Big Brother Beat (Live at Tramps, NYC, 1996)

[Intro: De La Soul]
Ayo, that's Mos Def
We gon' get into this shit, a'ight?
Ha ha ha ha
Ha, come on, ha ha ha ha
Turn that shit up
Ha, yo, ha ha ha ha
Ah-ha ha ha ha, ah-ha ha ha ha, ha

[Chorus: De La Soul & Mos Def]
Now this goes out to all area cliques
Centralized and way out in the sticks
Remember to keep the De La in the mix
Just like Log Cabin syrup my sound is deep thick
Now this goes out to all area cliques
From manicured lawns to the projects bricks
Remember to keep the Mos Def in the mix
Straight butter hits, be as a good as it gets

[Verse 1]
[Mos Def]
Now, come on y'all, get live get down
What we have is a brand new sound
So don't none of y'all just be misled
Dе La's gonna do the body good like wheat brеad

[Trugoy the Dove]
Shakin' laces out of shoes, Mos Def bought the brews
Sittin' Indian squats to make that bread tie knots
See, I'm out to get the coin like in them Rainbow pots
Swingin' life like a hammock, invested like stocks

[Posdnous]
Via sinus complex, I aims to clog it up
Snappin' by the pain as a crew hear the gain
We remain on your mind like skulls, when we inside the Tramp's
You all checkin' out a zone on a show

[Mos Def]
The Native Tongue come through to make you say yes yes
This is the mighty Mos Def, style fresh like baby breath

[Posdnous]
We be that killer combination with the size
To add another beatdown to swell up all three of your eyes

[Chorus: De La Soul & Mos Def]
Now this goes out to all area cliques
Centralized and way out in the sticks
Remember to keep the De La in the mix
Just like Log Cabin syrup my sound is deep thick
Now this goes out to all area cliques
From manicured lawns to the projects bricks
Remember to keep the Native Tongues in the mix
Straight butter hits, be as a good as it gets

[Post-Chorus: De La Soul & Mos Def]
Check it out, and ya don't stop
We got the big brother beat and ya don't stop
Check it out y'all (Check it out), and ya don't stop
We got the big brother beat, a big brother beat

[Verse 2]
[Mos Def]
I don't bug out, I chill, don't be actin' ill
No tricks in '96, Native Tongue gon' build
But we be easy on the cut, no mistakes allowed
'Cause to me (What?), MC mean, makin' cream
When I speak on grooves, son, I'm smooth like Gabardine
Tryin' to hang out with Dove and catch love in Aberdine
Bag dimes like my man born on August 17th
Life ain't shit but a river, son, I'm swimmin' upstream

[Posdnous]
Playin' wait up, with the data servin' your ears
With information due to confirmation of the nation's most
Wicked ways of livin', like them glassy-eyed beans
Inhale to smoke the fiends, while bangin' my tape
Rated at the high point of the mass
Rippin' niggas at the top of a class
Occasionally rippin' some sucker's face
Or some suckable ass from a girl
It's a big brother beat for the wide wide world

[Trugoy the Dove]
I'm makin' memos off these demos back in '89
Took you all on encounters of an unknown kind
Did the hustle with a couple of us, but soon noted
That my niggas buttered Benedict rolls, and then they voted
I wrote in the dark so I could feel it like Braille
Heard the big brother beat, got locked with no bail
Came to set like equators invented, with the heat
Yo, Mos Def, how you radiate to make it complete?

[Mos Def]
(What?) So when I shine the light crabs wince
Manifest for the future here in the present tense
No doubt, I love the sound pumpin' out off your Jeeps
But son, I want the little kids bangin' "Big Brother Beat"

[Chorus: De La Soul & Mos Def]
Now this goes out to all area cliques (What?)
Centralized and way out in the sticks
Remember to keep the De La in the mix
Just like Log Cabin syrup my sound is deep thick (What?)
Now this goes out to all area cliques
From 7-18, from the 51-6
Remember to keep the Mos Def in the mix
Straight butter hits, straight butter hits

[Outro: De La Soul & Mos Def]
We straight butter hits, straight butter hits
Manteca, Manteca
Yo, we straight butter hits, straight butter hits
Manteca, Manteca
Yo, we straight butter hits, straight butter hits
Manteca, Manteca
Yo, we straight butter hits, straight butter hits
Manaquilla, baby

(Yo yo, what you lookin' at, Mos? What you lookin' at?)