The Red Carpet - Intellectual

[Intro: Congress Alley sample]

All the signs of a dying nation

God save America

Just look around and you'll see the traces

God save America

[Verse 1: Evidence]

I set it off in the sunny distance, no days existed

My patience led the way 'til the greatest love listened to me

I used to play the witness, wait in the trenches

It's like the sixth man, sits on different benches

It's hard squeezing life in a sentence

And if I do, roll carpet with the red tint

My entrance is what's between

When I exit, it's Evidence left on the scene

Alchemist cut the record down, to the bone

And with a record like this I take the world by storm

It's God blessed, the land of the brave

Understand where I stand, my hand is made

From B-R-double-O-K-lyn the planet

Family landed, managed to raise the man that I became

Panic on my first campaign

But when the words fell in place, I was certain to reign

I hit the purple then step in the circle and start flexin'

Weatherman invented, now storms change directions

Portions of my proceeds is feeding my homies now

I always shared pretty good for an only child

I was the baby boy, I could do no wrong

Now the role's reversed, I'm putting people on

They off welfare and got healthcare

They used to have their priorities elsewhere

I took rims and tires and traded them

For a ticket to an island, that's where I wrote this rhyme in

Where I first saw my vision written

Driven by a better living and place to raise kids in

So I think like I rule the world, on the brink of something bigger

Building schools for boys and girls

The thought alone gets me out of my bed

I said you got the tools, get them shits up out of the shed, c'mon

[Scratch Chorus: DJ Revolution]

"Pass me a mic and roll down the red carpet" - Lord Finesse 'I Keep The Crowd Listening'

[Verse 2: Raekwon]

I'm like the Emmitt Smith of rhymin', the Jack Dempsey emcee

All my shit customed out, hold the fort eventually

Money is made, fly blades

A woman with brains, it help a black nigga reign

My lifestyle as a prowler; a rich loner, owner

Used to pump in coffee shops, had my bitch Roselle with me rolling up

Fly ass and still classy, asking questions like

"Why you wear all that glass, why would you splash me?"

Yo, it's only nigga shit

I'ma teach you like I was taught to

Hold the fort, walk through

Seeing all kind of grey fossils

Colossal jewels, bigger house, act fly, I got you

No need to walk backwards, fuck up the taxes

My street credibility is stronger than NASA's yeah

Yo a diplomatic winner, Nike boots

A skully good denim jean on, and one [?]

[Scratch Chorus: DJ Revolution]

"Pass me a mic and roll down the red carpet" - Lord Finesse 'I Keep The Crowd Listening'

[Verse 3: Ras Kass]

They say you only live once, I disagree

You only live twice, your life and then through your seed's

So I bleed on wax and feed them the deed

So when I die they got the foundation on my publishing B

Plus the words that I speak, here's my family jewels

It ain't all blood diamonds, but life experience tools

And I be rhyming cool but my philosophy's deep

Like a Dear John letter, so read 'em and weep

And the wolves smell blood, you can feed 'em the meat

But I’m a lycan, Underworld we can meet in the street

Draw heat, but what happened to peace

He got a Dirty Sanchez, like what happened to Screech

Jesus, diarrheas, I mean holy shit

Christ on a cracker, that's just how we spit

Communion, add the wine, make the sign of the cross

And I don't live in the past, chalk it up as a loss

Went from, "please listen to my demo" to stretch limo

To the pen in a cell watching Eminem on Jimmy Kimmel

But I can't go out like Kimbo Slice

Like Gina Carano, I'm a Cyborg we terminate, Mano a mano

Still Ronald McDonald, over one billion served

But it's up to me to get what I deserve

So I handle my biz and hustle harder than the norm

The early bird gets the worm, but the hawk gets the bird