Saul Williams Twice The First Time lyrics

I will not rhyme on tracks
Niggas on a chain gang used to do that way back
I will not rhyme over tracks
Niggas on a chain gang used to do that way back
Don't drop the beat on me
Don't drop the beat no

I am not the son of Sha klak klak
I am before that, I am before
I am before, before, before death is eternity
After death is eternity
There is no death there's only eternity
And I be riding on the wings of eternity like
Cla, cla, cla, Sha klack klack
Get me the fuck off this track

As if the heartbeat wasn't enough
They got us using drum machines now
The hums of the machines
Tryin' to make our drums humdrums
Tryin' to [Incomprehensible] our magic
Instruments be political prisoners up inside computers
As if the heart were not enough
As if the heart were not enough

And as heartbeats bring percussions
Fallen trees bring reprocussions
City's play upon our souls like broken drums
Redrum the essence of creation from city slums
But city slums mute our drums and our drums become humdrums

'Cuz city slums have never been where our drums are from
Just the place where our daughters and sons become
Offbeat heartbeats, slaves to city streets
And hearts get broken and heartbeats stop
Broken heartbeats become breakbeats
For niggas to rhyme on top but

I won't rhyme on top no tracks
Niggas on a chain gang used to do that way back

I won't rhyme over tracks
Niggas on a chain gang used to do that way back
Don't drop the beat, no
Don't drop the beat, no

Not until you've listened to Rakim on a rocky mountain top
Have you heard hip hop?
Extract the urban element that created it
And let a open wide country side illustrate it
Riding in a freight train in the freezing rain
Listening to Coltrane my reality went insane

And I think I saw Jesus
He was playing hopscotch with Betty Carter
Who was cursing him out
In a scat-like gibberish for not saying 'Butterfingers'
And my fingers run through grains of sand
Like seeds of time, the pains of man, the frames of mind
Which built these frames
Which is the structure of my urban super-structure

The trains and planes can corrupt
And obstruct your planes of thought
So that you forget how to walk through the woods
Which ain't good 'cuz you ain't never walked through the trees
Listenin' to nobody beats the biz and you ain't never heard hip hop
And you must stop that damn track from going
Please don't drop the beat, don't drop the beat no

And I will not rhyme on tracks
Niggas on a chain gang used to that way back
I will not rhyme on tracks
Niggas on a chain gang used to that way back
Don't drop the beat no, don't drop the beat no
Don't drop the beat, heartbeat, my heartbeat
Goes on and on and on, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah