[Chorus: Kool Moe Dee, James Brown, Bell Biv DeVoe]

Uh, give me (Serious)

Let's get serious

Uh, give me

Serious

Uh, give me (Serious)

Let's get serious

Uh, give me

Serious, serious, serious, serious

[Verse 1: Kool Moe Dee]

Movin', smoothin', smokin', I ain't jokin'

Black smoke is chokin' any brother attempting the gas face on me

He'll see a vision of black space

A taste of my bass is infinite darkness

A test in vain as he strains to embark this

Rhyme, because it's written in allegory

He should've checked this out before he stepped a vet

'Cause rhymes like these take emcees to thirty-two degrees and freeze

Got ya frozen like dry ice

But the smoke is black, 'cause when you freeze, you burn twice

This clarifies the term "freeze or burn"

How many bodies will it take to emcees to learn

You'll dissipate and disappear, dispose, dispense, disintegrate?

You're out of here, I got something better to do

Instead of putting words together for you

Stop wasting energy trying to do me

'Cause you can't do me

Oh, why can't you see you're wasting T-I-M-E?

It's time to get P-A-I-D

So fatten your payroll, lay low, and chill

Because you can't get with this, let's get serious

[Chorus: Kool Moe Dee, James Brown, Bell Biv DeVoe]

Uh, give me (Serious)

Let's get serious

Uh, give me

Serious

Uh, give me (Serious)

Let's get serious

Uh, give me

Serious, serious, serious, serious

[Verse 2: Kool Moe Dee]

Stop smiling, 'cause ain't nothing funny

Who's laughing, who's got the real money?

Weak rappers'll say anything for a payday

And after the heyday, it's mayday, and they say

"The harder you come, the harder you fall"

If I gotta come soft, I'll take a fall, y'all

Because my lyrics are hard, because I'm livin' hard

I manifested it, man, but like a living god

Righteous or wicked, you depict it

As I kick it, the pain is inflicted

You can't evict it, afflicted, addicted

As it gets flipped, disrespected, I fixed it

So the truth is heard, every spoken word

Brings action activated through a verb

Words are weapons; no half-stepping

Stick and stones break bones, but words kept induce

The pain 'cause the truth is painful

A brain full of pain aims, attains the gains and sustains the pain

Explains the fame game, maintains the same name

Before the flame came, he was allusive

And conducive to flotation of egos

He, who lives larger than life, is caught up and delirious

Come down to earth and let's get serious

[Chorus: Kool Moe Dee, James Brown, Bell Biv DeVoe]

Uh, give me (Serious)

Let's get serious

Uh, give me

Serious

Uh, give me (Serious)

Let's get serious

Uh, give me

Serious, serious, serious

[Verse 3: Kool Moe Dee]

I'm serious, all jokes aside

I write rhymes and get inside

Many tried, many died

Malcolm, Marcus, and Martin all coincide

With the rhymes I write on a spiritual level

I drop knowledge, 'cause I'm a mental rebel

There's money to be made, brothers to get paid

So wise up and stop getting played

Afraid of a conflict, going out, like a convict

Destination is jail 'cause you aren't this

Want this, want that, brain's so compact

But we need strong minds ready for combat

An army of thinking men of action

We're overreacting, it's not a reaction of satisfaction

In fact, it's a fraction of powerful passion

Subdued in a fashion

To make your mind tick, like a timebomb

And when mine clicks, then I rhyme calm

The brain is explosive, the mouth's a gun

The lip's a clip, and the trigger's the tongue

I'm shootin' brothers alive when I rock parties

And when it comes alive, then I got bodies

So bring body bags 'cause I'm shootin' to kill

Weak-willed and we'll build until we're serious

[Chorus: Kool Moe Dee, James Brown, Bell Biv DeVoe]

Uh, give me (Serious)

Let's get serious

Uh, give me

Serious

Uh, give me (Serious)

Let's get serious

Uh, give me

Serious, serious, serious