August 11th (feat. Nata)

Yea uh My heart start beating, my mind starts going My leg starts twitching, my mouth starts flowing My brain's unfocused, my soul feels nourished I swear that you're the love of my life For 20 years, I've been engulfed with the marriage Of words in a rhythmic pattern And sampled and synthesized compositions by certain rappers It started with toasting, scat-singing, playing the dozens That led to this art from that gave my life so much substance Kool Herc is the godfather and Coke La Rock You hear the music from park jams and local blocks Mid-70's, fed their souls with a remedy I swear that you're the love of my life Not everybody was hip to the music To the ghettos it's strictly exclusive Heard the Apache and disco influence You found me a score later in the fall of 2001 And right then I knew the madness begun Nas' "One Love" made me a storyteller Threw away the pop music, hip hop I know is better Learn the history, grab the mic and I got live Barbershop dialogue, let's debate, what's your top 5? Nas AZ Lupe Common and Rakim I'm praying over time I make it to their top 10 My heart start beating, my mind starts going My leg starts twitching, my mouth starts flowing My brain's unfocused, my soul feels nourished I swear that you're the love of my life My head starts nodding, my foot starts tapping My hands start moving, my tongue starts rapping My brain's unfocused, my soul feels nourished I swear that you're the love of my life See I had met this kind of love when I was 9 years old Didn't know about it much but it had so much soul And I don't mean to impose But there's something 'bout the way you disclose On my life through the word you have chose and I And I remember days and nights when I would brainstorm In apartment J man we could barely keep our lights on Heard that hard times for the fruit is like soil Used to fix the satellite when the aluminum foil To my surprise the channel showed the MTV Raps Digable Planets just rhymin how they "Cool Like Dat" The Choice Is Yours and then Common said he Used to Love H.E.R Bonita Applebum had a sound like no other And that's on Tribe Called Quest and I began to quest Felt a feeling that has suit me best Heart beating through chest The only girl in the rap talk circles CDs stores staying way past curfew And then, Jay-Z, Biggie, Hill be the MCs God said daughter you next pick up the pen please And now I use to mic to plant seeds So when they mention who's the greatest I'm just praying that they mention me Uh Uh huh Uh Uh Uh Uh Uh huh Uh Uh Uh Yea Uh huh Uh Uh Uh Uh huh Uh Yea Yea It's hip hop, the rhythm to the streets It's hip hop, witty lyrics on a beat It's hip hop, the sound of the culture It's hip hop, we gotta keep it from the vultures And yea we move across the borders God body flow so when I spit it's holy water The sound is worldwide but it started on the corner Rappers gettin big tryna make a fake persona And I don't know who taught them And I don't know who raise them Me & Nata flowing yea we do this on occasion 'Cause your soul needs saving We rose from the pavement You hear it in our cadence Started from the basement and stages and hands waving My heart start beating, my mind starts going My leg starts twitching, my mouth starts flowing My brain's unfocused, my soul feels nourished I swear that you're the love of my life I swear that you're the love of my life