come off on verses

The ultimate hip hop verse has to be Mos Def's first on Black Star "Definition."

Why is it great? The rhythm of his delivery is phenomenal! The lyrics are dope. It kicks off the whole Black Star project in a great way.


From the first to the last of it, delivery is passionate.
The whole and not the half of it, vocab and not the math of it.
Projectile that them blasted with, accurate assassin shit.
Me and Kweli close like Bethlehem and Nazareth.
After this you be pressing rewind on top your master disk.
Shining like an asterisk for all those be gatherin.
Connecting like a roundhouse from the townhouse to the tenaments.
Cause all my Brooklyn residents, heavy regiments
Don't believe, hear the evidence
Where Brooklyn?
See that? Bound to take it all kid, believe that.
From where they selling tree at to where the police be at
Talib Kweli equality yo tell them where we be at.

All 3 of you posted verses I love personally. All dope and creative. Classics....thanks!

I start to think and then I sink
Into the paper like I was ink
When I'm writing, I'm trapped in between the lines,
I escape when I finish the rhyme...

All heavenly Father, why do you even bother watchin over me
Growin up a little G, my mama thought I'd grow to be
A lawyer or a doctor but I felt like comin harder
Packed a shank up in my socks when I started kindergarten
This ain't no secret garden, so you fly when niggaz flee
If it is one of my own, I'm lettin the trigger be
Cuz I got love for any nigga who got love for me
And then I get a slap of dap when I'm slangin quarter keys
Just tryin to make it, then of age, come through, take it
I ain't forgot about y'all women who be workin niggaz butt naked
At Magic City, shakin titties just to pay the rent
Lord, tryin to hustle must be somethin that was heaven sent
But I ain't got no sense, that's what I got them thinkin
I think about payback, strap myself and keep on dankin
Cuz I be takin the rough side of the mountain
If you cross my path, I'll leave you drainin like a fountain
Yes it's been like that since way back, in 1975
Been taught to hustle with muscle and even try to strive
So little botty bwoy better say your prayers
You better learn some street sense before somebody lay ya

^ that's my favorite line in this verse. it needs no analysis. it's 1 of my favorite verses b/c it's just so...wrong. nothing redeeming in this shit. uncut ignorance. i love it.


West coast shit nigga
Overdosage - imperial pistols ferocious
Fuck a bitch; don't tease bitch, strip tease bitch
Eat a bowl of these bitch, gobble the dick
Hoes forgot to eat a dick and shut the fuck up!
Gobble and swallow a nut up, shut up and get my cash
Backhanded, pimpslapped backwards and left stranded
Just pop ya collar, pimp convention hoes for a dollar
Six-Deuce in a plush, six-deuce Impala
Pimpin hoes from Texas to Guatemala
Bitch niggaz paid for hoes, just to lay wit hoes
Relax one night, and paid to stay wit hoes
Captain Save'Em all day (bitch) well save this dick
Bitch nigga, you more of a bitch than a bitch
You ain't into hittin pussy, or hittin the switch
You into hittin bitches off of the grip, you punk bitch

.

i think b/c The Chronic came out when i was 16, i will always associate that West Coast/G-Funk shit w/riding around in car, music blasting, acting a fool. b/c that's what we used to do. i couldn't listen to that music in my parents' house, so i did it in the car. LOUD.

LOL...that was a mean verse...lol

I'm sick of bitches shakin' asses
I'm sick of talkin' about blunts
Sick of Versace glasses
Sick of slang
Sick of half-ass awards shows
Sick of name brand clothes
Sick of R&B bitches over bullshit tracks
Cocaine and crack
Which brings sickness to blacks
Sick of swoll' head rappers
With their sicker-than raps
Clappers and gats
Makin' the whole sick world collapse
The facts are gettin' sick
Even sicker perhaps
Stickabush to make a bundle to escape this synapse

wooooooooooooo

I use to repeat that verse all the time

classic .........beyond

this verse is almost on point, but then there's the misogyny

I am Posdnous
I be the new generation of slaves
here to make papes to buy a record exec rakes
the pile of revenue I create
But I guess I don't get a cut cuz my rent's a month late
Product of a North Carolina cat
who scratched the back of a pretty woman named Hattie
Who departed life just a little too soon
and didn't see me grab the Plug Tune fame
As we go a little somethin' like this
look ma, no protection
Now I got a daughter named Ayana Monay
And I can play the cowboy to rustle in the dough
so the scenery is healthy where her eyes lay
I am an early bird but the feathers are black
so the apples that I catch are usually all worms
But it's a must to decipher one's queen
from a worm who plays groupie and spread around the bad germ
I cherish the twilight
I maximize, my soul is the right size
I watch for the power to run out on the moon
(And that'll be sometime soon)
Faker than a fist of kids
speakin that they're black
When they're just niggas trying to be Greek
Or some tongues who lied
and said "We'll be natives to the end"
Nowadays we don't even speak
I guess we got our own life to live
Or is it because we want our own kingdom to rule?
Every now and then I step to the now
for now I see back then I might have acted like a fool
Now I won't apologize for it
This is not a bunch of Bradys
but a bunch of black man's pride
Yet I can safely say
I've never played a sister by touching where her private parts reside
I've always walked the right side of the road
If I wasn't making song I wouldn't be a thug selling drugs
But a man with a plan
and if I was a rug cleaner
betcha Pos'd have the cleanest rugs I am.

