Mathematics

Album: Black on Both Sides (1999)

[Mos Def] Booka-booka-booka-booka-booka-booka Ha hah You know the deal It is just me yo Beats by Su-Primo for all of my peoples, negroes & latinos and even the gringos

Yo, check it one for Charlie Hustle, two for Steady Rock Three for the 4th comin live, future shock It is five dimensions, six senses Seven firmaments of heaven to hell, 8 Million Stories to tell Nine planets faithfully keep in orbit with the probable 10th, the universe expands length The body of my text posess extra strength Power-liftin powerless up, out of this, towerin inferno My ink so hot it burn through the journal I am blacker than midnight on Broadway & Myrtle Hip-Hop past all your tall social hurdles like the nationwide projects, prison-industry complex Broken glass wall better keep your alarm set Streets too loud to ever hear freedom sing Say evacuate your sleep, it is dangerous to dream but you chain cats get they CHA-POW, who dead now Killin fields need blood to graze the cash cow It is a number game, but shit donīt add up somehow Like I got, sixteen to thirty-two bars to rock it but only 15% of profits, ever see my pockets like sixty-nine billion in the last twenty yeahrs spent on national defense but folks still live in fear like nearly half of Americaīs largest cities is one-quarter black That is why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack Sixteen ounces to a pound, twenty more to a ki A five minute sentence hearing & you no longer free 40% of Americans own a cell phone so they can hear, everything that you say when you aint home I guess, Michael Jackson was right, "You Are Not Alone" Rock your hardhat black cause you in the Terrordome full of hard niggaz, large niggaz, dice tumblers Young teens & prison greens facin life numbers Crack mothers, crack babies & AIDS patients Young bloods canīt spell but they could rock you in PlayStation This new math is whippin motherf*ckers ass You want to know how to rhyme you better learn how to add It is mathematics

Chorus: scratched by DJ Premier (repeat 2X)

"The Mighty Mos Def.." "It is simple mathematics" -> Fat Joe "Check it out!" "I revolve around science.." "What are we talking about here?"

.. "Do your math" -> Erykah Badu (2X) .. .. "One.. t-t-two.. three, four" -> James Brown .. .. "What are we talking about here?" ..

[Mos Def] Yo, it is one universal law but two sides to every story Three strikes & you be in for life, manditory Four MCīs murdered in the last four yeahrs I aint tryin to be the 5th one, the millenium is here Yo it is 6 Million Ways to Die, from the seven deadly thrills Eight-yeahr olds gettin found with 9 millīs It is 10 P.M., where your seeds at? Whatīs the deal He on the hill puffin krill to keep they belly filled Light in the ass with heavy steel, sights on the pretty shit in life Young soldiers tryin to earn they next stripe When the average minimum wage is $5.15 You best believe youīve got to find a new ground to get cream The white unemployment rate, is nearly more than triple for black so frontliners got they gun in your back Bubblin crack, jewel theft & robbery to combat poverty and end up in the global jail economy Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence Budget cutbacks but increased police presence And even if you get out of prison still livin join the other five million under state supervision This is business, no faces just lines & statistics from your phone, your zip code, to S-S-I digits The system break man child & women into figures Two columns for who is, & who aint niggaz Numbers is hardly real & they never have feelings but you push too hard, even numbers got limits Why did one straw break the camelīs back? Here is the secret: the million other straws underneath it - it is all mathematics

Chorus

{closing scratch} "Mathematics.."