"Step Up" lyrics - LINKIN PARK

Yo (yo)
Watch as the room rocks, mentally moonwalk
Mixed media slang banging in your boom-box
Verbal violence, lyrical stylist
In a time when rock/hip-hop rhymes are childish
You can't tempt me with rhymes that are empty
Rapping to a beat doesn't make you an emcee
With your lack of skill and facility, you're killing me
And a DJ in the group just for credibility

I heard that some of you are getting help with your rhymes
You're not an emcee if someone else writes your lines
Rapping over rock doesn't make you a pioneer
'Cause rock and hip-hop have collaborated for years
But now they're getting randomly mixed-and-matched up
All after a fast buck, and all the tracks suck
So how does it stack up? None of it's real
You wanna be an emcee? You've got to study the skill

Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up

So you pick up a pen and write yourself a new identity
But mentally you don't have the hip-hop energy
With a tendency to make up stories
It sounded like the only hip-hop you heard was Top 40 (Top 40)
And your record company's completely missing it
And all the kids are dissing it for not being legitimate

So in a battle you can't hack it
React with whack shit
And get smacked with verbal backflips
Get your ass kicked with a fabulous battle catalyst
It's taken decades for emcees to establish this
You're new to hip-hop, and welcome if your serious
But not on the mic - leave that to the experienced

(Using waves of sound, the true master paralyzes his opponent, leaving him vulnerable to attack.)

Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up

(After years of painstaking research, by the worlds leading sound scientists. We here at the Sound Institute have invented a reliable "Audio Weapon System". Actual movement of musical sound in space is used to carefully attack and utilize the cellular structure of the human body, so the question must be asked:)

Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up
Step up!

(Mixed media)
(Mixed media)
(Mixed media)
(Step up to the microphone)
(And you do it like this)
(And you do it like this)
(Step up to the microphone)
(Mixed media)
(And you do it like this)
(Mixed media)
(Step up to the microphone)
(And you do it like this)
(Mixed media)
(Step up to the microphone)
(And you do it like this)