Air Hoodlum

Yo, Chuck, where you at, G?

I think he went upstairs, y'know

A very furious mixture of noise

What Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee calls

'Music's worst nightmare'

(Hey, he's a good kid)

Air Hoodlum

Check the elevation

Air Hoodlum

Check the elevation

(Player, that can leap, with the best of them)

Risin' up in the 'Velt, Strong Island, New York

The hood, in case you did not know my base

There was a ballplayer who had all the skills

Wit the pill to pay the piper, plus all the bills

Mick his first name, Mack the awesome game

Practiced in the heat, in the rain or in pain

Mick so quick, at six foot six

Down to be picked by anyone but the Celtics

Oh, what a handle could score from the floor

With people bangin' on him or even hangin' on him

But what he did best, above all the rest was

(A player that can leap, with the best of them

(As a high school phenom, the Skywalker himself

I felt he could do to make this an effective basketball team)

Grades nine an' ten, Mickey Mack was all that

But in class, his ass sat way in the back

How I know? 'Cause I know, I used to flow wit the bro

He didn't mind I used to read him his own headline

'Cause he could not read 'em, his school wouldn't need 'em

If the lines wouldn'ta went like this

Mickey Mack jumped over the candlestick

His stack was his stats but his D was still whack

Grades eleven an' twelve, he found the wrong clientèle an' all

Durin' class, he would dribble in the hall

But never got in trouble in school, but the trouble was

It was cool if your brain was just another bubble

As long as he could score fiddy-two

Get thirty-three rebounds, fuckin' around

Teams lost to him, he went right through 'em

Division, county, state, that's three, count 'em

Championships for a small town bro

That's bound to go pro

(He gets free, turn on the jumper, good

Streak of lightning when he breaks loose

We all felt in our hearts we could win this ballgame

They just required me to have the game that I did)

(I'm just, that's all I, that's all I, that's all I can say

That's all I can say, he hauled down fifteen rebounds

And kept the ball away from everybody

Then he had a triple double, a sensational player)

SATs didn't matter 'cause he was all that

You know, the pat on the back

He was always in the news, you gotta know what it means

It means revenue an' I'm tellin' you

I saw cars an' Gs come to our school, please

Approach hell with the principal, where's the coach?

Went to college four years wit a scholarship

An' won the championship

But when it came to his life, he didn't care

'Cause he took it to the air

(Cross and a hook, he scores, he's fouled

From the far corner, breaks West and here's the jumper, good

There's the jumper, it's not gonna go, rebound batted back)

The fall began when Mickey Mack fell

Hell, ripped his knee, drafted last by personnel

Oh, how he loved the game, it was fantastic

Until he was cut an' couldn't stick

Times got tighter an' tighter

he had an attitude, was rude, so he turned into a fighter

School wouldn't give him the job that he needed

Assistant to the assistant coach, they didn't need it

Then he resorted to a stick up kid

Ski-mask an' gat but this game he wasn't good at

An' the drugs on the side

Police ambushed his ride, another homicide

He was over, ghost, y'know

Hometown hero but now a zero

To those hypocrites who ripped him blind

For his skills without the will to develop his mind

Forever in the news the community views him

Only as Air Hoodlum

(I don't understand it, the kid coulda been another Jordan)