Intro: (sung by KRS One to the tune of the Beatles "Let It Be")
Boogie Down Productions will always get paid
We'll take the wackest song and make it better
Remember to let us into your skin
Cause then you'll begin to master
Rhymin rhymin rhymin
Verse One: KRS One
Criminal minded you've been blinded
Lookin for a style like mine you can't find it
They are the audience I am the lyricist
Sometimes the suckas on the side gotta hear this
Page, a rage, and I'm not in a cage
Free as a bird to fly up out on stage
Ain't here for no frontin just to say a little somethin
Ya suckaz don't like me cause you're all about nothin
However, I'm really fascinating to the letter
My all-around performance gets better and better
My English grammar comes down like a hammer
You need a style, I need to pull your file
I don't beg favors, you're kissing other people's ---
I write and produce myself just as fast
Keep my hair like this, got no time for Jheri curls
Attractin only women, got no time for little girls
[KRS sings again] Cause girls look so good
but their brain is not ready, I don't know
I'd rather talk to a woman
cause her mind is so steady, so here we go
I'm not a musical maniac or b-boy fanatic
I simply made use of what was upstairs in the attic
I've listened to these MC's back when I was a kid
But I bust more shots than they ever did
I mean this is not the best of KRS, it's just a section
But how many times must I point you in the right direction
You need protection, when I'm on the mic
Because my mouth is like a 9 millimeter windpipe
You're a king, I'm a teacher
You're a b-boy, I'm a scholar
If this was a class, well it would go right under drama
See kings lose crowns but teachers stay intelligent
Talkin big words on the mic but still irrelevant
Especially when you're not, college material
Wake up every morning to your Lucky Charms cereal
DJ Scott LaRock has a college degree
Blastmaster KRS writes poetry
I won't go deeper in the subject cause that gets me bored
It's a shame to know some MC's on the mic are fraud
Sayin styles like this to create a diss
But if you listen, who you dissin?
See I am a musician
Rappin on the mic like this to me is fine
Cause if I really want to battle I will put out a nine
You can see that Scott LaRock and I are mentally binded
In other words we're both Criminal Minded
Verse Two: KRS-One
We're not promoting violence, we're just havin some fun
He's Scott LaRock, I'm KRS-One
Never off-beat cause it don't make sense
Grab the microphone, relaxed and not tense
You waited, debated, and now you activated
A musical genius that could not be duplicated
See I have the formula for rockin the house
If you cannot rock a party do not open your mouth
It's that simple, no phony cosmetics to your pimple
Take another look because the gear is not wrinkled
The K, the R, the S, the O, the N, the E
Sayin rhyme for eighty-seven not from 1983
Well versed, to rehearse, and my rhymes are my curse
Originality come first but the suckers get worse
Allow me to include I have a very stable mood
Poetic education of a high altitude
I'm not an MC, so listen, call me poet or musician
A genius when it comes to making music with ambition
I'm cool, collected with the rhyme I directed
Don't wanna be elected as the king of a record
Just respected by others as the man with the solution
An artist of the 80's came and left his contribution
on wax, relax, there's 24 tracks
After years of rocking parties now I picked up the knack
Because everything that flows from out my larynx
Takes years of experience and bottles of Beck's
I cannot seem to recollect the time I didn't have sex
Is it real or is it Memorex?
I'm livin in a city known as New York State
Sucka MC's gotta wait while I translate
I hang with real live dreads with knowledge in their heads
People with ambition and straight up musicians
Although our lives have been so uprooted
I have it included, you all get zooted
So take each letter of the KRS-One
Means Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone
You look at me and laugh, but this is your class
It's an all-out discussion of the suckas I be crushin
So now you are awakened to the music I be makin
Never duplicated, and also highly cultivated
Don't get frustrated cause nothin has been traded
Only activated, it came out very complicated
Not separated, from my DJ
You see my voice is now faded
I'll see you folks around the way
Criminal minded...