I Ain't No Joke Eric B. & Rakim

[00:08.76] I ain't no joke, I use to let the mic smoke
[00:10.81] Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke
[00:13.26] When i'm gone no one gets on cuz I won't let
[00:15.58] Nobody press up and mess up the seen I set
[00:18.06] I like to stand in a crowd and watch the people wonder damn
[00:20.75] But think about it then you'll understand
[00:23.13] I'm just an addict addicted to music
[00:25.14] Maybe it's a habit, I gotta use it
[00:27.30] Even if it's jazz or the quiet storm
[00:29.68] I a beat up convert it into hip-hop form
[00:32.04] Write a rhyme in graffitti in every show you see me in
[00:34.19] Deep concentration, cuz I'm no comedian
[00:36.73] Jokers are wild if you wanna be tamed
[00:39.08] I treat you like a child then you're gonna be named
[00:41.31] Another enemy, not even a friend of me
[00:43.86] Cuz you'll get fried in the end when you pretend to be
[00:46.15] Competin' cuz I just put your mind on pause
[00:48.06] And I complete when - you compare my rhyme wit yours
[00:50.42] I wake you up and as I stare in your face you seem stunned
[00:52.75] Remember me, the one you got your idea from
[00:54.73] But soon you start to suffer, the tune'll get rougher
[00:57.02] When you start to stutter that's when you had enuff of
[00:58.64] Biting, it'll make you choke, you can't provoke
[01:02.10] You can't cope, you should've broke because I ain't no joke
[01:07.11]
[01:22.50] I got a question, as serious as cancer
[01:25.61] Who can keep the average dancer
[01:27.22] Hyper as a heart attack nobody smiling
[01:29.63] Cuz you're expressing the rhyme that I'm styling
[01:32.09] This is what we all sit down to write
[01:33.98] You can't make it so you take it home, break it and bite
[01:36.07] Use pieces and bits of all the hip-hop hits
[01:38.35] Get the style down pat then it's time to switch
[01:40.60] Put my tape on pause and add some more to yours
[01:43.03] Then you fake it you're ready for the neighborhood chores
[01:45.34] The E-M-C-E-E don't even try to be
[01:47.96] When you come up to speak, don't even lie to me
[01:50.49] You like to exaggerate, dream and imaginate
[01:52.58] Then change the rhyme around, that can aggravate me
[01:54.90] So when you see me come up, freeze
[01:57.49] Or you'll be one of those 7 MC's
[01:59.56] They think that I'm a new jack but only if they knew that
[02:01.74] They who think wrong are they who can't do that
[02:03.99] Style that I'm doing, they might ruin
[02:06.59] Patterns and paragraphs based on you and
[02:08.73] Your offbeat DJ, if anything he play
[02:11.20] Sound familiar, I'll wait til E say
[02:13.46] Play 'em, so I'ma have to diss and bro
[02:15.79] You could get a smack for this, I ain't no joke
[02:19.77]
[02:36.87] I hold the microphone like a grudge
[02:38.79] B'll hold the record so the needle don't budge
[02:40.84] I hold a conversation cuz when I invent
[02:43.11] I nominated my DJ to president
[02:45.11] When I'm see I'll, keep a freestyle, going steadily
[02:47.69] So pucker up and whistle my melody
[02:50.21] But whatever you do, don't miss one
[02:52.72] They'll be another rough rhyme after this one
[02:54.60] Before you know it, you're following and fiending
[02:56.83] Waiting for the punchline to get the meaning
[02:59.25] Like before the middle of my story I'm telling
[03:01.40] Nobody beats the R so stop yelling
[03:03.62] Save it, put it in your pocket for later
[03:06.22] Cuz I'm moving the crowd and B'll wreck the fader
[03:08.25] No interruptions til the mic is broke
[03:10.82] When I'm gone, then you can joke
[03:13.36] Cuz everything is real on a serious tip
[03:15.30] Keep playing and I varies quick
[03:17.89] And take you for a walk through hell
[03:19.85] Freeze your dome then watch your eyeballs swell
[03:22.78] Guide you out of triple stage darkness
[03:24.59] When it get dark again then I'ma spark this
[03:26.95] Microphone cuz the heat is on, you see smoke
[03:29.54] Then I finish when the beat is gone, I'm no joke
[03:31.78]