Jeru the Damaja - "Come Clean"

Jeru was kind of known as the rapper's rapper. With a combination of big words and a strange offbeat flow, he always seemed to have the perfect way of saying things, including this song which is one of the few rap songs of the 1990s that actually shunned the gun-toting trend that was going on at the time. Instead Jeru speaks of how many styles he can use to destroy your whole crew.

Jeru's first two albums (The Sun Rises in the East and The Wrath of the Math) are both outstanding albums, but then he sort of dropped off the face of the earth. I always liked that he went after groups that talked about violence and materialism when they were the popular trends (and kind of still are).

It is still the only rap song that I know of to use the term "sacro-iliac." Oh, and it reminds me of how many "blowin' up like the World Trade Center" lyrics there were back then. Creepy.

Real rough and rugged, shine like a gold nugget
Every time I pick up the microphone I drug it
Unplug it on chumps with the gangsta babble
Leave your nines at home and bring your skills to the battle
You're rattlin' on and on, and ain't sayin nothing
That's why you got snuffed when you bumped heads with Dirty Rotten
Have you forgotten, I'll tap your jaw
I also kick like kung fu flicks by Run Run Shaw
Made frauds bleed every time I g'd
Cuz I've perfected my drunken style like Sam Seed
Pseudo psychos I play like Michael
Jackson when I'm bustin ass and breakin backs