Lyrics Breakdown - Mos Def

(1st Verse)
Good evening ladies and gents, close and distant fam
Let me break it down for ya′ll exactly who I am...(CAV)
That brotha straight off of Myrtle Ave
That dude that make the other dude say that's my man, (CAV)
It ain′t nuttin' I want I can't have
The haters know it′s real and that′s why they mad
They struggle so hard while I just lay back
They sound under pressure, sweaty and straight wack
I rock like this because I ain't that, (CAV)
Tell the players I′m taking the game back...
Matta fact tell the coaches, the GMs, and owners
Shut down the stadiums, it's ova
I make the cat′s in the back draw closer
Get the comp choked up like white folks on Oprah
Yeah you dope, but (CAV) is more doper
Mo skill, mo style than mo folkas
I hit the lab with good shit to smoke up
And tell the sound man where I wanna go from
Blow up, skit sheet across the notepad
School em' all from the drop out to post grads
What history book you do or don′t have
There's only two eras of rap, pre and post CAV
Now you know that
Stop the train, there's no place for the game left to go at

(BREAK)

CAV is my name but you can call me, (CAV)
It′s all the same abbreviated or whole
Shout it out so it don′t be a secret to folk it go, (CAV)
Short for Cavee but I'm not from Cali
I′m from the rotten apple, dirty streets and alleys
Bed-Stuy Brooklyn doin'it exactly, Get at me!

(2nd Verse)
Holla!...Like Missy and Ja Rule
Ain′t a crowd in the world that CAV cannot move
Hot dude, cats was thinkin' it′s not true
But come front row at show, I got proof
I went from sellin' candy in junior high school
To servin' spoony g for the fiends, to gnaw to
Got sent upstate on bus, (Not cool)
In the yard thinkin′ damn should′ve listen to ma duke
Come home in 99, what the fuck I'm gonna do
I won′t move bundles, I got a new hustle
I quit pie baking, started rhyme makin
Buildin' up my rep to be one of the five greatest
And I ain′t saying CAV the best nigga out there
But until he appear, I'm sittin′in his chair
And I'ma need a few moments just to get in ya'll ear
To make you forget the Duke was eva even here
I got two words for the world, BE PREPARED!
I got three words for your girl, DON′T BE SCARED!
And when they ask where the real hip-hop, IT′S OVA HERE!
And when they ask where Brooklyn at, HOLD YA EAR!
It's like YEAH!, Chris Antione Vashon
Capricorn hit em′ off with the classic bong and then I'm gone...

Ridin′ back to Brook-Lan... boyeeeeee