Funny there were 2 De la verses back to back

I know that verse by heart b/c I use to listen to I Am I Be...often

That's up there for me, too. Pos is a fucking monster. I listen to this song so often still.

Lots of dope shit up in here. I'm narrowing mine down but I'll be back to post my top, I think I know what it is but I just want to be sure.

Yep.........Pos one of the best

great choice

honestly i could have chosen any number of his verses, but this is my flavor of the month right now:

A brand new morn, no time to yawn
Shower's on, power's on
Late for school, I catch the train
Girls sip "Cristal" and whisper my name
I push up like an exercise,
Check the intellect and inspect the thighs
Select the best one, pull her to the side
Keep her occupied for the rest of the ride
Read my resume she's know I'm 'ready cool
Just meet me after school,
We can moan and groan until your mom come home ,
And you be calling me Al "dope" Capone.
Sweatin' me, she didn't want to let me loose-
Come get me, that's if you want to sip the juice
Cause the streets await me, so I take my gun off safety
Cause alot of niggaz hate me
Coming out of the building, they set me up
Sprayed wit automatics, they wet me up
In a puddle of blood, I lay close to the edge
I guess I didn't know the ledge.....

Never can lose with "the R"...thanks for sharing yo

You a stupid hoe, you a, you a stupid hoe (x3)
You a stupid hoe, (yeah) you a, you a stupid hoe
You a stupid hoe, you a, you a stupid hoe (stupid, stupid)
You a stupid hoe, you a, you a stupid hoe (stupid, stupid)
You a stupid hoe, you a, you a stupid hoe (stupid, stupid)

You squirm wit this coughin, whippin cough
Six days of madness and you might throw me off
On this great ball of stress that they call the earth
I'ma show y'all in rhyme just how much shit I been through
And all the place I went to, always played the low
It's like a competition, this mission here I'm tellin you
Slip up and rhyme-ass niggas here is fellin you
Crash courses, slow down you can't learn that quick
Cuz I'm the dead eye, wit the red eye, from Chi to L-I
I thought y'all knew, every year I grew, I'm still growin
And in a year or two I hope my girl'll be showin
A male seed, praise God I name him Moses
I lead people I want him to, that's why I chose this
Now is the glass half-full or half-empty
Common, why they tempt me?
The king of the simply, bore in mic
I always stay on top cuz I give niggas what they like
I know y'all hate that why I feel I owe y'all everyday
If y'all hear it a thousand times, it's gon' be the same way
The 'Dat-Father, go farther, why bother
Now I'm a peaceful man, I don't want no stress
You know I'm still...

Common owned that song.

2nd verse

being born with less
I must confess only adds on the stress

a great verse.

Whenever i take a road trip to the bay area (bout an hour from here) there's a portion of the trip where I always think of this song. i could remember being in 6th or 7th grade and listening to Makaveli on my walkman and that song came on at that moment at that place, I'll never forget it. wasnt the first time i heard it, but it was the first time I understood it.



Also, on the next track, last verse (Hold Ya Head)

The weed got me tweakin in my mind, I'm thinkin..
God bless the child that can hold his own
Indeed, enemies bleed when I hold my chrome
Let these words be the last to my unborn seeds
Hope to raise my young nation in this world of greed
Currency means nothin if you still ain't free
Money breeds jealousy, take the game from me
I hope for better days, trouble comes naturally
Running from authorities 'til they capture me
And my, aim is to spread mo' smiles than tears
Utilalize lessons learned from my childhood years
Maybe Mama had it all right, rest yo' head
Tradin converstion all night, bless the dead
To the homies that I used to have that no longer roll
Catch a brother at the crossroads..
Plus nobody knows my soul, watchin time pass
Through the glass of my drop-top Rolls, hold ya head!

I'll be sitting in a doctor's office or waiting for XYZ and to kill time I'll just rap those two verses to myself over and over. When I walk somewhere without an iPod I rap it to myself 10 or 12 times until I get where I'm going. It never gets old to me.

There are probably verses that have meant more to me and felt more real to me, because PSA really isn't much other than a ton of bragging, but shit, it's the only verse (let alone TWO verses) I've ever memorized other than the entirety of Boyz n da Hood (which I forgot some time around the time I started smoking weed).

I love the rhythm of it, the way the syllables bounce off each other. You can sing it, you can southern drawl it, you can double time it. It's exceptionally malleable, I've performed it to myself over a myriad of beats and it sounds great in any cadence, or sung baritone, operatic, tenor. Musically it's just incredibly tight, and it's just fun to imagine yourself in that world.


Anyway:


Allow me to re-introduce myself
My name is Hov', OH, H-to-the-O-V
I used to move snowflakes by the O-Z
I guess even back then you can call me
CEO of the R-O-C, Hov'!
Fresh out the fryin pan into the fire
I be the, music biz number one supplier
Flyer/flier than a piece of paper bearin my name
Got the hottest chick in the game wearin my chain, that's right
Hov', OH - not D.O.C.
But similar to them letters, "No One Can Do it Better"
I check cheddar like a food inspector
My homey Strict told me, "Dude finish your breakfast"
So that's what I'ma do, take you back to the dude
with the Lexus, fast-forward the jewels and the necklace
Let me tell you dudes what I do to protect this
I shoot at you actors like movie directors
This ain't a movie dog (oh shit)

"Now before I finish, let me just say
I did not come here to show out, did not come here to impress you
Because to tell you the truth when I leave here I'm GONE!
And I don't care WHAT you think about me - but just remember,
when it hits the fan brother, whether it's next year, ten years,
twenty years from now, you'll never be able to say
that these brothers lied to you JACK!"


