What’s That Sound

Fuck a sampler
I rhyme to the rhythm of my punchlines beating your ear drum
Creating sublime subliminal rhythms synchronized to how I feel son
Livin' to the rhythm of time
Life: the composition composed of minutes, seconds, decades, years, millenniums
Alternating and creating the symphony played by the sound of the morning train
Galloping to work
The sound of a global choir of women givin' birth
The sound of the child molesting priest breathing hard in the back of the Church

The sound of the lost youth getting back at mother earth
The sound of capitalistic blood thirst
We stand around rapping over the sound of the police
Rappin' over the sound of no justice no peace
A troublesome couple sons rappin'
Over urban jungle drums
Stickin' to the bubble gum
Rappin' over the thumping beat of an army of feet
Invading their neighboring country forcing 'em to retreat
Rappin' over the
Sound of my girl's talkin' in her sleep
And the sound of skulls getting crushed on concrete

[Chorus]
But what's sound?/ Sound is music!
Now what's music?/ Music is life!
And what's life?/ Life is death!
Now what's death?/ Death is silence!
But what's silence?/ Silence is sound!
So what's sound?/ Sound is music!
Then what's music?/ Music is life!
And what's life?/ Life is death!

This is to my sons in the streets on the run from police
Headphones and car seats pumpin' these beats
Yo the stage setting: we on a highway heading east
Through the world's dead end streets
We're like seven deep at the speed of a spreading virus
Out of control like forest fires
Rappin' thrue mike wires, rappin' over beats or rappin' over silence. It's all music anyway
We rap over the sounds of cash registers
Or without getting any pay

Fuck a deejay I rhyme to the rhythm of my razor tongue cutting your ear wax
Playin' the rhythm of decision over my heart beat and the noise of Air Max
Runnin' from Jimi Hendrix machine gunnin', fear
Makes it hard to hear my heart beating
Deafened by the primate inside of me screaming
There's more rhythms to listen to more melodies
But when the day is over the harmony is off key. Loop that sample!
Sshh, I'm vibin' to mother earth's menstrual cycle...

[Chorus]
But what's sound?/ Sound is music!
Now what's music?/ Music is life!
And what's life?/ Life is death!
Now what's death?/ Death is silence!
But what's silence?/ Silence is sound!
So what's sound?/ Sound is music!
Then what's music?/ Music is life!
And what's life?/ Life is death!

I looked right and left got swept away
By the sound wave to which I'm a damn slave
Runnin' through physically illegal environments
Dissecting drum sets, fragments of sweaty recording sets
The battle between destruction and construction, silence and noise
Girl versus boy. Plastic card versus coin is occupying my mind while the silent
Wind of truth is runnin' thrue body and soul
The friction between needle and
Wax is removing the cold
And it's the source of life. Of this entire empire where the landscape is the soundscape
Which is one with the mind state
The state on the other side of the Babylonian valley
I stand on the mountain of love with the fist in the air
The air I'm breathin', the truth I'm retreavin', the chambers of my heart I'm revealin'
Every scar and bruise is healin'...

When me and Black Fist master the art of music stealin'
Rap over the cry of the people with the slide of a needle
Rockin' over two turntables over the rockin' of a cradle
And the soft singin' of a mother's soothing voice
Your drunk parents arguing makin' noise
And your grandfather's whistling the
Grim Reaper's whispering
Slow ballads of death and he'll make sure that you're listening
The rimshot to the gunshot, gunclap to the handclap
Footstep to the footchain, fingersnap to the neck snap
We got a text that will break all bounds
Though these words ain't noting but sounds...

[Chorus]
But what's sound?/ Sound is music!
Now what's music?/ Music is life!
And what's life?/ Life is death!
Now what's death?/ Death is silence!
But what's silence?/ Silence is sound!
So what's sound?/ Sound is music!
Then what's music?/ Music is life!
And what's life?/ Life is death!

So what's death? / Death is