1979

Know what I'm sayin'… In 1979…

I was a 2 year old kid from Adelaide…

I wasn't a 14 year old kid from the Bronx…

It seems to me that in 1999 Hip Hop's a business…

In 1979 it was a culture… And I miss it…

You're so fake its plain to see who you truly are,

looking less like a b-boy, more like a movie star,

forget the funk and go hook up those disco breaks,

sit down punk and take a look at what you make,

it's not hip-hop, it's something more sad, sick and seedy,

what's Popping that Gucci got to do with graffiti?

And your R&B dance-steps what about finger-popping?

b-boy electric shocking, windmills, body rocking,

so body-body rock, body-body rock, I'll take ya back,

break your back, realize b-boys aren't faking that

funk that you've forgotten hoe,

how could you have gotten so

far gone, that you could never stop and go,

back to the roots, 1979,

birthplace of the scratch, birthplace of the rhyme,

you'll feel it in your spine like your first taste of wine,

we'll make it back

it'll just take some time

Remember Kangol hats, fat laces and lino mats,

kids spinning on their backs to the sugar hill wax,

now the sugar hills collapsed and the sweets turned sour,

moneys walking my culture through its darkest hour,

now I wanna take you back, walk my way through time,

I was two years old in 1979,

but it's a time that I miss; you ask what's the difference,

Hip-hop was then a culture, now hip-hop's a business

Zulu started b-boying as a form of expression,

to channel youths stress and their aggression,

now through the suggestion of record companies

MC's are pumping these,

problems back into ya section, and isn't it ironic?

but not the sort to make you laugh,

cuz MC's are building futures while raping the past,

taking a glass of Chardonnay and putting it to your lips,

I'd rather take a razor blade and put it to my wrist

than sell records on the basis that I have to promote

sniffing and selling coke, toting guns and smoking ****,

you're all weaving the rope that you'll hang yourself with

my only consolation is within the hip hop nation is

b-boy elements that can still get me open,

like Graff mags from Berlin, mix tapes from Oakland,

breakers from Rock Steady, plus anything from Tribe

and old school New York that's still got the vibe

Remember Kangol hats, fat laces and lino mats,

kids spinning on their backs to the sugar hill wax,

now the sugar hills collapsed and the sweets turned sour,

moneys walking my culture through its darkest hour,

now I wanna take you back, walk my way through time,

I was two years old in 1979,

but it's a time that I miss; you ask what's the difference,

Hip-hop was then a culture, now hip-hop's a business