Call me what you want? An old school, washed up, hip-hop head or whateva, but I’m always gonna check for dope lyrics in a song. I’m from New Yitty and the fact is that we listen to music differently up here. Most of us don’t have rides, so we can’t turn up the bass to drown out ya wack ass lyrics. Some of us are closer to our iPods than wifey cuz we ride that iron horse everyday looking for any kind of distraction to take your mind off the fact that you feel like a sardine. In the big city lyrics are tantamount to a dope beat, so its only right that we school yall and toast to a dope verse. So with that said, I’d like to introduce our first Lyrical Exercise champ…

Common has been one of the most lyrical cats in the game for ages. Not because he kicks the most intricate rhymes, but because he’s always maintained a good balance between punchlines and poetic prose. However, this time around its his content, which is always honest and true to his character, that caught my attention. Amidst all of these fairy tale rhymes we hear on a daily basis, Common has always been a voice for the people. This particular record, Black Maybe, exhibits Common at his best, addressing issues that we all face coming up in the hood. Due the knowledge…

I heard a white man’s yes is a black maybe,
I was delivered in this world as a crack baby,
hard for me to pay attention and I act crazy,
gotta get over from the tip I watch the fat lady,
sing a song,
on how we guerillas in warfare,
and I’m the king as kong,
they say we dreamin wrong,
the same strip that them older cats lingered on,
now the walgreens is gone,
hope is killed, fiends are born,
we leanin on a wall that ain’t, that ain’t stable,
its hard to turn on the hood that made you,
to leave we afraid to,
the same streets that raised you can age you,
what other black birds is caged too,
a rage up in Harlem and the Southside,
brothers is starving with they mouth wide,
open, floatin across state,
got the workout plan so they can move weight,
the fate of the black man, woman and child…maybe

Common - Black Maybe » snippet