Background Photo by Arun Negi
| "Mathematics" Written by Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def and Dante Smith) and DJ Premier (aka Chris E. Martin) You know the deal It's just me, yo Beats by Su-Primo for all of my people, Negroes and Latinos and even the Gringos Yo, check it, one for Charlie Hustle, two for Steady Rock Three for the fourth comin' live, future shock There's five dimensions, six senses Seven firmaments of heaven to hell, 8 Million Stories to tell Nine planets faithfully keep in orbit With the probable tenth, the universe expands length The body of my text possess extra strength Power-liftin powerless up, out of this, towerin' inferno My ink so hot it burn through the journal I'm blacker than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle Hip-Hop passed all your tall social hurdles Like the nationwide projects, prison-industry complex Working class poor better keep your alarm set Streets too loud to ever hear freedom ring Say evacuate your sleep, it's dangerous to dream For cha-ching, cats get they cha-pow, who dead now? Killin' fields need blood to graze the cash cow It's a numbers game, but shit don't add up somehow Like I got, sixteen to thirty-two bars to rock it But only fifteen percent of profits ever see my pockets Like sixty-nine billion in the last twenty years Spent on national defense but folks still live in fear Like nearly half of America's largest cities is one-quarter black That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack Sixteen ounces to a pound, twenty more to a ki A five minute sentence hearing and you no longer free Forty percent of Americans own a cell phone So they can hear everything that you say when you ain't 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 in prison greens facin' life numbers Crack mothers, crack babies and AIDS patients Young bloods can't spell but they could rock you in PlayStation This new math is whippin' motherfuckers ass You wanna know how to rhyme you better learn how to add It's mathematics "The Mighty Mos Def" "It's simple mathematics" "Check it out" "I revolve around science" "What are we talking about here?" "The Mighty Mos Def" "It's simple mathematics" "Check it out" "I revolve around science" "What are we talking about here?" "Do your math" "Do your math" "One, two, three, four" "What are we talking about here?" Yo, there's one universal law but two sides to every story Three strikes and you be in for life, mandatory Four MC's murdered in the last four years I ain't tryin' to be the fifth one, the millennium is here Yo, it's six million ways to die from the seven deadly thrills Eight-year-olds gettin' found with 9 mills It's 10 P.M., where your seeds at? What's the deal? They on the hill pumpin' 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 five fifteen You best believe you gotta find a new grind to get cream The white unemployment rate is nearly more than triple for black So frontliners got their gun in your back Bubblin' crack, jewel theft and 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 and statistics From your phone, your zip code, to S-S-I digits The system break man, child and women into figures Two columns for who is, and who ain't niggaz Numbers is hard and real and they never have feelings But you push too hard, even numbers got limits Why did one straw break the camel's back? Here's the secret: The million other straws underneath it It's all mathematics "The Mighty Mos Def" "It's simple mathematics" "Check it out" "I revolve around science" "What are we talking about here?" "The Mighty Mos Def" "It's simple mathematics" "Check it out" "I revolve around science" "What are we talking about here?" Mathematics |   |
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