Mathematics

Working class poor, better keep your alarm set

Like the nationwide projects, prison-industry complex
Full of hard niggaz, large niggaz, dice tumblers
Budget cutbacks but increased police presence

My ink so hot, it burn through the journal
"The mighty Mos Def"
"It's simple mathematics"
"Check it out!"
That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack
Forty percent of Americans own a cell phone
Yo, check it, one for Charlie Hustle, two for Steady Rock
From your phone, your zip code, to S S I digits
This new math is whippin' motherfuckers ass
Nearly half of America's largest cities is one-quarter black
"I revolve around science"
Negroes and Latinos and even the Gringos
"I revolve around science"
Hip-Hop past all your tall social hurdles
"The mighty Mos Def"
Numbers is hardly real and they never have feelings
Like I got, sixteen to thirty-two bars to rock it
Join the other five million under state supervision
He on the hill puffin' krill to keep their bellies filled
"The mighty Mos Def"
"It's simple mathematics"
Yo, it's one universal law but two sides to every story
A five minute sentence hearing and you're no longer free
Four M.C's murdered in the last four years
When the average minimum wage is five fifteen
Sixteen ounces to a pound, twenty more to a Ki

"One, t-t-two, three, four"
And end up in the global jail economy
You best believe you gotta find a new grind to get cream

So frontliners got their gun in your back
Some numbers game, but shit don't add up somehow

Power-liftin' powerless up, out of this towerin' inferno

"What are we talking about here?"
"The mighty Mos Def"
For cha-ching cats get tha cha-pow, who dead now
"It's simple mathematics"

So they can hear everything that you say when you ain't home
Two columns for who is and who ain't niggaz
Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence
"What are we talking about here?"

Young bloods can't spell but they could rock you in playstation
It's ten p.m., where your seeds at? What's the deal?
But only fifteen percent of profits, ever see my pockets like
Three strikes and you be in for life, mandatory
Crack mothers, crack babies and aids patients

Rock your hardhat black 'coz you in the terrordome
The're million other straws underneath it, it's all mathematics
Say evacuate your sleep, it's dangerous to dream
With the probable tenth, the universe expands length
Eight year olds gettin' found with nine mill's
Yo it's six million ways to die, from the seven deadly thrills
Bubblin' crack, jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty
"What are we talking about here?"
"I revolve around science"
It's five dimensions, six senses
I'm blacker than midnight on broadway and myrtle

"Check it out!"

Seven firmaments of heaven to hell, eight million stories to tell
The body of my text possess extra strength
"Check it out!"

Young teens and prison greens facin' life numbers

Sixty-nine billion in the last twenty years
Nine planets faithfully keep in orbit
Three for the fourth comin' live, future shock

"Check it out!"
The system break man, child and women into figures

This is business, no faces just lines and statistics
"What are we talking about here?"
The white unemployment rate is nearly more than triple for black
"Do your math"
"Do your math"
Light in the ass with heavy steel, sights on the pretty shit in life
Spent on national defense but folks still live in fear like
Streets too loud to ever hear freedom ring
I ain't tryin' to be the fifth one, the millennium is here
Killin' fields need blood to graze the cash cow
And even if you get out of prison still livin'
Why did one straw break the camel's back? Here's the secret

I guess, Michael Jackson was right, 'You are not alone'
Beats by su-primo for all of my people
"I revolve around science"
"What are we talking about here?"
You wanna know how to rhyme you better learn how to add
"It's simple mathematics"
But you push too hard, even numbers got limits
Young soldiers tryin' to earn they next stripe
It's mathematics