Late 808

 

A new photo and hip-hop lyric, everyday. All photos taken by Karlyle. Enjoy!

2Pac Ft. Roger Troutman & Dr. Dre – California Love

California love

California knows how to party

California knows how to party

In the city of L.A

In the city of good ol’ Watts

In the city, the city of Compton

We keep it rockin’

Onyx – Slam

See the big black picture if you look inside of my mind

It’s graphic, expressed it drastic

Raekwon – Incarcerated Scarfaces

Poisonous sting, which thumps up and act chumps

Rae’s a heavy generator, but yo, guess who’s the black Trump?

Awon & Phoniks – Certain Presence

My vernacular

Exercises my cardiovascular

Flipping like a spatula

Attacking like I’m Dracula

A legend like Acura

In fact I’m a Maxima

Alpha to Omega

The Pharaoh is coming back for Ya

Split you to your marrow

I self lord and master you

The ambassador

Of the murder flow

Gonna ravish ya

Eminem – When I’m gone

Have you ever loved someone so much

You’d give an arm for

Not the expression, no

Literally give an arm for

When they know they’re your heart

And you know you are their armor

And you will destroy anyone who would try to harm her

Eminem – Mockingbird

Now hush, little baby, don’t you cry

Everything’s gonna be alright

Stiffen that upper lip up, little lady, I told ya

Daddy’s here to hold ya through the night

I know Mommy’s not here right now

And we don’t know why

We fear how we feel inside

It may seem a little crazy, pretty baby

But I promise, Momma’s gon’ be alright

Blu – No Greater Love

Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman

The Invisible Man and Hercules don’t scare me

The FBI, Anti-American Committee, J. Edgar Hoover, President Nixon

President Johnson, Martha Mitchell

And her husband or her man or her woman Ethel

Kennedy, all the Kennedys

Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Rockefeller

None of these people scare me

What scares me is that one day my son will ask me

What did you do Daddy when the shit was goin’ down

50 Cent – What Up Gangsta

They say I walk around like got an S on my chest

Naw, that’s a semi-auto, and a vest on my chest

Ghostface Killah Ft. Mary J. Blige – All That I Got Is You

Check it, fifteen of us in a three bedroom apartment

Roaches everywhere, cousins and aunts was there

Four in the bed, two at the foot, two at the head

I didn’t like to sleep with Jon-Jon he peed the bed

Seven o’clock, pluckin’ roaches out the cereal box

Some shared the same spoon, watchin’ Saturday cartoons

Sugar water was our thing, every meal was no frills

In the summer, free lunch held us down like steel…

Big Sean Ft. John Legend & Kanye West – One Man Can Change the World

I hope you learn to make it on your own

And if you love yourself, just know you’ll never be alone

I hope that you get everything you want and that you chose

I hope that it’s the realest thing that you ever know

Hope you get the pretty girls that’s pretty at everything

Million dollar cribs, havin’ million dollar dreams

And when you get it all, just remember one thing

Remember one thing, that one man could change the world

That one man could change the world

Jay Z Ft. Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind

New York, concrete jungle

Where dreams are made of

There’s nothing you can’t do

Now you’re in New York

These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you

Let’s hear it for New York

New York, New York

Jay Rock Ft. Black Hippy – Say Wassup

I’m Soulo, take a photo, blowing do-do in a dojo

We a green light, you a no-go, hey Q, go

No, Rock, go

I’m a rock though, like Barack though

And my eyes low and I drive slow like Paul Wall

Give it back though, I got y’all

Nah, fuck that, I’m a ball hog

No, fuck that, they gon’ fall off

Got a sawed-off, I’mma hop out, let it all off

Hop back in, then I haul off

We situated, we hit the pavement so hard

We all got ground to play with

A challenger is like last year calendars

Yup, you’re all outdated

Lost Boyz – Renee

Here’s a tune about this honey named Renee

That I met one day

On my way back from John Jay

I’m peeping shorty as she’s walking to the train

I tap her on her shoulders

Excuse me miss, but can I get your name

She said, my name is Renee

I said I got a whole lot to say

So may I walk you to your subway

She said if you want so yo, we started talking

I bought two franks and two drinks and we began walking

I had to see where that head was at

Cause her gear was mad phat

So we must chat about this and that

She told me what she was in school for

She wants to be a lawyer

In other words, shorty studies law

I’m telling shorty I’m a writer

Mobb Deep – Survival of the Fittest

There’s a war going on outside no man is safe from

You could run, but you can’t hide forever

From these streets that we done took

You walking with your head down

Scared to look, you shook

‘Cause ain’t no such things as halfway crooks

They never around when the beef cooks in my part of town

It’s similar to Vietnam

Kendrick Lamar – The Blacker the Berry

Six in the morn’, fire in the street

Burn, baby, burn, that’s all I wanna see

And sometimes I get off watching you die in vain

It’s such a shame they may call me crazy

They may say I suffer from schizophrenia or somethin’

But homie, you made me

Black don’t crack

OutKast Ft. Rosario Dawson – She Lives in My Lap

She stays alone, never sheds a single tear

She stays in the coolest moods, clearly woman of the year

She and all her girlfriends, they go out dressed to win

She comes back to the cooler side of town

But she lives in my lap

Isaiah Rashad Ft. SZA – Ronnie Drake

Sometimes I wonder why we killers, why they killing us

I think we only wear a grill because they grilling us

Or how they feeling us, gotta look real and tough

Gotta keep your hands in the cart, know you stealing stuff

Came a long way from a boat and an auction

Now we got names and a vote, then a coffin

Jay – Z – D’Evils

Whoever said illegal was the easy way out, couldn’t understand

The mechanics and the workings of the underworld, granted

Nine to five is how you survive, I ain’t trying to survive

I’m tryna live it to the limit and love it a lot

Eric B. & Rakim – I Know You Got Soul

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…

Black Star – Thieves in the Night

Yo, I’m sure that everybody out listenin agree

That everything you see ain’t really how it be

A lot of jokers out runnin in place, chasin the style

Be a lot goin on beneath the empty smile

Most cats in my area be lovin the hysteria

Synthesized surface conceals the interior

Nico Segal Ft. Vic Mensa & Chance The Rapper – Zion

Me mommy love me, like she love her nappy head

She sang me fables, when she used to wrap me dreads

She said me look like me grandpappy, now he dead

He never met me, but he loved me, yeah he did

He was a king, before me Ma became a queen

They killed him dead, because he tried to stop the war

Me momma love me, like the song that she sings

But I think she loves me just a little bit more

The Notorious B.I.G. Ft. Total – Juicy

We used to fuss when the landlord dissed us

No heat, wonder why Christmas missed us

Birthdays was the worst days

Now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay

Big Pun Ft. B-Real, Fat Joe & Kool G. Rap – Wishful Thinking

Majored in chemistry, PHD in streetology

Degree in drug industry

Combinin’ H²O with matter from crack batter

Residue molecules scatter

Launchin’ rockets to make the pocket fatter

Mind brighter, the nine starts a crime

G equals and MC that ain’t near the square son I gets mine