Wu-Tang got my tongue dangling, Nas put the angle in, Redman and The Roots my bedside lamp
Kool Keith my example, Keith Murray my sample, Preemo for president and that true East Coast anthem
But those West Coast Flows left my flesh exposed
The irregular-regular rhythm of Freestyle Fellowship, learned to live hip hop from the East but the offbeat onbeat of the Pharcyde of the earth was unheard of
Playful, still severe, I was made for the disruptive rhythmics of Saafir to sever the fear I felt of the sevenfold syllable inversions of Souls of Mischief - yeah!
My first rap CD was Snoop Dogg's, the sun rises in the East but settles in the West like Tupac
So give me the mic first so I can be one of the last, raised in Sunday school till Ras Kass had me skipping class
Something about the way that you taught me
Something about the way that you brought me up
Can't quite explain where it brought me
But it has saved my life and I am grateful that you caught me up
Hip hop taught me, hip hop taught me
Church did bring me up but hip hop taught me
Hip hop taught me that God speaks through the voice of a marginalized MC, be he or she a believer or not
I was a marginalized Swede struck by the energy from the hood and the block
If there's beauty in it, the deity's in it, the divinity moves infinitely in intimacy and humility
So the rollercoaster of a West Coast rap flow vividly reflects those movements inside of the Trinity
Benedict that groove like beatitudes in a boom bap mood, be the attitude humble or not
Hip hop be that stumbling block for the establishment that falls like a tumbling rock, no accident
Something about the way that you taught me
Something about the way that you brought me up
Can't quite explain where it brought me
But it has saved my life and I am grateful that you caught me up
Something about the way that you taught me
Something about the way that you brought me up
Can't quite explain where it brought me
But it has saved my life and I am grateful that you caught me up
Something about the way that you taught me
Something about the way that you brought me up
Can't quite explain where it brought me
But it has saved my life and I am grateful that you caught me up