Ving ain't lie
I done came through the block in everything that's fly
I'm like, Che Guevara with bling on, I'm complex
I never claimed to have wings on
Nigga I get mine - by any means on whenever there's a drought
Get your umbrellas out because, that's when I brainstorm
You can blame Shawn, but I ain't invent the game
I just rolled the dice, tryin to get some change
And I do it twice, ain't no sense in me
lyin as if, I am a different man
And I could blame my environment but
there ain't no reason why I be buyin expensive chains
Hope you don't think users are the only abusers niggaz
Gettin high within the game
If you do then, how would you explain?
I'm ten years removed, still the vibe is in my veins
I got a hustler spirit, nigga period
Check out my hat yo, peep the way I wear it
Check out my swag' yo, I walk like a ballplayer
No matter where you go, you are what you are player
And you can try to change but that's just the top layer
Man, you was who you was 'fore you got here
Only God can judge me, so I'm gone
Either love me, or leave me alone



~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas

http://www.last.fm/user/NodimaChee
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/Nodima/run_that_shit__nodimas_hip_hop_handbook

Word...... I feel you

Far as Jay-Z, I like Sauce Money verse on Bring It On...wooo

Plug 2's verse on De La Soul - Go Out and Get It

It's eighty-six y'all, put your rap on pause
More milk on the mic than them pregnant broads
Nine times out the dime it's a penny on the floor
Same penny you walk around and ignore
See I'm the penny that'll have the deal closed
Turn that point nine nine into one point oh's
A millisecond you'll be needin in the race
That photo finish I ain't even see your face
I'm that one degree that made the Pisa lean
The one goal, one job, one aim and one team
That one good push that gave birth to your dream
That one good year, that one good beer
See you can hit the lotto with hope and a buck
But with 99 cents yo' ass is outta luck
Once upon a time, it's not once it ain't happen
One pop in the air does not mean you clappin
One rap hit does not mean you be rappin
Although you bust rhymes, you ain't kill it ONE TIME~!
Never was to be in the first, just the second one
If you don't find me with mic, I'm mic checkin one
One good pinch, and one good hunch
That's just one bad apple out the New York bunch
Got ones, but I want 2's 3's and 4's
I'm that one when you got one more

i don't know if this is my actual number one favorite, but what a verse.


Canibus brings the sickest drama
fierce enough to pierce the thickest armor
I smack bitches who try to suck dick through the condom
playing with the mic is something I won't do
my only concern when I approach you, is to roast you
I smoke you and whoever you standing close to
and make every man in your crew deny that he knows you
defeating niggas like Segal, Steven
putting Emcees in positions to prevent them from breathin'
I'll make you question any and everything you've ever believed in
by peeping your deepest secrets like psychic readers
what's the matter with ya'll, I splatter ya'll
against the muthafuckin wall with these raw lyrics I catapult
none of ya'll got the balls big enough to battle
I go On & On like Erykah Badu
a hundred times nicer than the best is
twice as African as KRS is, who wanna test this?
fuck y'all you don't impress me and no one can test me
an emcee so ill, I got AIDS scared to catch me
all that shit you poppin' will stop, when I put you in a headlock,
and apply pressure until I crush your muthafuckin noggin
I grab mics and push niggas to the left
so fast their hearts end up on the right side of their chests
my hypothesis, is that nobody can see this
lyrical genius, i got it sown like a seamstress
but if you want to battle, I'm down
if you got nine lives, I'll take eight of them off your hands right now
step up and get your neck cut from ear to ear
if you survive then you can cover up your scar with a beard
I'm the illest from Queens to the new Jerusalem briddicks
anyone who ain't feeling my shiddit can suck my diddick
you need to quit it, if you ain't spittin'
more than 50 bars per minute cause you ain't in lyrical fitness
kickin' boring raps with metaphors that's wack
all of ya'll muthafuckas need Nordictrack
to get ya weight up, fuckin with Canibus you get ate up
beat down and sprayed up, just for bringing my name up
been rockin' longer than niggas twice my age
back in the days before Bob Marley was rockin' a fade
before Honest Abe signed the paper that freed slaves
before Neanderthals was drawing on walls in caves
I existed, in the garden of Eden gettin' lifted
stickin' dick to Eve before she was Adam's mistress
before Christ created Christmas, I been in lyrical fitness
the Canibus is spittin' til' he's spitless
50 bars of total sickness, you won't forget this
I'm puttin' every wack emcee alive on my shit list
verbally vicious, telekinetically gifted
took you a minute to exhibit that I'm sick wit it
now you tell me who you think is damaging shit
going once, going twice
sold! to that nigga name Canibus
me and Mr.Cheeks, A-Plus, and Funk Doctor
hopping out the Huey helicopter to suey chop ya.

Thats a legendary verse.........one of the best EVER

Maybe not the most original choice, but definetly a certified classic. One of the very few rap verses I still got memorized....

