18th Letter

Yes yes y'all, check it out y'all (repeat 2x)

Chorus: rakim

(yo) i find a show, rhyme til it's time to go
I'm designed to blow, my mind's inclined to flow
Yo, my m.o., makin all kind of dough
From the info that rakim show, y'know?

Verse one: rakim

Yes yes y'all, i still fiend by any means
To flow, and i go through extremes don't intervene
My adventures show like a three dimensional screen
Cause i mention many things and i'm presentin many scenes
Guess i'm telegraphic, motions energentic
Better tell em forget it, cause i'm telekinetic
Crowds is screamin, i choke the mic and keep squeezin
Styles seemin like i used a thousand words without breathin
Bustin techs like russian roulette i doubt you win
Freestyles like hand grenades without the pin
Composin, then leave the mic full of corrosion
Don't test this, or best to expects this explosion
At shows i spit flows with seven deadly venoms
Killin syllables with poisonous synonyms in em
Ideas is blowin, mics is blowin
From what i'm showin, see it, i keep it goin when i'm flowin

Chorus

Verse two: rakim

When i'm flowin, theoretically speakin like a drummer
I take you through the streets to the parks in the summer
Or illustrate, a time and place you never been in
And make you focus on the future after seein the beginning
And my style wilds, like miles on the trumpet
Volume dial was kind of low, need to pump it
Up another notch turn the dial til it stops
More watts you got, more things to watch
Third eye's wide open, you're focused on the theory
Keep scopin til you hear me, words is spoken clearly
It's no smokescreens on the scenes that i'm showin
Man i keep it goin, damn i keep it flowin

Chorus 2x

Verse three: rakim

Two pages cause panic, freestyles is frantic
Thoughts is organic, flow is aerodynamic
Mic is volcanic, rhymes spread across the planet
I send out the scribe now the vibes gigantic
Now, i'm internationally known, mental capacities blown
I hope your microphone's accident prone
Raw footage is shown, but only showin scenes of my own
Leavin your periphereal vision in a zone
But not the twilight, from the insight that i write
And recite, in my mic'll be bright, cause i like
The night glowin, it's out of sight when i'm showin
Man i keep it goin, damn i keep it flowin

Chorus 2x

Verse four: rakim

Yo, accurate tactics "make em clap to this"
When i "move the crowd", my "rhythm" still don't miss
Breeze through melodies cause "it's been a long time"
My "lyrics" is "fury" and rappers hate to hear me rhyme
Every antidote that i quote, is "no joke"
Nobody's smilin "in the ghetto" from the notes i wrote
My high techniques wreck and disrepect beats
Have you "follow-in the leader" up and down the streets
So "kick along" as i rip a song with pull
As the rhyme goes on i get "paid in full"
It's rakim, i'm indicatin rhymes for the showin
Check it out y'all, i keep it goin when i'm flowin

Chorus 2x

Straight up, rakim allah the fiend of the microphone still flowin
You know? one love to ? comin through your livin room soon, straight up
?, one love
The whole tri-state, one love
Rakim allah baby, y'know?
It's on, what, check it out y'all, check it out

Yeah... check it out... show me love

Promise you won't do me wrong (for sure)
If i turn you on (yeah)
Promise you'll stay all night long (on on)
Makin love til dawn

Yo, it's time to bring the day in, fresh out the crib sauteein
Around the way-in, swerve on, surveyin
That's when i saw her, the kind you wanna see more of
The sexy aura, it made it hard to ignore her
Expression her posession of property skyrocket
I'm investin in her presence and in time it profits
I take a acre for you, fertilize the soil
And make it boil, til it produce black oil
The shorty sweet as, the flavor of forty divas
Photos and features, worth more than mona lisa's
It's lady lucious, tender touches my blood rushes
Smiles and blushes, on billboards and buses
And me, i'm just a bronze skinned calm gentleman
Slim fit and open arms mellow wit a don's grin
Ghetto disciplined, could be your confidant beyond friend
It's one of allah's men, rakim, show me love

Promise you won't do me wrong (uh)
If i turn you on (go ahead, uh)
Promise you'll stay all night long (uh, yeah)
Makin love til dawn (turn me on love)
Promise you won't do me wrong (mmm)
If i turn you on (mmm, mmm, yeah)
Promise you'll stay all night long
So we can get it on (check it out)

