Heh, hey, hey
Ha, ha, say what? Say what?
Ha, ha, bust it, yo (ha ha, ha ha)
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner
Sometimes I feel like my only friend
Is the city I live in is beautiful Brooklyn
Long as I live here believe I'm on fire, hey
'Cause it's the B-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
L-y-n is the place where I stay
The B-to-the-R-to-the-O-the-O-K
Best in the world and all USA
It's the B-to-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
L-y-n is the place where I stay (ha ha, ha ha)
The B-to-the-R-to-the-O-the-O-K
Place where I rest is on my born day, bust it
Sometimes I sit back and just reflect
Watch the world go by and my thought connect
I think about the time past and the time to come
Reminisce on Bed-Stuy when I was spry and young
I used to try and come to the neighborhood function (right)
Throw on my Izod, say a little something
When I was just a younging (uh), before the days of thugging (right)
How me and Charlie Chims (yo, what?) I'm only bugging
Fast forward, nine-now I gotta team my seed (right)
I must proceed at Godspeed to perform my deed
Livin' the now space and time, 'round the nine to five
For as long as I'm alive, pa, I got to strive
I ain't sitting roadside, that ain't harder to plan
I'm out here for my fam, doing all that I can
I love my city, sweet and gritty inland to outskirts
Nickname Bucktown cause we grown to outburst
Philosophy redefine us, touch mine I touch back
Walk the streets like a sweet and get beat like drum tracks
Catch no shakes over jakes (boop-boop), we bust back
Bring the marty to your face wit' no place to run back
I'm from the slums that created the bass that thump back
This ain't a game clown, play ya James Brown and jump back
What you want, Jack? Young cats stash they jums at
Draw they guns back, momma screams where she sons at
Tryna hunt that, recurring dream of high stakes
The fourth largest, first hardest, Brooklyn is the place
Settled by the Dutch many years ago
Three billion strong and here we go
Good morning, Vietnam
Ha (back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up)
(We live in Brooklyn, baby)
(Back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up)
(We live in Brooklyn, baby)
Yo, sometime I sit back, reflect on the place that I live at
Unlike any place I ever been at
The home of big gats, deep dish hammer rim caps
Have a mishap, push ya wig back
Where you go to get the fresh trim at
Fulton and Jay got the Timb rack
Blue collars metro carding it
Thugs mobbing it, form partnership
Increase armament, street pharmacist
Deep consequence, when you seek sleek ornaments
You get caught, rode the white horse and can't get off
Big dogs that trick off just get sent off
They shoebox stash is all they seeds gotta live off
It's real, yo but still, yo, it's love here
And it's felt by anybody that come here
Out of towners take the train, plane and bus here
Must be something that they really want here
One year as a resident, deeper sentiment
They shout out "Go Brooklyn", they representing it
Sitting on they front stoop sipping Guinesses
Using native dialect in they sentences
From the tree-line blocks to the tenements
To the Mom and Pop local shop businesses
Travel all around the world in great distances
And ain't a place that I know that bear resemblance
That's why we it The Planet
Not a borough or a province, our style is uncommon
From Sumner to Tompkins to Lafayette Gardens
Wyckoff, Gowanus, in they army jacket linings, yo
This goes out to my cats in Coney Isle
Friday night out in front The Himalaya goin wild
This goes out to Crown Heights and Smurv Village
The nighties, and all my Yard' and Trinis, Brown's Village
Parkside tennis caught, thirties, forties, and the fifties
The cats out in Starrett City gettin' busy
To the Hook, to the East, to the Stuy
Bushwick and Canarsie, Farragut, Fort Greene, and Marcy
My Flatbush posse, generals of armies
When it's time to form, just call me
And let this song be playing loud in Long B
If you love Bucktown strongly
Raise it up
Brooklyn my habitat, the place where it happen at
Live sway and the sharp balance of the battle axe
Irons is brandished at, thugs draw they hammer back
It's where you find the News Two crew cameras at
It's where my fam is at, the summertime jam is at
They play Big and get you open like a sandal back
Hotter than candle wax, hustling you can't relax
The crack babies tryna find where they mama's at
It's off the handle, black, with big police scandals that
Turn into actions screenplays sold to Miramax
The type of place where they check your appearance at
And cats who know where all the hot 'lo gear is at
The stomping grounds, where you find a pound smoke is that
Be blazing John that have your wave cap floating back
The doorstep where the dispossessed posted at
Dope fiends out on Franklin Ave selling Zovirax
You big balling better keep your money folded back
'Cause once the young guns notice that it's over, black
Brooklyn keep on taking it, worldwide we known for that
Flossy cats get it snatched like the local tax
The place I sharpen up my baritone vocals at
Where one of the greatest MC's was a local cat
---
Brooklyn - Mos Def
