Text: Sway & King Tech. Back 2 Basics. Intro.

(feat. RZA)

Ayyo, I think it's time we give them a sign
Take it back to seventy-nine when hip-hop would shine
Of a good times and the hood felt fine
I mean, we came from pro kegs, to Bally's to afrocentric dreads
From nappy heads, to now we being prawled by the feds
From low-top fades, to baldheads to braids
To doo rags with tilted hats
And cats carrying razor blades inside their mouth
Before we was gettin crunk and going dirty dirty south
Know what I'm sayin, It was all about what a nigga would spit from his mouth
How much weight to a hole
Back when the Cold Crush Brothers was fresh, fly, wild and bold
Kool Moe Dee versus Busy Bee, Force MC's and the Fantastic Freaks
Mc Spoony G, on the wheels of steel Grandmaster D
Or Flash and DST, sparking their wild style
With that spinback that made the other cats go wild
Let me tell you son, we goin back to porce tapes to four tracks
when we always wanted more tracks
From the SP-1200 with two point five seconds per sampling pack
That was all we had but niggaz was glad
They could loop the beat, so maybe they could scoop the street
This is back when Marley Marl first dropped the "Symphony"
The eighty-six MC era, when Rakim struck all y'all crap MC's with terror
And Kool G Rap and Kane flipped track to argue who was better
And yes, some would stress it was KRS from the Bronx
And he proved that MC Shan from Queens was no conte
Then we flash to the nineties, when shit got all grimey
And everybody was claimin they was thug, gansta or crimey
When WTC just appeared on the scene
This was the first time when everybody start to make some real cream
And New York niggaz walked around with fronts in their teeth
The next thing you know, east coast and west coast caught beef
And noone knew how far it would go
'Till we lost two great soldiers and now we cherish their souls
Two heroes, hip-hop industry now resorted down to numbers of ones and zeroes
From mono to stereo, from analog to digital
Now hip-hop life support's stuck on critical
Let's take it back before MTV and BET
Before the commercials by KFC, ATT and Mickey D's
Before all you gangstas and G's, pimps and hoes
Let's take it back to the original flows
Of an MC, his DJ, the mic and the show
The crowd yelling Hoooo
And off on the way we go
Let's take it out of the matrix
Ayyo Tech, yo Sway, let's get back to the basics

[Heavy breathing]