I'm in effect mode, i keep the ep sewed
When you express your finesse to your dress code
Every step's a pose, you've been blessed and it shows
My interest grows, the effervesce explodes
Because this chick's, characteristics, mystic
Hips are thick, just a little bit of lipstick
Can't resist it, description egyptian smile
Queen of the nile, that means she dipped in style
She re-mind of nefretiti, yes indeed-y
But it's hard to get it like hieroglyphic graffiti
Studied her exhibits and checked her colorful curves
Intellect with swerves i coulda wrecked my nerves
That's my word, diggin her enigma that exist
In a sister, carefully wrapped in her figure
We connect like a collision and hug, just to knowledge
Her wisdom, speed up my metabolism, show me love

Promise you won't do me wrong
If i turn you on (uh, yeah)
Promise you'll stay all night long (yeah)
Makin love til dawn (check it out)
Promise you won't do me wrong (go ahead, go ahead)
If i turn you on (yeah, yeah)
Promise you'll stay all night long
So we can get it on

Your m.o. is hard not to notice, so my motives
Is to stay focused, body moves like aerobics
Attractions, vibes i caught came from your ways
And actions but mindframe hard to explain
No actin or mindgames, but thinkin of what can happen
Is migraines, the x-rated though remains
We relaxin, and you naggin me for the agony
To your anatomy, by the fractions
Your measurements, the pleasure's in every inch of your temple
I travel twenty-three million miles of your mental
Chemistry, between you and me, in harmony
Causin angles to meet, like trigonometry
Or pyramids, that's where your deepest, treasures are hid
Then it gets, odiferous, cause i know where it is
I mastered that, cause it's easy when you react
The all-natural aphrodisiac, show me love

Promise you won't do me wrong
If i turn you on (yeah)
Promise you'll stay all night long (go ahead, go ahead)
Making love til dawn (uh)
Promise you won't do me wrong (straight up)
If i turn you on (go ahead, uh)
Promise you'll stay all night long (yeah)
So we can get it on (show me love)
Promise you won't do me wrong
If i turn you on
Promise you'll stay all night long
Making love til dawn
Promise you won't do me wrong (uh, yeah)
If i turn you on (check it out, uh)
Promise you'll stay all night long (and you don't stop)
So we can get it on (uh)
Promise you won't do me wrong
If i turn you on
Promise you'll stay all night long
Making love til dawn...

Remember that?

Turn the beat up, i get lost in the mind come across
The rhyme kick my feet up, then i find myself in time
I was on a train, destination marley marl's domain
I entertained things'll never be the same
Dj's are conveyed if the label ok it
Teddy ted and special k was the first ones to play it
On the radio, with the crazy flow
I pay dues until it pays me dough to do a show
When i'm at the helm i cover the whole realm
In control and leave your soul overwhelmed
Another influence of beats and instruments
Lyrics make it intricate and elements are tense
When you was playin pac man it was the jams i packed
Peeps would swarm when i was perform in, black i'm all that
Back before they turned hip-hop to rap
It always a place to party at, remember that?

I remember the spots that used to be hot
Just like the roof top, a place that only few can rock
On a wild ass block, yeah you find me there a lot
Until you hear gunshots, that's when the fun stops
Here come the cops, time to go home, get in order
Cause i'll be back in manhattan if somethings happenin at the latin quarter
House of havoc when it came to fourteen carat
And if you had it yeah kids'd try to grab it
It's cool at the red parrot we was doin it there
I was the first one to rip it at the union square
Me and dj red alert did work
A crazy concert, a lot of kids got hurt
I did encores at the encore, they wanted more
I kicked a freestyle til i heard the crowd roar
Like the funhouse, bronx center never endin black
Place to be was the brooklyn armory, remember that?

Remember that? (3x)

Open the door, let the crowds in, over twenty thousand
Wildin music's loud and microphone's growlin
Tickets are sold out, parties is packed and on tour
Rippin basketball arenas back then
Even afterparties, posses of players and hotties
Everybody was gotti, spreadin bucks like shotties
Spendin cash, to make a good time last
Thoughts that i had give me a blast of the past
Memories of unforgettable times on my mind
Dollar signs and melodies and incredible rhymes
The people i met, and the sets that got wrecked
All the mics i checked, most of all life's effects
And peace to all the people i grew up around
In the streets back when beats had a rougher sound
I used to be wild me and my crew sit back and we smile
Keep piles of pictures filed in case i go senile
Cause some things are just too good to be forgot
Like your neighborhood block or your favorite spot
Certain records always seem to make me reminisce
And when it hits, and then it clicks, remember this
My life flashed before me i'm there from the sounds
I hear pinpoint the year, it's perfectly clear
I like the way it went down and alla that, in fact
It mean a lot, cause you can't bring it back, remember that

