Hip Hop My Friend - Pep Love

I’m a real true artist

Put all of my heart in this

I live for the baselines and guitar riffs — But too modest

The music biz is a vast sea, and you know where the sharks is

I discovered hip-hop as a little tyke

Before I kissed a girl or ever rid a bike

There was nothin' about it the kid didn’t like

So an obsession was born for written rhymes ripping mics

My astute pursuit wasn’t about loot to boot I studied the game from root to

fruit

People gathered in flocks, Hip-hop, had the block locked

And had us thinking out of the box

The time we were living in it was a testament

For before the corporation would invest in it

And now they acting brand new

I’m waving a flag for the culture, they lookin' at me like I’m a damn fool

(When I was up

You would always come around)

Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop

You are my life

(But when I needed a friend

Oh you can never be found)

Hip-Hop Hip-Hop

You are my friend

What’s really relevant

Is it good in the hood if it ain’t selling

And what is you telling me

Back — When we was back spinning the party was packed

And it wasn’t nobody to stack digits

They did it for the kids on the block

Instead of banging they was hanging out doing that up rock flow rock

Hip-Hop was there — When nobody else cared

No education, no healthcare, or welfare

The Bronx burning we turning into an inferno

What do we learn to know when we ain’t earning dough

We got greedier when the media showed up

And got needier when the city disowned us

I guess it was tryna find a way out of the projects

And that gentrification is the process to progress

God bless the child with the heavenly trust fund

The heaviest lump sum that come from the slums

That’s the sound of the men

Banging on track not hanging on the corner slinging crack

Now that we got our backs up against the wall we gon' bring it back

We the entrepreneur keeping out dream in tact

The way I feel I don’t know if you can say the same

Look at what they became following the gravy train

And when it drips dry — Them little birds fly

Flocking for better weather while we keepin' it curbside

To have a cypher you’ve got to come around

While pop radio is telling you to dumb it down

But I’ve been initiated

And we gon' get this shit straight

And state it that Hieroglyphics the greatest

And I’m gonna be your friend even when I don’t got one

And when I give 'em the Rigramole to let 'em know we’re not done

Many rivers to cross

To deliver the loss

It’s destiny, yes, we gon' weather the cost