Intro: (sung by KRS-One to the tune of the Beatles "Let It Be")



Boogie Down Productions will always get paid

We'll take the wackest song and make it better

Remember to let us into your skin

Cause then you'll begin, to master

Rhymin rhymin rhymin



Verse One: KRS-One



Criminal minded, you've been blinded

Lookin for a style like mine you can't find it

They are the audience, I am the lyricist

Sometimes the suckas on the side gotta hear this

Page, a rage, and I'm not in a cage

Free as a bird to fly up out on stage

Ain't here for no frontin just to say a little somethin

Ya suckaz don't like me cause you're all about nothin

However, I'm really fascinating to the letter

My all-around performance gets better and better

My English grammar comes down like a hammer

You need a style, I need to pull your file

I don't beg favors, you're kissing other people's ---

I write and produce myself just as fast

Keep my hair like this, got no time for Jheri curls

Attractin only women, got no time for little girls



[KRS sings again] Cause girls look so good

but their brain is not ready, I don't know

I'd rather talk to a woman

cause her mind is so steady, so here we go



I'm not a musical maniac or b-boy fanatic

I simply made use of what was upstairs in the attic

I've listened to these MC's back when I was a kid

But I bust more shots than they ever did

I mean this is not the best of KRS, it's just a section

But how many times must I point you in the right direction

You need protection, when I'm on the mic

Because my mouth is like a 9 millimeter windpipe

You're a king, I'm a teacher

You're a b-boy, I'm a scholar

If this was a class, well it would go right under drama

See kings lose crowns but teachers stay intelligent

Talkin big words on the mic but still irrelevant

Especially when you're not, college material

Wake up every morning to your Lucky Charms cereal

DJ Scott LaRock has a college degree

Blastmaster KRS writes poetry

I won't go deeper in the subject cause that gets me bored

It's a shame to know some MC's on the mic are fraud

Sayin styles like this to create a diss

But if you listen, who you dissin?

See I am a musician

Rappin on the mic like this to me is fine

Cause if I really want to battle I will put out a nine

You can see that Scott LaRock and I are mentally binded

In other words we're both Criminal Minded



Verse Two: KRS-One



We're not promoting violence, we're just havin some fun

He's Scott LaRock, I'm KRS-One

Never off-beat cause it don't make sense

Grab the microphone, relaxed and not tense

You waited, debated, and now you activated

A musical genius that could not be duplicated

See I have the formula for rockin the house

If you cannot rock a party do not open your mouth

It's that simple, no phony cosmetics to your pimple

Take another look because the gear is not wrinkled

The K, the R, the S, the O, the N, the E

Sayin rhyme for eighty-seven not from 1983

Well versed, to rehearse, and my rhymes are my curse

Originality come first but the suckers get worse

Allow me to include I have a very stable mood

Poetic education of a high altitude

I'm not an MC, so listen, call me poet or musician

A genius when it comes to making music with ambition

I'm cool, collected with the rhyme I directed

Don't wanna be elected as the king of a record

Just respected by others as the man with the solution

An artist of the 80's came and left his contribution

on wax, relax, there's 24 tracks

After years of rocking parties now I picked up the knack

Because everything that flows from out my larynx

Takes years of experience and bottles of Beck's

I cannot seem to recollect the time I didn't have sex

Is it real or is it Memorex?

I'm livin in a city known as New York State

Sucka MC's gotta wait while I translate

I hang with real live dreads with knowledge in their heads

People with ambition and straight up musicians

Although our lives have been so uprooted

I have it included, you all get zooted

So take each letter of the KRS-One

Means Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone

You look at me and laugh, but this is your class

It's an all-out discussion of the suckas I be crushin

So now you are awakened to the music I be makin

Never duplicated, and also highly cultivated

Don't get frustrated cause nothin has been traded

Only activated, it came out very complicated

Not separated, from my DJ

You see my voice is now faded

I'll see you folks around the way



Criminal minded