Remember that? (3x)

[interviewer, possibly harry allen]
What is, the one, main thing that you have
That you would want people to remember you by?
Or not one but the, those things that are dear to you
That you would, want to be remembered as

[rakim]
I guess i guess it's my words man, yaknahmean?
Just my words, and, if people remember my words they'll remember me forever
Y'know? god by nature mind raised in asia, y'know?
But umm... it's like y'know to live forever you you you gotta
Set y'know, not not set trends but you gotta
Apply yourself a certain way and you gotta do certain things y'know?
Maybe, maybe when i'm gone twenty years from now
Somebody might be tellin, tellin they little son
"oh yo you think shorty bad? yo i 'member this cat way back
In like nineteen-ninety. kid named rakim, bananas."
Youknowhati'msayin? if that can happen man, i'm aight man, y'know?
I got i got i got kids y'know? they gonna umm, finish this for
Me anyway yknahmsayin so regardless, y'know the legacy lives
But umm as far as the masses just remember my words

Intro/chorus:

If you can see if you can solve the mystery
The answer revolves around your history
So carefully, i drop this degree
Scientifically, and realistically (who is god?)

Repeat chorus

In eternal blackness, in the midst of the darkest night
Proteins and minerals, exist within specks of light
Solids liquids and gases, and sparks of light within
Infinite lengths and widths and depths and heights
No beginning or ending, the seven dimensions
Enough space for more than a million words and inventions
To travel through time within enough room to be the womb
Of the most high's great mind which he will soon make shine
With intelligent elements in sight that he will gather
In the realms of relativity electricity struck matter
Energies explode he below to keep releasin
Atoms by the millions, til the numbers increasin
Til it was burnin he kept returnin itself to the source
The hotter his thoughts it gave the center more force
He gave birth to the sun which would follow his laws
All caused by his mental intercourse, who is god?

Chorus

He began to explain his craft, the master in the attic
He dealt with measurements his language, was mathematics
His theoretical wisdom of the numerical system
The complete number nine which means born or existed
He gave birth to all planets, inorganic, and organic
So you wouldn't take it for granted
They rotated they own distance around the sun
And fully submit to the existance of one
And each one was promised everlasting perfection
If each one keeps spinnin in the same direction
To the east, and each speak the motion of peace
And harmony, and each show devotion to teach
The universe is to come, the whole world must go according
Know your galaxies and mirages stars start fallin
So stay in your orbit maintain safe and sound
Like the planets each cipher remains perfectly round

Chorus

From unconciousness, to conciousness
By knowledging his wisdom his response is this
A understanding, which is the best part
He picked the third planet where new forms of life would start
He pursued show and prove every move in order
Back to the source he let off his resources in the water
Climb his climax, where the climate is at, high degrees
See he start to breathe deep in the darkest seas
And the plan is, to lay in the clays to form land
And expand, usin the same clays to born man
In his own image our origin begins in the east
Culture rise to breed, with the powers of peace
Deal in equality nature's policy is to be god
Build or destroy positively born life like allah
And each one was given everlasting perfection
If each one keep living in the same direction
And life was life, and love was love
We went according by the laws of the world above
They showed us physically, we could reach infinity
But mentally, through the century we lost our identity
Life start and ending, we got trife and started sinning
Lost touch with the beginning now ciphers stop spinnin
And what was once easy became confused and hard
Which brings us back, to the mystic question, who is god?
Sixty-six trillion years since his face was shown
When the seventh angel appears, the mystery will be known
Check revelations and genesis, st. luke and john
It even tells us we are gods in the holy qu'ran
Wisdom strength and beauty, one of the meanings of god
G.o.d. you and me ?gomars o dubar?
Knowledge wisdom understanding sun moon and star
Man woman and child, and so is allah

Chorus

Bear witness to allah, gave birth to all
For allah was all, and therefore, life itself
And the universe gave birth to man
The universe was man, and man was the universe
And the universe was always existed
And existance was life
And life is allah
And allah had no beginning because he is, what always was
Rakim allah, peace
Now who is god?

