[00:02.25]Flashback, '88
[00:03.99]Copped my first tape
[00:05.46]Third Grade
[00:06.32]Young girl banking Roxanne Shante
[00:07.55]Around my way
[00:08.96]Called McKay
[00:11.17]Disarray
[00:12.16]Langston's a dark hues get bruised
[00:13.14]Stored away, hey
[00:13.67]Caught in cage
[00:14.84]Fought in the maze, gave up
[00:16.25]And now I got dreams of being live on stage
[00:18.29]What
[00:19.45]Turn up the volume, me and my cousin
[00:21.36]Doing the wop
[00:22.46]Dreaming about the Salt-N-Pepa haircut
[00:24.68]Speakers bump like the rock pumps
[00:26.70]The rhythm of my next double-dutch jump
[00:28.36]What you want? At once
[00:30.02]...and we love the
[00:31.56]We dreamed of ourselves
[00:32.85]Knew when Latifah showed us what a queen was
[00:34.63]Went from invisible to seen on the Smooth tip
[00:37.64]Sweet Tee, to follow Monie in the Middle on the scene
[00:40.59]So then saw myself, I'll drop mics when I'm over
[00:43.23]Pick up a pen and like Antoinette
[00:45.32]"Lights Out, Party's Over"
[00:46.18]This is for Latifah, for Lyte, for Shante
[00:48.15]Bahamadia, Lauryn Hill, Heather B, for Jean Grae
[00:51.43]E-V-E, Nikki D, Salt-N-Pepa, even me
[00:53.74]Apani B, for Missy, for Kim, and Foxy
[00:56.20]This is for, Rah Digga, Rage, Left Eye, for Yo-Yo
[00:58.78]Paula Perry, Nonchalant, Da Brat, for Jane Doe
[01:01.37]Rage, Mystic, BO$$, Sparky D
[01:03.40]For those never seen
[01:04.38]On the search for female emcees
[01:05.92]The microphone fiends
[01:07.52]Stomped in the '90s
[01:08.93]After school you could find me
[01:09.91]In the backyard begging for a beat box, rhyming
[01:12.43]U-N-I-T-Y and Heather B Blues
[01:14.52]Claim the news of the death of Phyllis Hymen
[01:17.03]I rap to keep from crying
[01:17.83]Taking Mine, now I'm the Bo$$
[01:19.18]Recipe for a show
[01:20.35]They say no girls in the cipher, so I rock solo
[01:22.75]Then on the Blackstreet, Ill Na Na get me home, though
[01:24.28]I rap along to every song
[01:26.92]And ain't no playing with my Yo-Yo
[01:28.46]Check, how I hit every note, though
[01:30.61]Even sung along with patois
[01:32.26]Like in the joint she did with Patra
[01:34.10]I'm on a Romantic Call...
[01:35.81](Talkin' to my baby Down ah mi yard)
[01:38.27]Blank page calling, a female size of crowd
[01:40.40]The crowd yes ya'llin'
[01:41.51]Nonchalantly in the trees at five o'clock in the morning
[01:42.44]Sported he Kim hardcore wig, then came Lauryn
[01:44.71]She showed me the beauty and the natural cut
[01:47.29]Amplify my Rage, growing out my afro puffs
[01:50.75]This is for Latifah, for Lyte, for Shante
[01:52.89]Bahamadia, Lauryn Hill, Heather B, for Jean Grae
[01:55.66]E-V-E, Nikki D, Salt-N-Pepa, even me
[01:58.30]Apani B, for Missy, for Kim, and Foxy
[02:00.81]This is for, Rah Digga, Rage, Left Eye, for Yo-Yo
[02:03.32]Paula Perry, Nonchalant, Da Brat, for Jane Doe
[02:06.15]Rage, Mystic, BO$$, Sparky D
[02:07.80]For those never seen
[02:09.04]On the search for female emcees
[02:10.69]The microphone fiends
[02:12.04]New millennium, came of age
[02:13.40]While things stayed the same
[02:14.49]Media forms changed
[02:15.73]New name, from What-What? to Jean Grae
[02:16.97]We bootlegged, the bootleg
[02:18.26]Put away cassette and VHS tapes in vinyl crates
[02:22.50]Fast forward album release dates
[02:24.98]Hip-hopalizing what we buy or objectify
[02:27.37]In these days
[02:28.17]Tell me what's the plight of a female MC's fate?
[02:30.50]Or what's the worth of a woman's story to a DJ?
[02:33.02]Downloading everyone and now my heroes seemingly gone
[02:36.16]Search and found Lauryn Hill Unplugged
[02:38.06]Guess I lost one
[02:38.92]Some come and go
[02:40.03]Self-labeled ***** and ho
[02:41.20]A heretic of discourse
[02:42.62]I turn off the radio
[02:44.73]I can't relate, nor can I hate
[02:46.08]For the ways we negotiate
[02:47.49]The ***ist spaces we navigate
[02:48.60]I stay reppin'
[02:50.13]Vaunted by the crest of hip hop's crescent
[02:51.78]It seems...
[02:53.02]"Fantasy's what people want reality to be"
[02:54.55]This is for Latifah, for Lyte, for Shante
[02:57.07]Bahamadia, Lauryn Hill, Heather B, for Jean Grae
[02:59.83]E-V-E, Nikki D, Salt-N-Pepa, even me
[03:02.65]Apani B, for Missy, for Kim, and Foxy
[03:05.04]This is for, Rah Digga, Rage, Left Eye, for Yo-Yo
[03:07.55]Paula Perry, Nonchalant, Da Brat, for Jane Doe
[03:10.31]Rage, Mystic, BO$$, Sparky D
[03:12.09]For those never seen
[03:13.25]On the search for female emcees
[03:15.40]The microphone fiends
[03:17.68]The world is listening
[03:27.34]The world is listening
[03:37.71]The world is listening