"Begged him on the regular for kegs of more Vomitspit" - DOOM

This is a segment where I go over an MC's lyrics detailing some mark of brilliance. Whether it is content, flow, wordplay, or just raw spit, these MCs brought their A game to the party.

One of the things that makes hip-hop music so unique as a poetry form is that it must be listened to as well as read in order to fully assess the skill of the MC. You need to hear the song to hear how the author flows on the beat. So listen while reading.

My first post on this is from Mos Def's Black on Both Sides album. Using the Nation of Gods and Earths Supreme Mathematics as a guide, he delivers a hard hitting narrative about city living and its place in a larger context. There is not a lot of slick wordplay or fancy delivery here, just raw spit about issues of the day.

"Yo, it's one universal law but two sides to every story
Three strikes and you biddin for life, mandatory
Four MC's murdered in the last four years
I ain't tryin to be the fifth one, the millennium is here
Yo it's 6 Million Ways to Die, from the seven deadly thrills
Eight-year olds gettin found with 9 mill's
It's 10 P.M., where your seeds at? What's the deal
They on the hill pumpin krill to keep they belly filled
Light in the ass with heavy steel, sights on the pretty shit in life
Young soldiers tryin to earn they next stripe
When the average minimum wage is $5.15
You best believe you gotta find a new grind to get cream
The white unemployment rate, is nearly more than triple for black
so front liners got they gun in your back
Bubblin crack, jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty
and end up in the global jail economy
Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence
Budget cutbacks but increased police presence
And even if you get out of prison still livin
join the other five million under state supervision
This is business, no faces just lines and statistics
from your phone, your zip code, to S-S-I digits
The system break man child and women into figures
Two columns for who is, and who ain't niggaz
Numbers is hardly real and they never have feelings
but you push too hard, even numbers got limits
Why did one straw break the camel's back? Here's the secret:
the million other straws underneath it - it's all mathematics"

Mos Def- Mathematics