Kings from Queens, from Queens come kings
We're raisin' hell like a class when the lunch bell rings
Collection
Old school rap quotes
Every line is a lyric from a song that its linked Genius page dates to 1994 or earlier. 50 lyrics from 20 artists are shown, rated 3.5 or higher with no more than five per artist. The earliest dated line is from “Raising Hell” by Run-DMC (1986). Lines from 1989 and earlier alone would not fill a page above the 3.5 floor, so the cutoff sits in the early 90s. Interview lines carry no release year and are left out.
Geto Boys, Nas and The Notorious B.I.G. have the most lines, and the themes that come up most are confidence, struggle and wit. Next to the 2000s rap quotes page, confidence shows up in 36% of the lines here against 16% there and struggle shows up in 20% of the lines here against 6% there; wit goes the other way, 38% there against 20% here (a line can carry more than one theme). The songs with the most lines here are Mind Playing Tricks on Me by Geto Boys (4), Juicy by The Notorious B.I.G. (3) and Keep Ya Head Up by 2Pac (3). The top-rated short line is “Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice / I say the darker the flesh, then the deeper the roots (Oh)” (2Pac, Keep Ya Head Up, 1993).
Lines from 1990 to 1994 can also be on the 90s page. No line appears on more than two of the region, decade and old school pages, and no two of them share more than a quarter of their quotes.
1986–1989
I take seven emcees put 'em in a line
And add seven more brothers who think they can rhyme
Well, it'll take seven more before I go for mine
Now that's twenty-one emcees ate up at the same time
I got a gold-made plate that says "I wish you would"
The grace as I ease across the stage
Bars around the audience, sort of like a cage
They laugh, 'cause they assume I'm in prison
But in reality, they're locked in
You're just a butter knife, I'm a machete
Others write your rhymes while I write my own
I don't create a character when I'm on the microphone
I am myself, no games to be played
No script to be written, no scene to be made
So pick a B.C. date 'cause you're history
What's more powerful - the brain or a twelve gauge?
I eat my steak fast, I drink my brew slow
Ladies first, there's no time to rehearse
I'm divine and my mind expands throughout the universe
My life on Earth was hell, you understand?
But when I die I'm goin' to hell again
1990–1991
Don't call it a comeback, I been here for years
I'm rocking my peers, putting suckas in fear
Making the tears rain down like a monsoon
Listen to the bass go boom
'Cause I'm Black and I'm proud, I'm ready, I'm hyped, plus, I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
If I was old, they'd probably be a friend of me
Since I'm young, they consider me the enemy
They kill ten of me to get the job correct
I learn to relax in my room and escape from New York
And return through the womb of the world as a thought
Thinkin' how hard it was to be born
Me bein' cream with no physical form
Land of the free, but the skin I'm in identifies me
I float like gravity, never had a cavity
Got more rhymes than the Winans got family
It's fucked up when your mind's playin' tricks on ya
I'm paranoid, sleepin' with my finger on the trigger
It's sad, 'cause I bet Brenda doesn't even know
Just 'cause you're in the ghetto doesn't mean you can't grow (You can't grow)
Day by day it's more impossible to cope
I feel like I'm the one that's doin' dope
Can't keep a steady hand, because I'm nervous
Now I remember, I used to be cool
'Til I stopped fillin' out my W-2
Let's talk about sex, baby
Let's talk about you and me
Four walls just starin' at a nigga
I'm paranoid, sleepin' with my finger on the trigger
1992–1993
But real gangsta-ass niggas don't flex nuts, 'cause real gangsta-ass niggas know they got 'em
Dangerous rhymes performed like surgery
Cuts so deep, you'll be bleedin' burgundy
Took me from a boy to a man, so I always had a father
When my biological didn't bother (Yeah)
Cash rules everything around me
C.R.E.A.M., get the money
Dollar, dollar bill, y'all
Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
I say the darker the flesh, then the deeper the roots (Oh)
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
"Who you callin' a bitch?"
They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor
With my mind on my money and my money on my mind
I never let a statue tell me how nice I am
A hero is a sandwich, and a Manwich is a meal
A marriage is a paper; are they fakin' or for real?
I'm a Black intellect, but unrefined
With so much drama in the L-B-C
It's kind of hard bein' Snoop D-O-double-G
1994
I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death
If I wasn't in the rap game
I'd probably have a ki, knee-deep in the crack game
Because the streets is a short stop
Either you're slingin' crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot
It was all a dream, I used to read Word Up! magazine
Salt-n-Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine
You're mad 'cause my style you're admiring
Don't be mad, UPS is hiring (Woo!)
Imagine peace on this Earth when there's no grief
Imagine grief on this Earth when there's no peace
I don't look for trouble, I'm already trouble
To all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothin'
To all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustlin' in front of
Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis
When I was dead broke, man, I couldn't picture this
Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian: half-man, half-amazin'
It's mine, it's mine, it's mine—whose world is this?
The world is yours, the world is yours
You're all that I need, I'll be there for you
If you keep it real with me, I'll keep it real with you
Somehow the rap game reminds me of the crack game
Used to sport Bally's and Cazals with black frames
Now I'm into fat chains, sex and TECs
Fly new chicks and new kicks, Heines and Beck's
I'm the young city bandit, hold myself down single-handed
For murder raps, I kick my thoughts alone, get remanded
Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne