Other People’s Property
Lyrics by MC Lars, YTCracker, K.Flay, Beefy, and MC Router
Music by the Dust Collector
[Verse 1: MC Lars]
Who’s down with OPP? Yeah you know me
Remixed pastiche of other people’s property
Because what do you do when your culture’s predicated
On a cut and paste identity, straight up appropriated?
Who’s back, who’s tight, who’s on tonight
Who’s black, who’s white, who’s wrong, who’s right?
Yeah I speak for a generation of lost kids
Who had stranger life than our parents ever did
We never had a Woodstock, Iraq is our Vietnam
So we colonized hip-hop, like Dutch dudes Suriname
A mullet on a b-boy, the flavor is intrinsic
If you’ve got the beat inside you, me feel me if you’re with it
From Rolling Stone love to MTV
The thin line between Eminem and Ali G
Guess who just aced this hip-hop pop quiz?
MC Lars posting up laying claim to what’s his
[Hook: YTCracker](x2)
You down with OPP? Yeah you know me
Remixed pastiche of other people’s property
Because what do you do when your culture’s predicated
On a cut and paste identity, straight up appropriated?
[Verse 2: K. Flay]
Racial politics every time I spit
Am I a colonist or am I legit?
Tip-toe the fine line, it’s ill-defined I’m
Implicated in this mess all the time
The high jack took place way back the Blues Act
Taken by this white cat, he made mad cash
Is it appreciation, or appropriation?
What kind of statement are we making?
[Verse 3: YTCracker:]
Are they mad at me? assimilate the game like the borg
Hatin’ on me cuz I banged a couple keys on my korg
I twisted the paradigm took something and made it mine
But the way that I make ‘em move they don’t seem to mind
I’m a hip-hopper respect the roots
I’m a show stopper and that’s the truth
I’ve been doing this rapping long enough to gain my tenure
Get respect at my shows making legal tender
[Hook: YTCracker](x2)
[Verse 4: Beefy]
Let me introduce myself, my name is Beefy kid
I’m from the Northwest 509 number one Whitesican
Been known to grab a mic and kill all challengers just with the flows
And with these nerdy lyrics got kids heads all up all at my shows
So because my lack of pigment makes my skin all light
Mean I can’t grab a microphone and rip apart your face tonight?
That sounds ridiculous, you surly can’t be serious
Cause Beefy is so magical I should just be called Severus
Judge me not by the way I appear
Be in your ear, striking fear into all of those insincere
Rap about pop culture, that’s experimentation
Now they wanna strike me down for my pigmentation, like what?
Don’t you know that I’ve been hanging around
Going to town on these fellas by simply making a sound
But add my visual and audio becomes less important
You've got a stupid argument, I’d like to see ya support it
Now I'm not putting you down, not saying your not amazing
But when you just reverse the roles you see the trouble we’re facing
People hating, people saying I’m disgracing the form
I’m trying to elevate the culture, roll it out and transform
[Hook: YTCracker](x2)
[Verse 5: MC Router]
Is it proper of me to be a nerdy MC
To take a different approach at lyrical memes?
Where does hip-hop belong if it came from the streets?
Can only hard dudes put a rhyme to these beats?
Hip-hop wasn't made to be kept [?]
So move it off a mic and MC Router intervenes
Never been aimed at, shot up, or bitch slapped
But I been shot down, beat up, and laughed at
I've been torn down, [?] past, shrugged off, and called fat
No I'm not a gangsta but I'm tough and you can trust that
Don't wanna change the roots, but I'm quick
To jump up in a track [?] that YTCracker spits
From the streets or from the desk
It doesn't matter who's the best
We come from different hoods
But we all fall out the nest
You could choose to cry about it
Put your anger in a track
Use a boombox to spit at
Use these beats to attack