[Mos Def]

Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem *

If you can hear me ladies and gentlemen

then I'm very happy that you came here..

Ooh ooooooooooohhhh ooh ooooooooooooooohh WHEEEEE!!!

That was for Brooklyn..

Ha ha we get it everytime

You got me on? Ohh

Shout out to all of my crew East West North South

All the continent Europe all abroad international

Bring it in bring it in bring it in bring it in

It's a lot of things goin on y'all

21st century is comin

20th century almost done

A lot of things have changed

A lot of things have not, mainly us

We gon' get it together right? I believe that

Listen.. people be askin me all the time,

"Yo Mos, what's gettin ready to happen with Hip-Hop?"

(Where do you think Hip-Hop is goin?)

I tell em, "You know what's gonna happen with Hip-Hop?

Whatever's happening with us"

If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out

If we doin alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin alright

People talk about Hip-Hop like it's some giant livin in the hillside

comin down to visit the townspeople

We +are+ Hip-Hop

Me, you, everybody, we are Hip-Hop

So Hip-Hop is goin where we goin

So the next time you ask yourself where Hip-Hop is goin

ask yourself.. where am I goin? How am I doin?

Til you get a clear idea

So.. if Hip-Hop is about the people

and the.. Hip-Hop won't get better until the people get better

then how do people get better? (Hmmmm...)

Well, from my understanding people get better

when they start to understand that, they are valuable

And they not valuable because they got a whole lot of money

or cause somebody, think they sexy

but they valuable caause they b