Start
Verse
C#7 F#7 E A A7 F#7
Buckabuckabuckabuckabuckabucka ■ ■ ■ haha ■ ■ ■
E7 A7 A
You know the deal it's just me yo
A7
Beats by SuPrimo for all of my people Negroes and Latinos
A7
And even the gringos
Yo check it
E
One for Charlie Hustle two for Steady Rock
E A7
Three for the forthcomin' live future ■ shock
A7
It's five dimensions six senses
Seven firmaments of heaven and hell
A
Eight million stories to tell
A7 F#7
Nine planets faithfully keepin' orbit with the probable tenth
The universe expands length
The body of my text possess extra strength
A7
Powerlift the powerless up out of this towering inferno
My ink so hot it burn through the journal
E
I'm blacker than midnight on Broadway & Myrtle
E
Hiphop passed all your tall social hurdles
Like the nationwide projectsprisonindustry complex
E
Workingclass poor — better keep your alarm set
C#m
Streets too loud to ever hear freedom ring
B
Say evacuate your sleep it's dangerous to dream
B
For chching cats get the Chapow — you dead now
Killing fields need blood to graze the cash cow
A B
It's a numbers game but shit don't add up somehow
Like I got sixteen to thirtytwo bars to rock it
B
But only fifteen% of profits ever see my pockets
Like sixtynine billion in the last twenty years
A
Spent on national defense but folks still live in fear
B
Like nearly half of America's largest cities is onequarter black
E
That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack
A
Sixteen ounces to a pound twenty more to a ki
A five minute sentence hearing and you no longer free
C#m
Forty% of Americans own a cell phone
So they can hear everythin' that you say when you ain't home
C#m
I guess Michael Jackson was right — you are not alone
Rock your hardhat black 'cause you in the Terrordome
F#m E7
Full of hard niggas large niggas dicetumblers
B A
Young teens and prison greens facin' life numbers
Crack mothers crack babies and AIDS patients
A
Young bloods can't spell but they could rock you at PlayStation
This New Math is whippin' motherfuckers' ass
A
You wanna know how to rhyme You better learn how to add
It's mathematics
The Mighty Mos Def
It's simple mathematics
Check it out
E
I revolve around science
What are we talking about here
The Mighty Mos Def
A7
It's simple mathematics
Check it out
I revolve around science
What are we talking about here
E
Do your math do your math
One two three four
E7
What are we talking about here
F#m
Yo it's one universal law but two sides to every story
E7
Three strikes and you biddin' for life mandatory
Four MC's murdered in the last four years
A7
I ain't tryin' to be the fiveth when the millennium is here
Yo it's six million ways to die from the seven deadly thrills
A7
Eightyearolds gettin' found with ninemils
B
It's tenPM where your seeds at What's the deal
A A7
He on the hill pumpin' krills to keep they bellies filled
E
Light in the ass with heavy steel sights on the pretty shit in life
A
Young soldiers tryin' to earn they next stripe
When the average minimum wage is five point one five
E7
You best believe you gotta find a new grind to get CREAM
C#m
The white unemployment rate is nearly more than triple for black
Some frontliners got they gun in your back
E E7
Bubblin' crack jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty
And end up in the global jail economy
A7
Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence
Budget cutbacks but increased police presence
E
And even if you get out of prison still livin'
Join the other five million under state supervision
A
This is bidness no faces just lines and statistics
From your phone your Zip Code to SSI digits
F#7
The system break man child and women into figures
Chorus
A7
Two columns for Who is and Who ain't niggas
F#7
Numbers is hard and real and they never have feelings
But you push too hard even numbers got limits
E7
Why did one straw break the camel's back
C#m E7
Here's the secret — the million other straws underneath it
A
It's all mathematics
The Mighty Mos Def
It's simple mathematics
Check it out
F#m
I revolve around science
What are we talking about here
A
The Mighty Mos Def
F#m
It's simple mathematics
Check it out
I revolve around science
F#m F#m
What are ■ we talking about here
Do your math do your math
One two three four
E B
What are we talking about here ■
End