What, uhh, yo
Just when things seemed the same, and the whole scene is lame
I come and reign with the unexplained for the brains till things change
They strain to slang sling, i'm trained to bring game
History that i arranged been regained by king james
Go to practice, with tactics, when the track hits, theatrics
Women that look like actress the status of cleopatra's
Stacks of mathematics took the ?ego-a-geatics?
As i find out, what the facts is, for geographic
No time to sip mo's with hostess, never mind what the total gross is
I rip shows, stay focused, and split cheese, with soldiers
While you hit trees and coast i spit flows that be ferocious
And with these explosives, i split seas for moses
Shine permanently only my mind's concernin me
Fire burns in me eternally time's eternity
Followers turn on me they'll be in a mental infirmary
Determinely advance technology better than germany
Since the first days you know of, till the last days is over
I was always the flow-er, i made waves for noah
From a compound, to the anatomy, to the breakdown of a atom
Some of my rap patterns, still surround saturn
From the ancient hieroglyphics, to graffiti painted pictures
I study i know the scriptures but nowaday ain't it vicious
Date back i go beyond check the holy qu'ran
To speeches at the altar on, now we get our party on
So being benificent, i bless em with dialogue
They expectin, the next testament by the god
I blow em through battlezones with chrome for chaperone
Blast beats with saxophones one of the baddest rapper's known
Every country city and borough, sidestreet and ghetto
Isle and alley and meadow theories ferile enough to echo
When it was one mass of land, with one nash' of man
And the whole mass was ran under one master plan
Since the world's metamorphis, and the plan is kept in orbit
Turntables we spin off but the needles never skip off it
Rhythms we expressin similar to our ancestors
It'll answer your questions if you understand the message
From the days of the slave choppers?, to the new age of prophets
As heavy as hip-hop is i'm always ready to drop it
From the mind which is one of allah's best designs
And mines'll stand the test of time, when i rhyme

The 18th letter, the prophesy professor
I stay clever, long as the planet stay together
Bring up praise from mecca, make a phrase for the better
In new days to remember, always and forever
(repeat 2x)

The r baby

"once again back is the incredible" --> chuck d

Yeah, yeah
It's the return of the wild style fashionist
Smashin hits, make it hard to adapt to this
Put pizazz and jazz in this, and cash in this
Mastered this, flash this and make em clap to this
Dj's throw on cuts and obey the crowd
Just pump the volume up, and play it loud
Hip-hop's embedded, before i said i wouldn't let it
But me and the microphone is still magnetic
Straight off the top, i knew i'd be forced to rock
Dancefloors just stop, the spot's scorchin hot
Hoping i open rakim allah seminars
Massage at the bar smokin ten dollar cigars
While i admire midas, with more vision than tv's
I find it easy catchin diabetes from fly sweeties
Sit back and wait to hear a slammin track
Rockin jams by popular demand, i'm back

*chorus*
I control the crowd, you know i hold it down
When it drop you know it's jiggy when you hear the sound
From town to town, until it's world reknowned
And i rock new york city all year around

Check it out
It's on so you can swerve when it's heard in clubs
Thought patterns displayed on persian rugs
Equations are drawn up in paisley form
Mic it stay warm, my flow is evian
Deep as a nautilus, you stay dipped in ra style
From the shores of long island to panama canal
Intellect pitches new trends like a clothes designer
I'm in effect, quicker than medicines in china
Split the mic open fill it with somethin potent to go in
And take a toke then, mental planes start floatin
Hot science is smokin altitudes cause chokin
Product is hypnotic you're soakin and still smokin
Showin better scenes than grams of amphetamines
Plans to scheme, means i'll forever fiend
Long as the mic is loud and the volume is pumpin
I'ma move crowds to 2000

*chorus*

Yo, my rhymes and lyrics, find spirits like a seance
Since fat cray-ons, i write and display chaos
My plan is damage, the diagram to where the jam
I take advantage, until the crowd go bananas
What a rush i hear cuts then i lust to touch
Microphones get clutched by the illustrious
Word spread i inherited, many ways to say the unsaid
Born with three 7's in my head
In time no one can seem to blow your mind as far as this
To find you'll need philosophers and anthropologists
Astrologists, professors from your smartest colleges
With knowledge of scholarships, when ra be droppin this
Some of the things i know, will be in your next bible
When i die go bury me and my notebook in cairo
With the great god from egypt manifest was write rhymes
Align with the stars, i come back to bless the mic

*chorus* 2x
"once again, back is the incredible" --> chuck d
Word up, rakim allah the microphone fiend is back, yaknahmean?
"rakim allah" --> rakim
Till death do us part
"once again, back is the incredible" --> chuck d
It's on
"rakim allah" --> rakim
*cd sample, *ra sample in sequence to 3:50
"once again back is the incredible
The incredible, the incredible
The incredible...
Once again back is the incredible
Rhyme animal, the incredible..." --> chuck d