Da, da, da, da, day…Snoop Doggedly,
interpolation by a Dr. Dre,
so he didn’t have to pay, he played all the
instruments himself, as to avoid the sample rate,
not mention it was released well past the date
slated for Doggystyle, but came eight years late,
I guess fuck wit’ Andre is how they operate, but
all I can say now is, hip hop hooray!

Same year, different sandbox.
El-P did the beat when he introduced Cannibal Ox,
the first release from upstart Definitive Jux,
the break up of Company Flow, had given him a push,
and all it took, was watching Cat People,
during the dream sequence, shit got mad real,
funny thing is, he sampled what the record made,
and I took loops straight off my VHS tapes.

But that was ten years late, cause
DJ Muggs, had been fucking with great breaks,
’91 was all about bud and phat beats,
with Cypress Hill, Del, X-Clan and Black Sheep.
Vanilla Ice even had some shine, but I
thought if that’s his true skin color, then this can’t be mine,
I started ghost-writing for B-Real and Sen Dog, but I
didn’t have email, so I never pressed ‘send’ dog.

Aw schucks, I missed my chance to suck,
I didn’t embarrass myself, that’s what’s up,
by the time I heard the Beat Nuts, I was done
being just a fan, I wanted to man the drums,
even tho I was a rapper first,
freestyling since ’95 on the planet Earth,
Hoth was my place of birth, but
don’t bother looking thru star charts to place a search.

NASA won’t have that,
it’s classified like the sample of this damn track,
I hit the lottery one day outside the record store, a
guy was selling 45’s but Vintage wouldn’t get him more,
so I did, and took his crate home to my crib,
and found this single with a B-side that flipped my whig,
I woulda served that shit up like a hungry kid,
but I was a purist and BlahZay-BlahZay already did.

And nothing’s better than hearing from that man we know,
and that’s our man Primo, you know…
DJ Premier never sold beats to me, but I
wish he would’ve, instead of giving this to MOP,
cause emcees who scream when they’re rapping,
on every song? It’s just not gonna stay happening,
no matter how many Gangstarr beats you can make happen,
the MOPpets will not take Manhattan.

Here’s the best freestyle beat you never blowed up, but
then again, the average person never holds a Royal Flush,
Queensbridge ’95 sewed the game up, with
gangsta-ass beats, and rappers trying to play tough,
west L.A. had that G-Funk money for
three years running, leaving rappers in the east hungry,
some felt like, “you took that shit from me,”
and between Suge and P Diddy, the coasts had it coming.

When ’96 came, they made some great shit,
well, Nas, De La Soul and Ghostface did,
The Roots made this…
One piano note and Quest Love’s drums made us trip,
I flowed over this beat, many-a-time,
from battle drills to buggin’, there were plenty of rhymes,
but that was before Def Jam “found them,”
before OkayPlayer, before Jimmy Fallon.

And when real emcees got to come up, like
Pharoah Monche, we got the fuck up,
no questions asked, hands shot up, but
when he got sued for the sample, his finance got cut,
the makers of Godzilla thought they lucked up, when an
underground artist used their art to get the club krunk,
they proved it in court with the dub cut,
you can hear it, the defense couldn’t shut the truck up.

God bless the Luniz for this cool breeze,
when we heard it, we rolled a Swisher up tout suite,
leeches finally had to pay for some good stink, and
if you got 5 on it, you could catch a hook wink,
that’s a puff-puff-pass on the west-side,
these guys proved sometimes, even the best die,
this shit was hot for like one quick summer, and
just like Sour Diesel, they were a one-hit wonder.

And I heard this groove a bit late,
on one of DJ Crucial’s first mix tapes,
’98 I believe, if my shit’s straight,
he came back from Carbondale with some terrific breaks,
Jurrasic 5 was new at the time, but we
didn’t call ‘em throwbacks then, just average rhymes,
nothing wrong with that, they were just behind the times,
I‘d already heard Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5.

But who knew a beat that good, could
come from the projects of East Flatbush?
First time I heard it, I was stuck like a statue,
listening to the Beat Junkies volume one with Babu,
man, you can’t tell me that koto’s not something,
especially with those Al Green drums accompanying,
another must-have for battle addicts, and it’s
even equipped with tape hiss and vinyl static.

Yeah but, this great takes the crab cake,
best underground beat of the 90’s, damn straight,
Mobb Deep, were probably in their late teens,
when it managed to get air play well beyond the add-date,
it sums up diggin’ in the crates, with
bangin’ ass drums and bass that hit you in the face,
I was a college DJ, when I was slipped the tape,
so I freestyled to it live with Christian, Reggie and K,
and history was made,
I would’ve love to watch Kool Herc rock it back in the day,
but until my flux capacitor is back in shape,
I guess the present is where I’ll have to stay...