Released on January 1, 1996

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[Produced by Mr. Elite]


[Intro]

Yeah some of y'all flip like wills never got

What we gon' do right here is go back

Way back, back into rhyme

We gonna do a song that you never heard before


[Verse 1]

No comeback stories, no corny choruses

No glories, no hallelujahs, no Land Cruisers, no drug users

No grins, no trends, no phony ass friends

Who begin with ends and end with no ends and no estrogen

No gas-ups, no soups, no Lex Coups

No crackers, no backers, no niggas for the blackers

No triple teams, no mainstream dreams

No stress beams, no accusations, cop chases, court cases

No rape charges, no Sarges, no DeBarge's

No lightweight bouts up in the air, shoot outs and no sellouts

No Negroes with egos, no mo' shows callin' women bitches and hoes

No thoughtless flows, no woes

No singin' voices, no Rolls Royce's, no wack choices

No volunteers getting peers of career years

No solutions, no problems, no more vinyl revolving

No happy campers, no offense, no funk samples


[Hook]

The easiest and the hardest word to say is no

Only got two letters, only takes a second to say it

No meanin' no, no contest, no stress, no second guessin'

No bodyguards, no question

The easiest and the hardest word to say is no

Only got two letters, only takes a second to say it

No meanin' no, no contest, no stress, no second guessin'

No bodyguards, no question


[Verse 2]

No succotash, no "Girl, I got the cash" raps

No sex traps, no Rolexes, no unprotected sexes

No false hopes, no hand ropes, boats, no car notes

No killers, no vanilla, no bigger Willie's, no Wilma's

No jail time, no fuckin' lil' kid rhymes, no studio terrors, no mirrors

Look ma, no spelling errors

NO absent pops, NO sweatshops, no pork chops

NO justice NO peace NO please please please

NO legal freestyles NO willies, NO

McCovey

NO industry rapes, capes NO suits NO

Ties

NO stars NO over paid A&R's

NO body guards gold teeth

NO east coast, west coast beefs

NO dumb looks, NO one sided books

NO special cooks NO finesse NO mess NO struggle to progress

NO hittin sprees NO HIV NO lies

From NO TV's

NO contracts NO tracks with NO mechanicals

The easiest and the hardest word to say is NO

Only got two letters

Only takes a second to say it

NO meanin No

NO contest NO stress

NO second guessin

NO body guards

NO question

The easiest and the hardest word to say is NO

Only got two letters

Only takes a second to say it

NO meanin No

NO contest NO stress

NO second guessin

NO body guards

NO question

The easiest and the hardest word to say is NO

Only got two letters

Only takes a second to say it

NO meanin No

NO contest NO stress

NO second guessin

NO body guards

NO question

The easiest and the hardest word to say is NO

Only got two letters

Only takes a second to say it

NO meanin No

NO contest NO stress

NO second guessin

NO body guards

NO question

“No Rolexes, no unprotected sexes”
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Chuck links an important wealth – important enough to buy Rolexes – to an obvious stupidity in a person’s action. He might want to say that fancy clothes and shiny jewels blind people’s perspective on life, and you might get fooled in it – having sex with no protection is a bad decision that may have been led by dreams-of-being-rich-blindness.

“No mo’ shows callin’ women bitches and hoes”
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Chuck D says that he can rap without disrespecting women.

“No sellouts”
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Chuck D is a about keeping it real and not doing whatever to become famous. There are few people in the rap game who think like him, and one of rap’s cliché is turning down real hip-hop to get more money and more fame in the “mainstream school”.

“NO east coast, west coast beefs”
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We can all agree that the East Coast-West Coast beef was the stupidest thing to happen in hip-hop.

“No Rolls Royce’s,”
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No explicit signs of obvious richness like fancy cars or any luxurious accessories.

“No mainstream dreams”
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No dream of getting money, just rapping for the realness of it, and for the message it spreads.

“No corny choruses”
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The whole lyric is a long list of all Chuck’s idea of rap cliches that he wants to avoid. ‘No corny choruses’ – there are many offenders in the history of rap.

“We gonna do a song that you never heard before”
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Chuck D thinks people don’t know anything about a song only being about lyrics. So this song is about NO lyrics.

“No Negroes with egos,”
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In hip hop, some black people helps adding to the sterotype that black people are stupid – it’s just another stupid myth, Chuck D raps about humbleness and modesty.

“No drug users”
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He says that people who like him usually don’t do drugs and talk about like some others.

“Look ma, no spelling errors”
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The annoying habit of misspelling words, especially “the” as “da” etc.

“No rape charges,”
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Chuck D isn’t a criminal. He says that towards people who only rap about the gangster life, and who talk about murder and rape as if we could find pride in these matters.