I got you stuck off the realness, we be the infamous
you heard of us
official Queensbridge murderers
the Mobb comes equipped with warfare, beware
of my crime family who got nuff shots to share
for all of those who wanna profile and pose
rock you in your face, stab your brain wit' your nosebone
you all alone in these streets, cousin
every man for theirself in this land we be gunnin'
and keep them shook crews runnin'
like they supposed to
they come around but they never come close to
I can see it inside your face
you're in the wrong place
cowards like you just get they're whole body laced up
with bullet holes and such
speak the wrong words man and you will get touched
you can put your whole army against my team and
I guarantee you it'll be your very last time breathin'
your simple words just don't move me
you're minor, we're major
you all up in the game and don't deserve to be a player
don't make me have to call your name out
your crew is featherweight
my gunshots'll make you levitate
I'm only nineteen but my mind is old
and when the things get for real my warm heart turns cold
another nigga deceased, another story gets told
it ain't nothin' really
hey, yo dun spark the Phillie
so I can get my mind off these yellowbacked niggas
why they still alive I don't know, go figure
meanwhile back in Queens the realness is foundation
if I die I couldn't choose a better location
when the slugs penetrate you feel a burning sensation
getting closer to God in a tight situation
now, take these words home and think it through
or the next rhyme I write might be about you
______________________________________________________________________________

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"
-George Clinton

It's what forced me to man up and get a Discman.

<--- ...watch out Mountain West?

For a guy who's usually known for being abstract, this verse is about straight to the point as you get. El completely beasts it and it contains some of my favourite lines in hip hop.

I brought that genuine shit in '96
Before you knew the underground or independent existed
I watched the whole scene straight jump on the dick
After stepping to KCR lit and flexing my shit
No gun talk, no gimmicks, just rounds of raw-dogging
Dirty dusty intelligent wit and word murdering
A hardcore poetic informed without burglary
Potent and shook the shit out of rappers who just learned of me
Everytime I prescribe a new pill, revolution
Quickly defined the standard for indie rap distribution
Arrogant unafraid shit developed riding a train thinking of brain fucks
"Bad Touch Example" that soon became bucks
Had everybody sprung wondering where I came from
Screaming out "Independent as fuck" with an insane tongue
With an indelible squad of design monsters
Innovating the styles that made biters look like imposters
So we scripted an album and signed to Rawkus
Selling a hundred thousand without a radio chart hit
Imposterous son is taking the world hostage
Classic hip-hop bombage dirty with style progress
Now I've come from the '80s juvenile Brooklyn
Where cats was like: "Gimme that subway pass, kid. Good lookin."
Now someone else is taking a ride with what's mine
So I had to develop styles with a death device cooked in
So when I battled in basements I had eight sentences
Waiting ready for the four you had laced in
And I was taught to wait patient (Why?)
Only faggots make shit up just to get famous
So when I finally blew up I remained sick
Earning respect in ghettos and 'burbs for word placement
Back when the independent scene remained faceless
We were the only crew who promised your ass we'd take it
Mold it, shape it, living outside the matrix
Hold it, make it, more than miniature major labels
Hold it sacred, living it for the culture
Told ya plainly, protected it from the vultures
That's why I always get respect from true soldiers
That laugh at the critics claiming every year: "Hip hop's over."
FUCK YOU, hip hop just started
It's funny how the most nostalgic cats are the ones who were never part of it
But true veterans'll give dap to those who started it
Then humbly move the fuck on and come with that new retarded shit
New slang, new thought, new sound, new heart, you thought you hang
You clown, you don't, you drown
I won't dumb it down, I'm dumbing now for these rounds
I'm a live mothefucker plus I'm gunning for clowns
You're a mime motherfucker, don't be coming for pounds
Till you can break out of that invisible box, you're not down
My favorite ones are the ones who started out young rappin about
Comic books, spaceships, and Omnicron 1
And even though they were soft they had fun
But they couldn't break out the frame of the town they came from
Some of these faggots used to send me their demos
Keeping their puppy styles in the Company Flow kennels
But since they had no identity from the start
They started to resent the scene when they couldn't become a part

They've been failing for years and call themselves Vets, that's bold
Motherfucker, you're not a Vet you're just old
I'll slap the shit out you to continue my nerd rap
Making this money fist over fist, fuck what you heard
Rookie cats talk about boom bap and golden ages
Pat themselves on the back for making that new outdated shit
But i've been putting out vinyl since '93 and never looked back once
At ya'll trying to chase me
You don't innovate because you can't innovate
It's not a choice despite what you might tell your boys
Keep your identity crisis under the table
I always knew who I was and I'll always be more famous

Who can take a rain drop
And turn it to three
Then draw it up ten miles
Over tropical isles
And bring it to the sea!!

