50 Times Rappers Proved They’re Smarter Than Any Philosopher

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1.

And even after all my logic and my theory
I add a “motherfucker” so you ignorant niggas hear me

— Lauyrn Hill, “Zealots”


2.

You don’t stand for something
You fall for anything

— Public Enemy, “Harder Than You Think”


3.

Girls only say “I hate you” to the guys that they love

— Big Sean, “Beware”


4.

Money ain’t a thing if I got it

— Joey BADA$$, “Paper Trails”


5.

Spirits stay mute while your egos spread rumors

— Talib Kweli, “Get By”


6.

They say signs of the end is near
I wonder, can I walk a righteous path holding a beer?

— Common, “Resurrection”


7.

You can see the weakness of a man right through his iris

— RZA, “4th Chamber”


8.

If niggas hate then let them hate, and watch the money pile up

— 50 Cent, “In Da Club”


9.

All good jokes contain true shit

— J. Cole, “Fire Squad”


10.

If you can’t be a dog, then you’re weak

— Too $hort, “In the Trunk”


11.

I’m just another black man caught up in the mix
Tryna make a dollar out of 15 cents

— 2Pac, “I Get Around”


12.

How you lookin’ for shit to change if you ain’t changing your ways?
Making the same mistakes, defining insane peep game

— The Underachievers, “The Mahdi”


13.

When you look in the crowd the minority’s never white
I appreciate y’all, but I’m lying if I don’t bite
Cuz I love all races but we gotta raise ‘em
Cuz I know the scale tipped ain’t in no black girl’s favor

— Rapsody, “Hard To Choose”


14.

Beauty is what you make it, I used to be so mistaken
By different shades of races

— Kendrick Lamar, “Complexion (A Zulu Love)”


15.

They been calling me a criminal for so damn long
Start to believe they right, and they gon’ make me do something wrong

— Sticky Fingaz, “Look Like A Criminal”


16.

Eventually, if it was mean to be, then it would be
Because we related, physically and mentally

— Common, “I Used To Love H.E.R.”


17.

I know you like to think your shit don’t stank
But lean a lil’ bit closer, see that roses really smell like poo-poo

— OutKast, “Roses”


18.

Consequence is no coincidence

— Lauryn Hill, “Lost Ones”


19.

Richer than white people with black kids
Scarier than black people with ideas

— Tyler, The Creator ft. Kanye West, “SMUCKERS”


20.

And loving you is a little different, I don’t like you a lot

— Earl Sweatshirt, “Sunday”


21.

“Be all you can be,” true, but the problem is
Dream only a dream if work don’t follow it

— Kendrick Lamar, “Institutionalized”


22.

The wings don’t make you fly and the crown don’t make you king

— Lupe Fiasco, “Gold Watch”


23.

Superficial, don’t get sucked into the scene
The grass ain’t always green, the meat ain’t always lean

— Ghostface Killah, “Nuggets of Wisdom”


24.

You a white boy in a fuckin’ droptop
Bumpin 2Pac, actin’ like you hard? Stop
Hip-hop music make the world go round
But buying a record down’t put you down
You listen to thugs, it don’t make you one
Never met a Blood or Crip, but you act like one?

— Mystic, “Pull Ya Card”


25.

Fuck the world, don’t ask me for shit
Everything you get, you gotta work hard for it

— The Notorious B.I.G. & Method Man, “The What”


26.

Fame is
The worst drug known to man
It’s stronger than, heroin
When you could look in the mirror like “there I am”
And still not see, what you’ve become

— Jay Z, “Lost One”


27.

Most people don’t make love no more
They just fuck and they fight

— Big K.R.I.T., “Soul Food”


28.

Rich enough that I don’t have to tell ‘em that I’m rich

— Drake, “Tuscan Leather”


29.

But real gangsta-ass niggas don’t flex much
Cuz real gangsta-ass niggas know they got ‘em

— Geto Boys, “Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta”


30.

I don’t drink too much, I know the bud wiser

— Joey BADA$$, “My Yout”


31.

But I can’t keep runnin’
I just gotta keep keen and cunnin’

— The Pharcyde, “Runnin’”


32.

Before you act black
Or try to dress black
You better be born black
Or I’ll call your shit whack

— Y’All So Stupid, “Dirt Road White Girl”


33.

She was in love and I’d ask her how, I mean why
What kind of love from a nigga would black your eye?

— Eve, “Love Is Blind”


34.

A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smilin’ on you but he’s frownin’ too
Because only god knows what you’ll go through

— Grandmaster Melle Mel, “The Message”


35.

Fear is weakness, learn from what experience teaches

— Nas, “Self Conscience”


36.

Stop walking through life as if you were blind
You should reach for your goal cuz I’m reaching for mine

— MC Shan, “The Bridge”


37.

It’s like every step bring me close to destiny
And every breath I get closer to the death of me
I’m just tryna carry out my own legacy
But the place I call home ain’t lettin’ me

— Joey BADA$$, “Like Me”


38.

Don’t save her
She don’t wanna be saved

— J. Cole, “No Role Modelz”


39.

I use to want a Beemer, I used to want a Benz
One thing that I never wanted was fake friends in the end

— Buckshot, “Duress”


40.

The way mothers feel for they sons, how fathers feel for they
daughters
When he date, he straight, chip off his own papa
When she date, we wait behind the door with the sawed off
Cuz we think no one is good enough for our daughters

— Nas, “Daughters”


41.

I never understood Planned Parenthood
Cuz I never met nobody planned to be a parent in the hood

— Kanye West, “The Joy”


42.

You need to git up, git out, and git somethin’
How will you make it if you never even try?
You need to git up, git out, and git somethin’
Cuz you and I got to do for you and I

— OutKast, “Git Up, Git Out”


43.

You soar off to another world, deep in you mind
But people seem to take that as being unkind

— A Tribe Called Quest, “Buggin’ Out”


44.

We argued until you was wrong

— Trina, “Fuck Love”


45.

You see it’s broke nigga racism
That’s that “don’t touch anything in the store”
And it’s rich nigga racism
That’s that “come in, please buy more”

— Kanye West, “New Slaves”


46.

I passed the dutch to the left and it started to make sense
It’s funny how I see it more straight when I’m bent

— Joey BADA$$, “Snakes”


47.

God works in different ways and it shows
And everybody knows, love comes and goes

— Ed O.G. “Love Comes And Goes”


48.

Opportunity be knockin’, you gotta let a motherfucker in

— Action Bronson, “Actin Crazy”


49.

My selfishness is what got me here, who the fuck I’m kiddin’?

— Kendrick Lamar, “How Much A Dollar Cost”


50.

Believe me when I say being a woman is great, you see
I know all the fellas out there will agree with me
Not for being one but for being with one
Because when it’s time for loving, it’s the woman that gets some

— Queen Latifah ft. Monie Love, “Ladies First”