Yasiin Bey - Mathematics lyrics

Bucka-bucka-bucka-bucka-bucka-bucka, haha!
You know the deal it's just me, yo
Beats by Su-Primo for all of my people
Negroes and Latinos and even the gringos

Yo, check it
1 for Charlie Hustle, 2 for Steady Rock
3 for the forth-comin' live future shock
It's 5 dimensions, 6 senses
7 firmaments of heaven and hell
8 million stories to tell
9 planets faithfully keepin' orbit
With the probable 10th
The universe expands length
The body of my text possess extra strength
Power-lift the powerless up out
Of this towering inferno
My ink so hot, it burn through the journal
I'm blacker than midnight on
Broadway & Myrtle
Hip-Hop passed all your tall social hurdles
Like the nationwide
Projects-prison-industry complex
Working-class poor better keep your alarm set
Streets too loud to ever hear freedom ring
Say evacuate your sleep
It's dangerous to dream for ch ching
Cats get the "Cha pow!" you dead now
Killing fields need blood to
Graze the cash cow it's a numbers game
But shit don't add up somehow
Like I got 16 to 32 bars to rock it
But only 15% of profit's ever see my pockets
Like $69 billion in the last 20 years
Spent on national defense
But folks still live in fear
Like nearly half of America's largest
Cities is one-quarter black
That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack
16 ounces to a pound, 20 more to a ki
A 5 minute sentence hearing and
You no longer free
40% of Americans own a cell phone
So they can hear everythin' that you
Say when you ain't home
I guess Michael Jackson was right
You are not alone rock your hardhat, black
'cause you in the Terrordome
Full of hard niggas, large niggas
Dice tumblers young teens and prison greens
Facin' life numbers
Crack mothers, crack babies and AIDS patients
Young bloods can't spell
But they could rock you at PlayStation
This New Math is whippin' motherfuckers' ass
You wanna know how to rhyme? You
Better learn how to add it's mathematics

"The Mighty Mos Def"
"It's simple mathematics" "Check it out"
"I revolve around science"
"What are we talking about here?"
"The Mighty Mos Def"
"It's simple mathematics" "Check it out"
"I revolve around science"
"What are we talking about here?"
"Do your math, do your math" "1, 2, 3, 4"
"What are we talking about here?"

Yo, it's 1 universal law
But 2 sides to every story
3 strikes and you biddin' for life, mandatory
4 MC's murdered in the last 4 years
I ain't tryin' to be the 5th
When the millennium is here
Yo, it's 6 million ways to die
From the 7 deadly thrills
8-year-olds gettin' found with 9mils
It's 10PM
Where your seeds at? What's the deal?
He on the hill pumpin' krills
To keep they bellies filled
Light in the ass with heavy steel
Sights on the pretty shit in life
Young soldiers tryin' to earn
They next stripe
When the average minimum wage is $515
You best believe you gotta find a
New grind to get CREAM
The white unemployment rate is nearly
More than triple for black
Some front-liners got they gun in your back
Bubblin' crack
Jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty
And end up in the global jail economy
Stiffer stipulations attached to
Each sentence budget cutbacks
But increased police presence
And even if you get out
Of prison still livin'
Join the other 5 million
Under state supervision
This is bidness no faces
Just lines and statistics
From your phone, your Zip Code
To SSI digit's the system break man
Child and women into figures
2 columns for "Who is" and "Who ain't" niggas
Numbers is hard and real and
They never have feelings
But you push too hard
Even numbers got limit's
Why did one straw break the camel's back?
Here's the secret the million
Other straws underneath it
It's all mathematics

"The Mighty Mos Def"
"It's simple mathematics" "Check it out"
"I revolve around science"
"What are we talking about here?"
"The Mighty Mos Def"
"It's simple mathematics" "Check it out"
"I revolve around science"
"What are we talking about here?"
"Do your math, do your math" "1, 2, 3, 4"
"What are we talking about here?"

(Mathematics, mathematics, mathematics)