THE SUN NIGGAS

Obviously not really my answer but I'll be goddamn if it's not one of the dopest most succinct verses of all time.
________
Big PEMFin H & z's
█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician." © Miles Davis

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

Life and death lay around us
Four pounds and pounds a verb from out of towners
It's hard to stay grounded
We stay high, thats why old folks down us
Lost, nobody found us, the force that sorrounds us
Ain't with us, they get us on the ground and hit us
We paint pictures of the chains under their names and scriptures
Removed from earth, only to return through birth
Knew this girl sellin her body, wish she knew what it was worth.
Between God and trash, lookin in every car that pass
With a walk that suggests head, to milk niggaz she was breastfed
She know dairy so she say cheese to get bread
In the area where it's more weaves and less dreads
Kinda scary, amongst theives and base-heads
Said it was her toes, but I could tell her soul hurt
She was cold Turk, growin up she got to know hurt
very well in a world where self hate is overt
Her step-father that he was Ike, so her mother he striked
she got to like like minded niggas, who liked crimes and figures
Doin white lines and liquor, see hard times had kicked her
In the ass, it used to be thicker
Life is fast, some choose to be quicker
I remember in high school she had a passion to sing
Now she see herself in a casket in dreams
These are the children of crack and rap, blacks done lack
Self-esteem, yo we forgot the dream
On our jeffersons y'all but we forgot the theme
In the Chi, we even rootin for a garbage team
This queen never seen herself on this Corner
She still wanna see California
But this is her world

I debated weather to put this or Sadat X's verse in this post. I went wit Sadat X. Glad to see this one on here tho, i sing this shit to myself all the time

"Said it was her toes, but I could tell her soul hurt
She was cold Turk, growin up she got to know hurt
very well in a world where self hate is overt
Her step-father that he was Ike, so her mother he striked
she got to like like minded niggas, who liked crimes and figures
Doin white lines and liquor, see hard times had kicked her
In the ass, it used to be thicker
Life is fast, some choose to be quicker"


damn.....

Lyrical, ly-lyrical mission..
Lyrical..
Yo the time is wastin, I use the mind elevation
Dime sack lacin, court pen pacin
Individual, lyrical math abrasion
Psychic evaluation, the foulest nation
We livin in, dangerous lives, mad leak and battered wives
A lifestyle where bad streets is patternized
Wise men build and destroy
While the real McCoy dopefiend, named Detroit is still dealin boy
Coke suppliers actin biased
Cause rumors say that niggaz wear wires and we liars
But every night the gat's fired, and every day a rat's hired
I still remain the mack flyest in the phat Kani, it's --
-- just the killer in me, slash drug dealer MC
Ex-slug filler, semi mug peeler
Demi, bottles of Mo', yo simply follow me flow
Put poetry inside a crack pot and blow
rough holes for cracked out pussies and buttholes
Bring the G's and the D's roll, they can't touch those
Why shoot the breeze about it, when you could be about it?
My degrees are routed, toward the peasy haired brick houses
instead of the fake medallions
Rich niggaz transport in thousands
Foreign cash exchange amountin to millions
Doors is locked, rocks is chopped, watch the cameras in the ceilings
Trick bitches catching mad feelings
Peelin off in the Lex Jeep, techniques is four-wheelin
I bet it be some shit when we connect with Stretch
When we catch them sex niggaz with the tecs you blessed, word
So now it's on, never wasted a slug,
Time is money when it comes to mine, take it in blood

I still dont understand the It Was Written hate....Nas was in a zone...classic verse after classic verse

Watch Dem N*gg*s - 1st verse

They never realized, how real Nas, is so decisive
It's just the likeness, of Isrealites mist, that made me write this
A slight twist, of lime rhyme, be chasin down your prime time
Food for thought or rather mind wine
The Don Juan, features the freak shit, my thesis
on how we creep quick, fuckin your wife that ain't so secret
It's mandatory - see that pussy, they hand it to me
I got no game, it's just some bitches understand my story
There ain't no drama that my niggaz never handle for me
My gator brand is Maurry, walkin through rough land before me
where the snakes put a smile on they face, hopin and prayin I'm stuck
Scopin they lay in the cut, weighin my luck
Player haters play this in cell blocks and rock stages
Winkin at some females cops with cocked gauges
Really it's papers I'm addicted to, wasn't for rap then I'll be stickin you
The mag inside the triple goose
Face down on the floors, the routine
Don't want hear nobody blow steam, just cream or it's a smoke screen
Imagine that - that's why I hardly kick the braggin raps
I zone, to each his own and this ghetto inhabitant

one of my favorite Nas moments.

I once met a guy who had wings and could fly
and he asked why I didn't use mines
I wasn't scared of heights but all my life I was small
every night I got on my knees and prayed to God
got a little taller, wished I was a baller
wished I had a chick I could call and scoop up in my Impala
like my father, lips to the bottle
following the same path, dad role model
questioning tomorrow cuz today was so hollow
with a liver full of liquor and a heart full of sorrow
mom knows and tells me that I'm not so deep
cuz I'm just like my pops yo, old J.B.
everyday I wake up and the stars I dont see
and model my life after stars I wont be
I never related to the scars on OG's
or understood why dad gave his heart to the streets
and not to my momma, she promised she would leave
to find a nigga to preach God's words to me
she said, what you wanna be boy?
I said, a B-Boy and destroy decoys that wanna MC
make a joyful noise, rejoice and live free
get rich, eat fish and teach kids how to dream
cuz this game shit is getting kinda old
and shows hatred is still around the globe
racism still surrounds us, president's tryna drown us
and fake shit has now become the sound of the soul
my grandpapa turned 89 last week
blind out of one eye and still sees peace
in the midst of the grind, LA shrine of the crime
where nobody sees, the world's gone (blind)

