[ar:Rakim,Eric B]
[ti:I Ain't No Joke]
[00:09.06]I ain't no joke, I use to let the mic smoke
[00:11.80]Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke
[00:14.47]When I'm gone no one gets on 'cuz I won't let
[00:16.51]Nobody press up and mess up the scene I set
[00:18.59]I like to stand in a crowd and watch the people wonder, damn
[00:21.69]But think about it then you'll understand
[00:23.82]I'm just an addict, addicted to music
[00:25.85]Maybe it's a habit, I gotta use it
[00:28.09]Even if it's jazz or the quiet storm
[00:30.18]I hook a beat up convert it in to hip-hop form
[00:32.41]Write a rhyme in graffiti in, every show you see me in
[00:35.15]Deep concentration 'cuz I'm no comedian
[00:37.28]Jokers are wild if you wanna be tame
[00:39.37]I treat you like a child then you're gonna be named
[00:42.06]Another enemy, not even a friend of me
[00:44.19]'Cuz you'll get fried in the end when you pretend to be
[00:46.88]Competing 'cuz I just put your mind on pause
[00:48.71]And I can beat you when you compare my rhyme wit' yours
[00:50.65]I wake you up and as I stare in your face you seem stunned
[00:53.63]Remember me, the one you got your idea from?
[00:55.70]But soon you start to suffer the tune'll get rougher
[00:58.33]When you start to stutter that's when you had enough of
[01:00.60]Biting it'll make you choke, you can't provoke
[01:02.57]You can't cope, you should of broke because I ain't no joke
[01:23.20]I got a question, as serious as cancer
[01:26.35]Who can keep the average dancer
[01:28.28]Hyper as a heart attack, nobody's smiling
[01:30.41]'Cuz you're expressing the rhyme that I'm styling
[01:32.75]This is what we all sit down to write
[01:34.58]You can't make it so you take it home, break it and bite
[01:37.17]Use pieces and bits of all the hip-hop hits
[01:39.70]Get the style down packed then it's time to switch
[01:41.53]Put my tape on pause and add some more to yours
[01:43.76]Then you fake it, you're ready for the neighborhood chores
[01:46.30]The E M C E E don't even try to be
[01:48.79]When you come up to speak, don't even lie to me
[01:51.03]You like to exaggerate, dream and imaginate
[01:52.81]Then change the rhyme around that can aggravate me
[01:55.85]So when you see me come up, freeze
[01:57.88]Or you'll be one of those seven MC's
[02:00.17]They think that I'm a new jack but only if they knew that
[02:02.56]They who think wrong are they who can't do that
[02:04.75]Style that I'm doing, they might ruin
[02:07.09]Patterns of paragraphs based on you and
[02:09.32]Your offbeat DJ, if anything he play
[02:11.91]Sound familiar, I'll wait till E say
[02:14.20]Play 'em, so I'ma have to dis and bro
[02:16.34]You could get a smack for this, I ain't no joke
[02:37.31]I hold the microphone like a grudge
[02:39.44]B'll hold the record so the needle don't budge
[02:41.59]I hold a conversation 'cuz when I invent
[02:43.96]I nominated my DJ the president
[02:45.88]When I'm see I'll, people freestyle, going steadily
[02:48.68]So pucker up and whistle my melody
[02:51.02]But whatever you do, don't miss one
[02:53.30]They'll be another rough rhyme after this one
[02:55.64]Before you know it, you're following and fiending
[02:57.77]Waiting for the punch line to get the meaning
[02:59.96]Like before the moral of my story I'm telling
[03:02.50]Nobody beats the R, so stop yelling
[03:04.54]Save it, put it in your pocket for later
[03:06.87]'Cuz I'm moving the crowd and B a record fader
[03:09.26]No interruptions till the mic is broke
[03:11.64]When I'm gone, then you can joke
[03:13.79]'Cuz everything is real on a serious tip
[03:15.77]Keep playing and I get furious quick
[03:18.11]And I take you for a walk through hell
[03:20.41]Freeze your dome then watch your eyeballs swell
[03:22.95]Guide you out of triple stage darkness
[03:25.32]When it get dark again then I'ma spark this
[03:27.99]Microphone 'cuz the heat is on, you see smoke
[03:29.92]And I'm finish when the beat is gone, I'm no joke