Mathematics (Clean) - Mos Def

Written by：C Martin/D Smith

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

One for Charlie Hustle 2 for Steady Rock

3 for the forthcoming live future shock

It's 5 dimensions 6 senses

7 firmaments of heaven and hell

8 Million Stories to tell

9 planets faithfully keep in orbit with the probable tenth

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 and Myrtle

Hip-Hop passed all your tall social hurdles

Like the nationwide project-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 sh*t don't add up somehow

Like I got 16 to 32 bars to rock it

But only 15% of profits 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're no longer free

40% of Americans own a cell phone

So they can hear

Everything 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 facing life numbers

Crack mothers crack babies and AIDS patients

Young bloods can't spell

But they could rock you in PlayStation

This new math is whipping motherf**kers' a**

You want to 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 one universal law but 2 sides to every story

3 strikes and you be in for life mandatory

4 MC's murdered in the last 4 years

I ain't trying to be the fifth one the millennium is here

Yo it's 6 Million Ways to Die from the 7 deadly thrills

8 year olds getting found with 9 mils

It's 10 P.M. where your seeds at

What's the deal

He on the hill pumping krill to keep they belly filled

Light in the a** with heavy steel

Sights on the pretty sh*t in life

Young soldiers trying to earn their next stripe

When the average minimum wage is $5.15

You best believe you've got to find a new grind to get cream

The white unemployment rate

It's nearly more than triple for black

Some front-liners got their gun in your back

Bubbling 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 living

Join the other 5 million under state supervision

This is business no faces just lines and statistics

From your phone your zip code to S-S-I digits

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 limits

Why did one straw break the camel's back

Here's the secret

The million other straws underneath it

It's all mathematics math

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

Mathematics mathematics mathematics