Yo, somebody once told me that I'm already in hell
Freedom's a state of mind it's just a heart of me's in hell
I freed my slaved mind so the part of me's in hell
So even when it's hard to breathe a part of me inhales
So pardon me...
You gotta try hard to be yourself...
Cause you can't go to heaven being anybody else
I was raised by a reverend yet the lessons didn't help
Had to get em for myself
I was told hell is hot but had to feel it for myself
So I left home
As a young child smiling as I stepped on
Facing a world butt-naked without my weapon
I lost my smile and exchange put a vest on
Now that my premature stress is gone
I got problems to face as a man
I was told either you stand or you fall
Long as you know that when you walk you holding hands with a God
That alone can turn the dark
To a walk in the park
I only talk from my heart
So open yours when you're listening
Every man has his own heaven
The difference is the way that he envisions it, so
If you make your heaven pictureless
By the time you die you'll be drifting in an imageless field
So fill your heaven full of blessed thoughts
That's real
You could stress it or just let it walk
I got a question, if a man can make his own heaven
Then can he make his path to get to it too?
I only spit fluid truth
And I spit it for the listeners so I'm spittin to you
You say it's hell I say it's bullshit we're getting through
Just think about it every man has his own heaven
But shit, you gotta go through hell to be a man first
And understand first hell is what you choose to call the present
That's why you're going through it, I just choose to call it stressin
To tell you fools the truth
I don't feel that's what I'm destined
So you can call it hell but brah...
I can say I'm below the heavens

(Swiped from Ohhla.com)

Jay Electronica - Exhibit C

When I was sleepin on the train
Sleepin' on Meserole Ave out in the rain
Without even a single slice of pizza to my name
Too proud to beg for change mastering the pain
When new york niggas were calling southern rappers lame
But then jacking our slang
I used to get dizzy spells
And hear a little ring
The voice of a Angel
Telling me my name
Telling me that one day I'ma be a great man
Transforming with the MegatronDon spittin out flames
Eatin' wack rappers alive shittin' out chains
I ain't believe it then
Nigga I was homeless
Fightin', shootin dice, smokin weed on the corners
Tryna find the meaning of life in a corona
Till the 5%s rolled up on a nigga and informed him
"You either build or destroy. Where you come from?"
"The Magnolia projects in the 3rd ward slum"
"Hmmm... its quite amazing that you rhyme how you do
And how you shine like you grew up in a shrine in Peru."
Question14 - Muslim Lesson 2: Dip diver, Civilize a 85er
I make the devil hit his knees and say the Our Father
Abracadabra!
You rockin with the True and Living
Shout out to Lights Out, Joseph I, Chewy Bivens
Shout out to Baltimore, Baton Rouge, my crew in Richmond
While y'all debated who the truth was like Jews and Christians
I was on Cecil B, Broad Street, Master, North Philly, South Philly, 23rd, Tasker
6 mile, 7 mile, Hartwell, Gratiot
Where niggas really would pack a U-haul truck up
Put the high beams on
Drive up on the curb at a barbecue and hop out the back like "what's up!"
Kill a nigga, rob a nigga, take a nigga, bust up
That's why when you talk the tough talk I never feel ya
You sound real good and you play the part well
But the energy you givin off is so unfamiliar
I can't feel ya
Nas hit me up on the phone, said "What you waitin on?"
Tip hit me up with a twitt, said "What you waitin on?"
Diddy send a text every hour on the dot sayin
"When you gon drop that verse nigga you taking long"
So now I'm back spittin that He Could Pass A Polygraph
That Reverend Run rockin Adidas out on Hollis Ave
That FOI, Marcus Garvey, Nikki Tesla
I shock like a eel
Electric feel
Jay Electra
They call me Jay Electronica
Fuck that.
Call me Jay ElecHannukah
Jay ElecYarmulke
Jay ElecRamadaan
Muhammad Asalaamica RasoulAllah
Supana Watallah through your monitor
My Uzi still Weighs A Ton check the barometer
I'm hotter than the muthafuckin' sun check the thermometer
I'm bringing ancient mathematics back to modern man
My momma told me never throw a stone and hide your hand
I got a lot of family, you got a lot of fans
That's why the people got my back like the Verizon man
I play the back and fade to black and then devise a plan
Out in London, smoking, vibin' while I ride the tram
Givin’ out that raw food to lions disguised as lambs
And, by the time they get they seats hot
And deploy all they henchmen to come at me from the treetops
I’m chillin out at Tweetstock
Building by the millions
My light is brilliant

he had a small window to take over the game with this song and hype....lazy dude dropped the ball

not the most touching/memorable lyrics ever, but his flow is amazing on this song

Sparklin' extreme spinnage
Watchin' your scene plumett
If lyrics were green vomit
My vocals would clean stomachs
Addicts wean from it
Where dreams and green run it
The faces on money change like the host on Teen Sumit
I'm close to being done with this industry's cream driven
Supreme livin', seein' more demons than Gene Simmons
And mean fibbin' actors be adlibbin'
Fakin' the funk and some of us naturally had rhythm

Some of us act like they had women
Gats in the abdomen back when the fact is them cats
They didn't have nuttin
For certain I'm sure it's fiction but for some
The purest diction
Insures their jurisdiction
I'm kicking it up a level trying to stay in the red
Some stay in the bed, zombie
Like the Day of the Dead
With decay in the head
Playin' instead of stayin' ahead
Steadily portrayin' celebs, delayin' the inevitable
When some come round
They run down when they touch ground
They climb up the structures unsound
Some of you like the way my words caress tracks
While some of these politicians secretly suppress facts

<--- ...watch out Mountain West?

