[Intro: Lauryn Hill]
Yo, this is the Fugees.. Refugees
About to take you on a journey
Into the dimensions of the Booga-Basement
The basement, word
Hey yo, one two three! The crew is called Re-Fu-Ge-ee-es
And if you come to test the rap stylee
Stop the violence and just bring it on, Y-O

[Verse 1: Lauryn Hill]
Ayo I, feel kind of melancholy people think they really know me
I keep a rap book with me while I'm driving daddy's Audi
I pay the toll fighting for my own soul
'Cause the bourgeois type of mental sucks like a black hole
But I remain a rebel base to bass distort the EQ
The devil's wishin' they could send me back to Mogadishu
'Cause I've been wild since I was a juvenile
Afrocentric profile, back when righteous rap was your style
Now kids are wylin so I ask the bad black
Boogie bandit, what's the damage, gimme the estimate then
Pray tell me when's the revolution will begin?
I turn on my TV I check out Farrakhan on CNN see
I'm like the phantom that's flying like the bird do
And things you never heard plus I come from the suburbs
Word to God, I heard you're acting kind of hard
And you got your skin scarred when they was shootin' on the boulevard
[Chorus: Wyclef Jean & Lauryn Hill]
(You got the vocab) I got the vocab
(Underground got the vocab) You know we got the vocab
(All my peeps got the vocab) Yeah, we got the vocab
Ayo Pras, grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

[Verse 2: Pras]
Then cast off from here to Mexico
You see my four-five-six a-be my Celo
And when I rest my head is on a pillow
Be-ba-dee-be, be-dee-be, be-dee-be-bo
You see the skills I manifest is very tho-rough
And if you don't believe me ask Frère Ja-cques
Mmm, Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques
A dormez-vous? A dormez-vous?
WATCH OUT NOW! When I choose to speak
I'm forming the cipher fly, peace to the Five Percenter
Knowledge is born, to all beginners
Cast the first stone, if you feel you ain't a sinner, ah
Say our father, who art in heaven
Forgive the foolish rapper for he not know how Fugee be steppin'
Correct and, stopped and kept in, nuff respect to the
DJ, that be selectin', the type of record, ah

[Chorus: Wyclef Jean | Pras | Lauryn Hill]
(You got the vocab) I got the vocab
(The Bricks got the vocab) You know they got vocab
(Brooklyn got the vocab) We got the vocab
Ayo 'Clef, grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab
[Verse 3: Wyclef Jean]
Check it out, here we go
Back in Eighty-TREE, no one wanted to be NAPPY
I turn on my TV, it's a dreadlock for FREE
Kill the gimmick, it's nonsense, it's no sense or value
A rapper, disaster, nobody ever told me that
"Roxanne, you don't got to work for money no more!"
And, back in the days I used to listen to Kool G Rap
Way back when before guns became gats, and
Run-D.M.C. used to ask Mary was she buggin'?
I loved P.E., they kept me conscious of what I was saying
Afrika Bambaata, Poor Righteous Teacher
Got within myself so it made me a Five Percenter
Say La-Di-Da-Di, uh, we like to party but
My jam was BDP, with My Philosophy
Say Grandmaster Flash, MC Melle Mel
Then LL Cool J came with Rock the Bells!
See I'm the one for the crew, like a Jew is a Jew
Like Apollo got the moon, like the men who got the blue
Like the Fu got the Manchu, Shaka got the Zulu
Hawaii got the Honolulu
I got the rap blues, so skippedy-bop-bop, you don't stop
You do the rock-rock from hip-hop through be-bop
From be-bop to bee-bee

[Chorus: Wyclef Jean & Lauryn Hill]
(You got the vocab) I got the vocab
(Boogie Down got the vocab) You know they got the vocab
(Black people got the vocab) Word, we got the vocab
Ayo peeps, grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab
(You got the vocab) Yeah, we got the vocab
(Queens got the vocab) You know y'all got the vocab
(Uptown got the vocab) Yeah, they got the vocab
Ayo, bros grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab
(DC got the vocab) Word, y'all got the vocab
(Virginia got the vocab) Ayy, I know y'all got the vocab
(Oakland got the vocab) Word, they got the vocab
Ayo, sisters grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab