Stakes is High (Live at Tramps, NYC, 1996)

[Intro: De La Soul]
Ayo, we gon' do this shit called "Stakes is High"
Stakes is high, stakes is high
Everybody wanna feel the vibe, everybody wanna feel the vibe
Everybody wanna feel the vibe, everybody wanna feel the vibe, what
Everybody wanna feel the vibe, everybody wanna feel the vibe
You say vibe, everybody say vibrations
Stakes is high, you know them stakes is high
Everybody say vibe, now everybody say vibrations
Stakes is high, you know them stakes is high
Everybody say vibe, now evеrybody say vibrations
Stakes is high, you know them stakes is high

[Verse 1: Posdnous]
Thе instamatic focal point bringing damage to your borough
Be some brothers from the east with some beats that be thorough
Got the solar gravitation, I'm bound to pull it
I gets down like brothers are found ducking from bullets
Gun control means using both hands in my land
Where it's all about the cautious livin'
Migrating to a higher form of consequence, compliments
Of strugglin', that shouldn't be notable
Man, every word I say should be a hip-hop quotable

[Verse 2: Trugoy the Dove]
I'm sick of bitches shakin' asses
I'm sick of talkin' about blunts
Sick of Versace glasses
Sick of slang
Sick of half-ass awards shows
Sick of name brand clothes
Sick of R&B bitches over bullshit tracks
Cocaine and crack
Which brings sickness to blacks
Sick of swoll' head rappers
With their sicker-than raps
Clappers and gats
Makin' the whole sick world collapse
The facts are gettin' sick
Even sicker perhaps
A stickabush to make a bundle to escape this synapse

[Verse 3: Posdnous]
Man, life can get all up in your ass, baby, you better work it out
Let me tell you what it's all about
A skin not considered equal
A meteor has more right than my people
Who be wastin' time screaming who they've hated
That's why the Native Tongues have officially been re-instated

[Chorus: De La Soul]
Vibes, everybody say vibrations. come on
Stakes is high, you know them stakes is high when you dealin' with the
Vibes, everybody say vibrations
Everybody wanna feel the vibe, everybody wanna feel the vibe
Now everybody wanna feel the vibe, everybody wanna feel the vibe
Say vibe, come on, y'all, vibration, come on
Stakes is high, you know them stakes is high

[Verse 4: Posdnous]
Yo, it's about love for cars, love for funds
Loving to love mad sex, loving to love guns
Love for opposite, love for fame and wealth
Love for the fact of no longer loving yourself, kid
We living in them days of the man-made ways
Where every aspect is vivid
These brothers no longer talk shit
Ayo, these niggas live it
'Bout to give it to you 24/7 on the microphone
Plug One (Plug One, Plug One)
No offense to a player, yo, I don't play
And if you take offense, fuck it, got to be that way
J.D. Dove, show your love, what you got to say?

[Verse 5: Trugoy the Dove]
I say G's are making figures at a high regard
And you niggas dying for it nowadays ain't odd (It ain't odd)
Investing in fantasies and not God
Welcome to reality, see, times is hard
People try to snatch the credit, but can't claim the card
Showing out in videos, saying they cold stars
See, shit like that'll make your mama cry
Better watch the way you spend it
'Cause the stakes is high

[Chorus: De La Soul]
You know them stakes is high
When you dealin' with the vibe
Now everybody say vibrations
Everybody wanna feel the vibe, everybody wanna feel the vibe
Stakes is high, you know them stakes is high

[Verse 6: Trugoy the Dove]
I think that smiling in public is against the law (What?)
'Cause love don't get you through life no more
It's who you know and "How you, son?"
And how you gettin' in, and who the man holding
Yo, and how was the skins, and how high
Yo, what up, huh? I heard you caught a body
Seem like every man and woman shared a life with John Gotti
(But they ain't organized!)
Mixing crimes with life enzymes
Taking the big scout route
And niggas know doubt
Better than they know their daughters and their sons, y'all

[Verse 7: Posdnous]
Yo, people go through pain and still don't gain
Positive contact just like my main man
Who got others cleaning up his physical influence
His mind got congested
He got a nine and blew it
Neighborhoods are now hoods 'cause nobody's neighbors
Just animals surviving with that animal behavior
Under I, who be rhymin' from dark to light sky
Experiments when needles and skin connect
No wonder where we live is called the projects
When them stakes is high you damn sure try to do
Anything to get the piece of the pie
Electrify
Even die for the cash
But at last I be out even though you wantin' more
This issue is closed like an elevator door
But soon re-opened once we get to the next floor

[Outro: De La Soul]
Of the vibe
Now everybody say vibration
Hey, stakes is high, you know them stakes is high
Let me hear you say vibe
Now everybody say vibration
The stakes is high, you know them stakes is high
Here we go
Vibe, now everybody, vibrations
Stakes is high