Lyrics Eric B. & Rakim

Eric B. & Rakim

I Ain't No Joke

I ain't no joke, I use to let the mic smoke

Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke

When I'm gone no one gets on 'cuz I won't let

Nobody press up and mess up the scene I set

I like to stand in a crowd and watch the people wonder, damn

But think about it then you'll understand

I'm just an addict, addicted to music

Maybe it's a habit, I gotta use it

Even if it's jazz or the quiet storm

I hook a beat up convert it in to hip-hop form

Write a rhyme in graffiti in, every show you see me in

Deep concentration 'cuz I'm no comedian

Jokers are wild if you wanna be tame

I treat you like a child then you're gonna be named

Another enemy, not even a friend of me

'Cuz you'll get fried in the end when you pretend to be

Competing 'cuz I just put your mind on pause

And I can beat you when you compare my rhyme wit' yours

I wake you up and as I stare in your face you seem stunned

Remember me, the one you got your idea from?

But soon you start to suffer the tune'll get rougher

When you start to stutter that's when you had enough of

Biting it?ll make you choke, you can't provoke

You can't cope, you should of broke because I ain't no joke

I got a question, as serious as cancer

Who can keep the average dancer

Hyper as a heart attack, nobody's smiling

'Cuz you're expressing the rhyme that I'm styling

This is what we all sit down to write

You can't make it so you take it home, break it and bite

Use pieces and bits of all the hip-hop hits

Get the style down packed then it's time to switch

Put my tape on pause and add some more to yours

Then you fake it, you're ready for the neighborhood chores

The E M C E E don't even try to be

When you come up to speak, don't even lie to me

You like to exaggerate, dream and imaginate

Then change the rhyme around that can aggravate me

So when you see me come up, freeze

Or you'll be one of those seven MC's

They think that I'm a new jack but only if they knew that

They who think wrong are they who can't do that

Style that I'm doing, they might ruin

Patterns of paragraphs based on you and

Your offbeat DJ, if anything he play

Sound familiar, I'll wait till E say

Play 'em, so I'ma have to dis and bro

You could get a smack for this, I ain't no joke

I hold the microphone like a grudge

B'll hold the record so the needle don't budge

I hold a conversation 'cuz when I invent

I nominated my DJ the president

When I'm see I'll, people freestyle, going steadily

So pucker up and whistle my melody

But whatever you do, don't miss one

They'll be another rough rhyme after this one

Before you know it, you're following and fiending

Waiting for the punch line to get the meaning

Like before the moral of my story I'm telling

Nobody beats the R, so stop yelling

Save it, put it in your pocket for later

'Cuz I'm moving the crowd and B a record fader

No interruptions till the mic is broke

When I'm gone, then you can joke

'Cuz everything is real on a serious tip

Keep playing and I get furious quick

And I take you for a walk through hell

Freeze your dome then watch your eyeballs swell

Guide you out of triple stage darkness

When it get dark again then I'ma spark this

Microphone 'cuz the heat is on, you see smoke

And I'm finish when the beat is gone, I'm no joke