Public Enemy - Air Hoodlum lyrics

"Yo Chuck, where you at, G?
I think he went upstairs, you know?"
"A very furious mixture of noise, what
Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee calls
'music's worst nightmare'"
"Hey, he's a good kid!"

Air Hoodlum air Hoodlum
"Check check, check the elevation
Check check, check the elevation
Check check, check the elevation
Check check, check the elevation"
"A player, that can leap
With the best of them"

Risin up in the 'Velt, Strong Island
New York
The hood, in case you did not know my base
There was a ballplayer who had all the skills
With the pill to pay the piper
Plus all the bills


Mick his first name, Mack the awesome game
Practiced in the heat, in the rain or in pain
Mick so quick, at six foot six
Down to be picked by anyone but the Celtics
Oh, what a handle could score from the floor
With people bangin' on him
Or even hangin' on him
But what he did best, above all the rest was

"A player that can leap
With the best of them"
"As a high school phenom"
"The Skywalker himself!"
"I felt, he could do
To make this an effective basketball team"

Grades nine and ten, Mickey Mack was all that
But in class, his ass sat way in the back
How I know? 'Cause I know
I used to flow with the bro he didn't mind
I used to read him his own headlines
Cause he could not read 'em
His school wouldn't need em
If the lines woulda went like this
Mickey Mack jumped over the candlestick
His stack was his stats
But his D was still wack
Grades eleven and twelve
He found the wrong clientele and all
During class, he would dribble in the hall
But never got in trouble in school
But the trouble was
It was cool if your brain
Was just another bubble
As long as he could score fiddy-two
Get thirty-three rebounds, fuckin' around
Teams lost to him, he went right through 'em
Division, county, state - that's three
Count 'em championships for a small town bro
That's bound to go pro

"He gets free, turn on the jumper, good!"
"Streak of lightning when he breaks loose"
"We all felt in our hearts
We could win this ballgame"
"They just required me to have
The game that I did i'm just that's all
I that's all I that's all I can say"
"That's all I can say"
"He hauled down fifteen rebounds
And kept the ball away from everybody"
"Then he had a triple double!"
"A-a-a sensational player"

SAT's didn't matter cause he was all that
You know, the pat on the back
He was always in the news
You gotta know what it means
It means revenue, and I'm tellin' you
I saw cars and G's come to our school, please
Approach Hell with the principal
"Where's the coach?" went to college
Four years with a scholarship
And won the championship
But when it came to his life, he didn't care
'Cause he took it to the air

"Cross and a hook, he scores, he's fouled!"
"From the far corner, breaks West
And here's the jumper, good!"
"There's the jumper, it's not gonna go
Rebound batted back"

The fall began when Mickey Mack fell
Hell ripped his knee
Drafted last by personnel
Oh, how he loved the game, it was fantastic
Until he was cut, and couldn't stick
Times got tighter and tighter
He had an attitude, was rude
So he turned into a fighter
School wouldn't give him the
Job that he needed
Assistant to the assistant coach
They didn't need it
Then he resorted to a stick up kid
Ski mask and gat
But this game he wasn't good at
And the drugs on the side
Police ambushed his ride
(gunfire) , another homicide
He was over, ghost you know
Hometown hero, but now a zero
To those hypocrites who ripped him blind
For his skills without the will
To develop his mind
Forever in the news the community views him
Only as Air Hoodlum

"I don't understand it
The kid coulda been another Jordan!"