Songwriter: Z-Trip Talib Kweli
Producer: Z-Trip
[Intro - from the movie Attack the Block]
You know what that is? I told you what that is, that's that alien, bruv, believe it!
Musta come from outer space trying to take over the earth, innit?
Well it landed in the wrong place, though, you get me? The wrong place!
This is the block, fam! Nobody fucks with the block, do you get me?
The B-L-O-C-K!
Block! Block! Block! Block!
[Sample from Dead Prez - "Hip Hop"]
It's bigger than hip hop
[Verse 1]
I ride for my niggas though
And we gotta stay alive just to get it, yall
The hood look like one big prison yard
And death is the only visitor
They don't want you at your best
That means they're at their worst
They wanna hear struggle bars
You wanna kick a classic verse
Niggas sleep with the fish like a pelican
Get that snitch 'fore he tell again
They killed Pac, he was too Machiavellian
Stood out in the middle of a room like an elephant
Because what he said was way too relevant
Never ignorant, way too intelligent
Now we got them running scared of the melanin
Used to kick dust in the air, now we're settling
Don't want you to vote like an alien
Came here on a boat like Elian
Gonzales, but they want your dollars
Gotta work them hours, it's so Gladwellian
Ten thousand hours strong
Just to keep the lights and the power on
This new New York feels wrong
Babylon here but the towers gone
[Verse 2]
Victory so sweet, but all we ever
Taste is sour, that's the agony of
I really be in these streets
While the only Harlem you know is a Japanese club
I know Queens that'll rock them jewels
Pulling out ninas 'cuz they rock them tools
We on the Island of Staten
Follow to Manhattan like a big fan of the Wu
The Brooklyn you know is the battleship chick
Spill your blood like a battle with Crips
Youngsters looking up to the same game
Hunger in my belly, got the same pains
It's the same thing when we bang bang, let your fangs hang
In pursuit of the food, just to maintain
It's the same thing when we bang bang, let your fangs hang
In pursuit of the food, just to maintain
You know what that is? I told you what that is, that's that alien, bruv, believe it!
Musta come from outer space trying to take over the earth, innit?
Well it landed in the wrong place, though, you get me? The wrong place!
This is the block, fam! Nobody fucks with the block, do you get me?
The B-L-O-C-K!
Block! Block! Block! Block!
[Sample from Dead Prez - "Hip Hop"]
It's bigger than hip hop
[Verse 1]
I ride for my niggas though
And we gotta stay alive just to get it, yall
The hood look like one big prison yard
And death is the only visitor
They don't want you at your best
That means they're at their worst
They wanna hear struggle bars
You wanna kick a classic verse
Niggas sleep with the fish like a pelican
Get that snitch 'fore he tell again
They killed Pac, he was too Machiavellian
Stood out in the middle of a room like an elephant
Because what he said was way too relevant
Never ignorant, way too intelligent
Now we got them running scared of the melanin
Used to kick dust in the air, now we're settling
Don't want you to vote like an alien
Came here on a boat like Elian
Gonzales, but they want your dollars
Gotta work them hours, it's so Gladwellian
Ten thousand hours strong
Just to keep the lights and the power on
This new New York feels wrong
Babylon here but the towers gone
[Verse 2]
Victory so sweet, but all we ever
Taste is sour, that's the agony of
I really be in these streets
While the only Harlem you know is a Japanese club
I know Queens that'll rock them jewels
Pulling out ninas 'cuz they rock them tools
We on the Island of Staten
Follow to Manhattan like a big fan of the Wu
The Brooklyn you know is the battleship chick
Spill your blood like a battle with Crips
Youngsters looking up to the same game
Hunger in my belly, got the same pains
It's the same thing when we bang bang, let your fangs hang
In pursuit of the food, just to maintain
It's the same thing when we bang bang, let your fangs hang
In pursuit of the food, just to maintain