Kola Rock:      I'm listenin' to Loni Listen Smith   Loni Listen   Loni Smith and Loni Lin   They sorta share a common sense   And if you spend enough time   Listenin' to me   Then this is what you'll find   Inside my mind's contents   It reads like Chronicles 13   The Constitution   The Kama Sutra   Morrison, La Ruda   Buddha   Mansa Musa   Pharoah Monch & Pharoah Sanders   It seems I got low tolerance   And high standards   Seems I got questions   That defy answers   If you were rich while I was starving   Tell me   How are we crew   I'm feelin' like a throw-away-blue   Like God's first draft of the sky   Balls it up for something new   And if you got somethin' better   Than I'm listenin to you   If you got somethin' better   Than I'm listenin’ to you   I let the beat ride   When I'm listenin’ to you   I'm through      J-Live      I been   Listenin' to records I've collected   Records I've selected   And inspected   Dissected on examination tables   'Til my technique was perfected   Records that have served and protected   A confidence   In my own perception of the world   Once the wax is reflected   I found myself connected   To the music   Like the lyrics were injected   So now when times are hectic   I close my eyes and listen   To the words   Like advice from somebody   I respected   When I was found dejected   That saying about art and life   Is really just the half   When you recognize   That music is math   Like a true song   Is really just a product   On the answer sheet   Life's craft is a scrap   When you show your work   I would listen with a smirk    From irony to Irief   From Bob Marley smokin’ stones   At the building refused   My girl left me   Roberta Flack said   Never you mind   Love may lose   But at least you tried   The wisdom hit me in the eyes   And I almost cried   Stevie Wonder saw my tears   And put the joy inside   Sade showed me a love   That was stronger than pride   Minnie Rippleton   Invited me to come inside   Marvin Gaye taught me   Lessons of anger and time   That's just the tip of the ice berg   Floatin' in my mind   Not to mention   All the jazz and instrumentals   That's essential   And the Hip-Hop elders   That taught me to rhyme   That's why I'm still listenin'      Kola Rock:      I'm competent with competitions   I'm competitious   I'm compliment my compositions   With lots of pictures   An album full of mental photographs   And sorted similes   Back between the documents   Of dowries and pedigrees   Hip-Hop is like my family   On holidays we bitchin’ like   Why you don't freestyle no more!?   I'm better written   I like to place my posture   In a positive position   I like to be the conduit   Controlling my condition   I'm sittin' on the back porch   Thinkin' and I'm listenin'   To the earth spinnin'   To trees rustle   Wind whistlin'   To the grass being crushed   By the feet of small children   Generations of women   Whose end was my beginning   Settling   The foundation of the building   Settling   Of the foundation of self   Knowin' that my best work   Has yet to be written   I'll probably never press it up   to put on the shelf   But when times are rock hard   And money is skin tight   I'll write my love songs    On the back of my battle rhymes   The question wouldn't be   If I sold my soul   My soul's been sold   The question is:   Was it worth your dime   Listenin'   Listenin' to this   Listenin'   Listenin' to this