The implorer, the universe explorer
Treat MC's like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
Leavin these niggaz open like a box of Pandora
With styles that's newer than the world order
Approximately three quarters of y'all are water
I straight deport ya
Then orchestrate your torture with roots of culture
The pill brimmage to the line of scrimmage up against your image
Where life is a heist, and the strong get a percentage
It's ill as a war and within it I'm the Lieutenant
that surrounds you like a peninsula to snatch the pennant
You fold like Japan's futons and fans
While I design a plan to make a rapper step like a pedestrian
I crush a mountain into grands of sand
Your pain stains the hand that held the mic inserted to the stand
The desperado, that refuse to follow
The Fifth afficianado, break you up into parts like vibrato
I deep like the dark of the night
Niggaz is sweet and sound silly when they talk on the mic
They use the simple back and forth the same
old rhythm that's plain
I'd rather UltraMagnetize your brain
It's the hip-hop purist, that leave you lost like a tourist
inside the chorus, niggaz is bringin nothin for us
As we breakin em down to fractions, tell your squadron
It's time to go to war, Respond/React




I always thought it was "pilgrimage" not pill brimmage

anyway

the "make you fold like japan, futons, and fans" is one of my favorite lines

and then ending with "leave you lost like a tourist"

killed it

great verse...

"I'm the poetical poltergeist.. I heist tracks from the past
And return'em to the present time in rhyme form
What was once dead is now resurrected on the record
And the physical words are mere residuals for my bidding
For my disposal to dispose of... who are you kidding?
Nightfall, I stop the rook, then I'm looking for
the original book which contains the words of God
Six hours until dawn, my quest to capture the queen
without being seen by the pawns
Call me Bishop, bishop takes rook, rook takes pawn
pawn takes knight, knight takes queen
Queen takes the original King James version
I'm surgin up when I'm emergin
False clergymen you're urgin' me to call you a virgin
when to say the least..
Who can you trust when a priest is now the beast?
Who? What?? Why???
I'm the assassinator of rap
Hit rip rhyme rap ritual hit you with my best shot
Get you sit you down, let you know I never get dropped
When I flip flop hip hop, when I wreck shop.. nigga
I move, with the finesse and the smoothness
Even inside of the grooves of a record, check it
Check it again, check it again, check it again
Check the metaphors, make sure they're making sense and then
Gimme one-hundred percent credit
Let it, meditate, in your brain, like a sedative
I said it and I read it.. twelve in your bloodstream.. Let it live!
The verses of curses that burst in the face of the first time offenders
In the realm of the extinction agenda"

but I remember this verse from when I was in elementary and along with the singles from Aquemini is why got into Outkast


Got stopped at the mall the other day
Heard a call from the other way
that I just came from, some nigga was sayin somethin
talkin bout "Hey man, you remember me from school?" smoke some
Naw not really but he kept smilin like a clown
facial expression lookin silly
And he kept askin me, what kind of car you drive, I know you paid
I know y'all got buku of hoes from all them songs that y'all done made
And I replied that I had been goin through tha same thing that he had
True I got more fans than the average man but not enough loot to last me
to the end of the week, I live by the beat like you live check to check
If you don't move yo' foot then I don't eat, so we like neck to neck
Yes we done come a long way like them Slim ass cigarettes
from Virginia, this ain't gon stop so we just gonna continue

That was one of my favorite joints back in the day

I DIDN'T SEE IT YET


I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies
and hypothesis can't define how I be droppin these
mockeries, lyrically perform armed robbery
Flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me
Battle-scarred shogun, explosion when my pen hits
tremendous, ultra-violet shine blind forensics
I inspect you, through the future see millenium
Killa B's sold fifty gold sixty platinum
Shacklin the masses with drastic rap tactics
Graphic displays melt the steel like blacksmiths
Black Wu jackets queen B's ease the guns in
Rumble with patrolmen, tear gas laced the function
Heads by the score take flight incite a war
Chicks hit the floor, diehard fans demand more
Behold the bold soldier, control the globe slowly
Proceeds to blow swingin swords like Shinobi
Stomp grounds and pound footprints in solid rock
Wu got it locked, performin live on your hottest block

I'VE SAID IT BEFORE....THE SISTINE CHAPEL OF LYRICS




Call an ambulance, Jamie been shot, word to Kemit
Don't go Son, nigga you my motherfuckin heart
Stay still Son, don't move, just think about Keeba
She'll be three in January, your young God needs you
The ambulance is taking too long
Everybody get the fuck back, excuse me bitch, gimme your jack
One, seven one eight, nine one one, low battery, damn
Blood comin out his mouth, he bleedin badly
Nahhh Jamie, don't start that shit
Keep your head up, if you escape hell we gettin fucked up
When we was eight, we went to Bat Day to see the Yanks
In Sixty-Nine, his father and mines, they robbed banks
He pointed to the charm on his neck
With his last bit of energy left, told me rock it with respect
I opened it, seen the God holdin his kids
Photogenic, tears just burst out my wig
Plus he dropped one, oh shit, here come his Old Earth
With no shoes on, screamin holdin her breasts with a gown on
She fell and then lightly touched his jaw, kissed him
Rubbed his hair, turned around the ambulance was there
Plus the blue coats, Officer Lough, took it as a joke
Weeks ago he strip-searched the God and gave him back his coke
Bitches yellin, Beenie Man swung on Helen
In the back of a cop car, dirty tarts are tellin
But suddenly a chill came through it was weird
Felt like my man, was cast out my heaven now we share
Laid on the stretcher, blood on his Wally's like ketchup
Deep like the full assassination with a sketch of it
It can't be, from Yohoo to Lee's
Second grade humped the teachers, about to leave
Finally this closed chapter, comes to an end
He was announced, pronounced dead, y'all, at twelve ten

