…yo check it one for Charlie Hustle, two for steady rock,
three for the fourth comin live, future shock
it’s five demensions, six senses,
seven firmaments of heaven to hell,8 million stories to tell
nine planets faithfully keep in orbit
with the probable tenth, the universe expands length
the body of my text posess extra strength
power-liftin the powerless up, out of this, towerin inferno
my ink so hot it burns through the journal
i’m blacker than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle
hip hop passed all your tall social hurtles
like the nationwide projects, prison industry complex
broken glass wall, better keep your alarm set
streets to loud to ever hear freedom sing
say evacuate your sleep, it’s dangerous to dream
but you chain cats get they CHA-POW, who dead now
killin feilds need blood to graze the cash cow
it’s a number game but shit don’t add up somehow
like i got, sixteen and thirty two bars to rock it
but only 15% of profits ever see my pockets
like sixtynine billion in the last 20 years
spent on national defense but folks still live in fear
like nearly half of America’s largest cities is 1/4 black
that’s why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack
16 ounces to a pound, 20 more to a ki
a 5-minute sentance hearing and you’re no longer free
40% of Americans own a cell phone
so they can hear everything that you say when you aint home
i guess Micheal Jackson was right, "You are not alone"
rock your hard hat black cause you in the Terrordome
full of hard niggaz, large niggaz, dice tumblers
young teens in prison greens facing life numbers
crack mothers, crack babies, and AIDs patients
Young bloods can’t spell but they can rock you in PlayStation
this new math it whippin motherfuckers ass
you wanna know how to rhyme you better learn how to add
It’s mathmatics
CHORUS (scratched by DJ Premier.."the mighty mos def.." "it’s simple
mathematics" "check it out" "i revolve around science" "what are we talking
about here?" "Do your math.." "1 2 3 4" "what are we talking about here?")
Yo, it’s 1 universal law but 2 sides to every story
3 strikes and you be in for life, mandetory
4 MC’s murdered in the last 4 years
i ain’t tryin to be the 5th one, the millenium is here
yo it’s 6 million ways to die from the 7 deadly thrills
8 heroes gettin found with 9 mill’s
it’s 10 PM, where your seeds at? what’s the deal
he on the hill puffin krill to keep they belly filled
light in the ass with heavy steel,
sights on the pretty shit in life
young soldiers tryin to earn they next stripe
when the average minimum wage is $5.15
you best believe you gotta find a new ground to get cream
the white unemployment rate is nearly more than triple for blacks
so frontliners got they gun in your back
bubblin crack, jewel theft and robbery
to combat poverty
and end up in the global jail economy
stiffer stipulations attached to each sentance
budget cutbacks but increased police presence
and even if you get out of prison still livin
join the other five million under state supervision
this is business, no faces, just lines and statistics
from your phone, your zip code, to S-S-I digits
the system break man child and women into figures
two columns for who is and who ain’t niggaz
numbers is hardly real and they never have feelings
but you push to hard, even numbers got limits
why did one straw break the camels back?
here’s the secret:
the million other straws underneath it
it’s all mathematics
CHORUS