Karaoké I Ain't No Joke Eric B. & Rakim

I ain't no joke

I used to let the mic smoke

Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke

When I'm gone no one gets on 'cos I won't let nobody press up and mess up the scene I set

I like to stand in a crowd and watch the people wonder

Damn

But think about it then you'll understand

I'm just an addict

Addicted to music

Maybe it's a habit

I gotta use it

Even if it's jazz or the quiet storm

I hook a beat up

Convert it into hip-hop form

Write a rhyme in graffiti in every show you see me in

Deep concentration 'cos I'm no comedian

Jokers are wild if you wanna be tame

I treat you like a child then you're gonna be named

Another enemy

Not even a friend of me

'Cos you'll get fried in the end when you pretend to be

Competin' 'cos I just put your mind on pause

And I can beat you when you compare my rhyme with yours

I wake you up and as I stare in your face you seem stunned

Remember me

The one you got your idea from

But soon you start to suffer

The tune'll get rougher

When you start to stutter that's when you had enough of

Bitin' it'll make you choke

You can't provoke

You can't cope

You should've broke

Because I ain't no joke

I got a question as serious as cancer

Who can keep the average dancer

Hyper as a heart attack

Nobody smilin'

'Cos you're expressin' the rhyme that I'm stylin'

This is what we all sit down to write

You can't make it so you take it home, break it and bite

Use pieces and bits of all my hip-hop hits

Get the style down pat then it's time to switch

Put my tape on pause and add some more to yours

Then you figure you're ready for the neighborhood tours

The E-M-C-E-E

Don't even try to be

When you come up to speak don't even lie to me

You like to exaggerate

Dream and imaginate

Then change the rhyme around

That can aggravate me

So when you see me come up freeze or you'll be one of those seven emcees

They think that I'm a new jack but only if they knew that

They who think wrong are they who can't do that

Style that I'm doin'

They might ruin

Patterns of paragraphs based on you and

Your off-beat DJ if anything he play sound familiar

I'll wait 'till E say Play 'em

So Imma have to diss and broke

You could get a smack for this

I ain't no joke

I hold the microphone like a grudge

B'll hold the record so the needle don't budge

I hold a conversation 'cos what I invent

I nominated my DJ for president

When I emcee I'll keep a freestyle goin' steadily

So pucker up and whistle my melody

But whatever you do don't miss one

There'll be another rough rhyme after this one

Before you know it you're followin' and fiendin'

Waitin' for the punchline to get the meanin'

Like before the moral of my story I'm tellin'

Nobody beats the R so stop yellin'

Save it

Put it in your pocket for later

'Cos I'm movin' the crowd and B'll wreck the fader

No interruptions and the mic is broke

When I'm gone then you can joke

'Cos everything is real on a serious tip

Keep playin' and I get furious quick

And I'll take you for a walk through hell

Freeze your dome then watch your eyeballs swell

Guide you out of triple-stage darkness

When it get dark again then Imma spark this microphone

'Cos the heat is on

You see smoke and I'm finished when the beat is gone

I'm no joke