Thats an A+ verse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgsQqL2u09A

Did you ever think that you would be the nigga on the block
Didn't have to break a steerin column, didn't have to cook a rock
A damn goodie two-shoes, that what they call ya
Never judge a person or a book by it's covers
Just because my tone is darker than yours, a little tanner
You never took the time out, examine yourself boi
.. are you black, white, asian?
Indonesian, or Borean - that's black and Korean
We on the same team if we breathin
I jumped off the subject to see if you was seein
That we drop a little science off in every verse
They put that P.A. sticker on it cause they scared we gon' curse
But the knowledge is the power, the cowards get devoured
Any hour, any cipher, any way to any height
Because I might just SNAP on a FUCK-ass nigga
Might clap a cap at a sucka-ass nigga
In the meantime, Daddy Fatsacks gon' chill out
He might just, pull out his pistol
And let that thang whistle at your windshield or your residence
Superman to Clark Kent, you better be way harder
Than the park bench to start this
Marcus, Jason, my little brother James
All my brothers from my momma but Andre is just the same
Ain't no uno, we a duo; deuce dos to a pair
A player stiffen the competition
Pressed like Levi's and toughskins, one minus one
Negative one minus negative one is nothin
Bustin d-boy raps and player poems
The 'Kast shit ain't plastic, we smash it and move the crowd
And rock the crowd original material while you bore 'em
Your live show consists of everybody's shit but you're-uns
Do your own shit! In your live show (bitin ass nigga)

gotta include the bit before Killer Mike too

Penelope Ann Cruz couldn't snooze
With her Eyes Wide Shut, before I asked to hit her gut
If you brunette, Legally Blonde I might respond
Take you to Swan Lake and beyond
Antwan raps on, raps on, clap off clap on
I switch the flow so quick you cannot fa-thom
I take a submarine two thousand leagues below the sea
And try to grab one line or sentence
Rhyme repentance, find the illest lyricist
And give him a clean bill of health
Wealth might make you look good but you sound like shit
And your team lookin shitty to death

Dissection:
The point of this song is to identify and characterize "game." He expresses how game is woven into all areas of society and throughout all moments of history. He profoundly illuminates how game is both hated and praised but always for the wrong reasons because those who are affected by or enthralled with the game often have no idea who they're actually playing against. Everyone is a player in the game and is either being played or playing someone, but it is the only game itself that actually wins. Game is cycled and it's offspring is both it's manipulator and it's victim.

Lyrics:
Don't you know that I run this place
And I've begun this race
Must I rerun this pace?
I'm the reason its become this way
And their love for it is the reason I have become this praised
They love my darkness
I make them heartless
And in return, the have become my martyrs
I've been in the poem of many a poet
And I reside in the art of many an artist
Some of your smartest have tried to articulate
My whole part in this
But they're fruitless in their harvest
The dro grows from my footsteps
I'm the one that they follow
I am the one that they march with
Through the back alleys
And the black markets
The Oval Offices
Crackhouses and apartments
Through the mazes of the queens
The pages of the sages
And the Chambers of The Kings
Through the veins-es of the fiends
A paper chaser's pager
Yo, I'm famous on the scene
One of the oldest, most ancient-est of things
Speak every single language on the planet, yahmean?
I am the American dream
The rape of Africa
The undying machine
The overpriced medicine
The murderous regime
The tough guy's front
And the one behind the scenes
I am the blood of this city
It's gas, water, and electricity
I'm it's gym, and it's math, and it's history
The gunshots in the class
And you can't pass if you're missin, G.
I taught them better than that
I taught them aim for the head
And hope they never come back
I'm glad your daddy's gone, baby
Hope he never comes back
I hope he's with your mother
With my hustlers high in my trap
I hope you die in his trash
I can't help it all I hear when you're crying is laughs
I'm sure somebody'll find you tied up in this bag
Behind the hospital little baby crack addicts had
Then maybe you can grow up to be a stripper
A welfare-receiving prostitutin gold digger
You can watch on TV
How they should properly depict you
The rivers shall flow with liquor
Quench your thirst on my elixir
I am the safe haven for the rebel runaway and the resistor
The trusted misleader
The number one defender
And from a throne of their bones I rule
These fools are my fuel
So I make them Cool
Baptize them in the water out of Scarface pool
And feed 'em from the table that held the Corleone's food
And if you die, tell them that you played my game
I hope your bullet holes become mouths that say my name
'Cause I'm the...

Thanks dude....you followed the directions of the thread..lol..nah but yeah Lupe can get it in when he want to..

He had a few verses on his debut that had me like damn..

not my GOAT though