Firas Durri

How do people find these things? This is great (source).

Won’t Catch Me Runnin’ (mp3) [lyrics]

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Ras not strapped is like LL without a hat
Syntax attacks, head cracks, David Horowitz wouldn’t strike back

I step through crews as if they was holograms
Been inside of more vaginas than a diaphragm, so I don’t give a damn
Kid, I am the man that you think you are
5’5″ and throwing hooks like Abdul-Jabbar
Servin’ these kids like pediatrics, practice the tactics
And suckers cover your head, just like a prophylactic does

Our self-image depends on the next man’s scrimmage, so I sin
I never understood why brothers want to disrespect one another
But if the static is coming — you won’t catch me runnin’.

Remain Anonymous (mp3) [lyrics]

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Too many MCs get deals from who ya down with, or where ya represent
But since I house more n—s than section eight
State statements about your state

Now all I do is stop the myth that every MC from Cali
is a Blood, Crip, or pimp

Fuck fame; I snuff that ass out the frame
It ain’t Snoop Dogg, so what’s my motherfuckin name?

Oh you went platinum? Yeah that’s nice!
Now let me see you do the same thing twice.
— Nas

DJ Premier:

Right at the beginning of the record [N.Y. State of Mind], when he says, “Straight out the dungeons of rap, where fake niggas don’t make it back.” And then there’s kind of like a silence, where the music is building up, and you hear Nas go, “I don’t know how to start this shit.” He just wrote it, and he was trying to figure out how to format it, like when to come in. I’m waving at him in the control room like, “Look at me, go in for the count.” So right when he looks up and sees me counting, he just jumps in. He did the whole first verse in one take, and I remember when he finished the first verse, he stopped and said, “Does that sound cool?” And we were all like, “Oh my God!” It was like, I don’t even care what else you write.

I just re-listened to the song’s opening and first verse very carefully and almost felt a chill. Talent = Sexy.