Released: November 22, 2003

Songwriter: C. Martin Royce da 5'9"

Producer: DJ Premier

[Chorus]
I know my streets, I know my sound
Y'all know my beats, how I get down
I take my steps, and leaps and bounds
Nigga it's hip hop

[Verse 1]
Yeah, yeah, we started from nothing a couple MCs
Beat-boxin', the crowd in the lunch room
Me and Preem, both names go together
Like they ain't supposed to be separate like D&D
I said it before, I rep in records beats
At the HeadQCourterz, rest in peace
Nigga I'mma hold the shotty, and knock you out
And I ain't gotta know karate like Afu-Ra
It's hip hop, strong or not
This is rap basketball, stats all you got
Long as you hot, and your flow can hold up
To knowing that all of your short goals is long shots!
Ninety percent of you niggas ain't hard
Here just to get a rep, you not Gang Starrs
The finest flow will amaze
Rap without me is The Source minus the quotable page

[Chorus]
Hip hop is everything around you
No competition
Back to the voice of today
It's real in the field
What's realer than hip hop?
I know my streets, I know my sound
Y'all know my beats, how I get down
I take my steps, and leaps and bounds, nigga it's hip hop

[Verse 2]
Rhythmically come on with it, I'm long-winded
I will diss you from long distances
You will not get the chance like Choppa
Ness and Dylan to disrespect, who you don't listen to
Egg in the skillet brain, nigga, this is you
Smarten up, every person in the Earth
Be hardened up but the only target is us
It's hip hop, cars and trucks
I be dreaming about shit like having a hard time swinging
On a nigga or squeezing a trigger or falling
If I land I won't wake up
My six shot model, ya crew
I'm leavin' ya momma faces blue like a Hpnotiq bottle
They feel you the realer you spit, this killer shit is hearin' us
Healin' you if you ill or you sick mentally, it's

[Chorus]
Hip hop is everything around you
Gotta be something for me to write this
Back to the voice of today
No talent rappers
What's realer than hip hop?
I know my streets, I know my sound
Y'all know my beats, how I get down
I take my steps, and leaps and bounds
Nigga it's hip hop!

[Verse 3]
More venom, 5’9” is like a G5
Illest lyrics is stored in him
Chorus is killing, any warrior feeling
That I ain't God - Lord willing
Trust me after I crush ya building
You will just hush, you won't restore the village
We look toward with killing, real
Though this album is mor-bidly feeling it's still
Hip hop! Fuck your feelings
More rappers dying, much more killing
It's no feeling realer than gambling ya life
Everyday, and waking up to more dealings
Fourteen killings compared to offshore millions
Equals I got a lot more villains
You know that you easily lose, you be on MTV News
For the first time, because you died over

[Chorus]
Hip hop is everything around you
Come alive y'all
Back to the voice of today
It's all in the game
What's realer than hip hop?
I know my streets, I know my sound
Y'all know my beats, how I get down
I take my steps, and leaps and bounds
Nigga it's hip hop!

Royce da 5'9"

Royce da 5'9", real name Ryan Daniel Montgomery, is undoubtedly one of the underground rap kings of Detroit. The Michigan MC is a long-time collaborator of Eminem’s, meeting him in December 1997, and is noted as one of the greatest lyricists in hip-hop’s history (in 2012, The Source ranked him as the 48th greatest lyricist of all time in their top 50, this questionable ranking unsurprisingly being scrutinized by many as a gross misjudgment).

Although critics have previously cast shade on his ability to create a well-rounded body of work, many, critics included, considered his sophomore effort, Death is Certain (2004), to be a strong album. To learn more in-depth about his solo discography, read this page (the page listed is old, so it is not updated).

Royce is the Bad half of Bad Meets Evil (with Eminem), ¼ of Slaughterhouse (alongside Crooked I KXNG CROOKED, Joe Budden and Joell Ortiz), and ½ of PRhyme (with DJ Premier). Royce currently operates a independent record label, Bad Half Entertainment.