Artist: Rakim 
Album:  The Seventh Seal 
Song:   How to Emcee 
Typed by: jostmatt at bluewin dot ch
 
God MC 
Look what y'all made me do 
 
[ CHORUS: Rakim ] 
It don't matter if I ain't on the page you want 
Tell me what you want, I give it to you the way you want 
Show you how to flow and how to flip any phrase you want 
You just keep your eye on me 
I show you how to emcee 
 
If it's swag or the lyric display you want 
Tell me what you want, I give it to you the way you want 
Show you how to throw and how to rip any stage you want 
I can show you how to emcee 
Like you got a degree 
 
[ VERSE 1: Rakim ] 
This is your Qu'ran or Bible 
To be a true MC, icon and idol 
The contents you put in your songs are vital 
Like training for the UFC you want a title 
Slam thoughts on the canvas, flip 'em and pin 'em 
Metaphors and similes with synonyms in 'em 
Spit heat around the town, the more you get it heard 
Till you spit at least 3000 miles before it hit a curve 
Then flaunt your rhymes in your rap pages 
Wordplay to punchlines and catchphrases 
Deep sport for players and ballers, new game 
Street talk straight off the corners, new slang 
I got heat for crowds for those that pursue it 
Spitters, I show you flow till your vocals are through it 
From social to freestyle, just focus into it 
If you a G I'll show you how the Coppola do it 
 
[ CHORUS ] 
 
[ VERSE 2: Rakim ] 
Forever sick like catchin AIDS is 
In a class for greatness for matchin phrases 
My predicates last for pages 
Every letter fit, trendsetter like fashion statements 
Recruits get a shine and they hope forever 
I wrote some of the illest rhymes ever put together 
Soon as I make 'em rappers take 'em 
Analyze 'em for days and paraphrase 'em 
I'm back, hip-hoppers'll back my scripts and documents 
Raps hit the block, it's a wrap, it's the apocalypse 
The hood give my rap flow names 
Like 9/11 and crack cocaine 
I hit the building, it get hotter in 'em 
It's like birds, most rappers don't know how to flip 'em 
I gotta hip 'em, get hop and show 'em how to spit 'em 
I bust a rhyme and I school 'em for free, I scholarship 'em 
 
[ CHORUS ] 
 
[ BRIDGE: Tracey Horton ] 
Competition know the deal, you're not ready now 
Because you're dealin with the R, know how it's goin down 
This is it, if you so sick, where your skills at? 
No sir, ghostwriter, you can kill that 
 
[ VERSE 3: Rakim ] 
It's hard ( ? ) it isn't in bars, it's infinite 
So Ra deliver it far different 
Part lyricist, part instrument 
Start spittin it the more articulate y'all rhythms get 
Till every syllable you drop it pivotal 
If it's not original it's not as memorable 
Ill lyrical till you're so popular they sick of you 
Pandemical threat, level 5, it's critical 
Kill 'em off with a word like euthanasia 
Till it spread to the youth in Asia 
In the booth I'm major, my music's monumental, I'm a mogul 
You wanna make sense? I'ma show you 
You gotta put your life in them lines 
Make the deaf hear, give sight to the blind 
Make your flow tighter, brightest designs 
So if the mic is your grind then biting's a crime 
Especially if a ghostwriter's writin your rhymes