thelastemp.com

I know there's a lot to choose from, but I just can't ever get over the honesty and beauty of the opening verse from One Life... especially considering what eventually happened etc. Amazing song.

1993, shortly before Thanksgiving
I got the call, she said Jamal Derek is not longer living
Softly she spoke, is this a joke? Man you gotta be kidding
As my question was raised this explanation was given
A meaningless death made me question the meaning of life
Does my body remain at rest like when I'm sleeping at night?
Will I burn in eternal hell or will I find paradise?
Be rejected or ressurected like the body of Christ?
Is it like purgatory, the story described by the Catholics?
Or Nirvana that Buddhists honor in both theory and practice?
Like I study in my college philosophy classes
Or do my molecules and atoms travel back to the gases?
I mean, what I like to know, is where my spirit goes?
After the curtains close, on my final show?
Is there a pain it brings? Enjoy my favorite things?
Visit ancient kings? Hear the angels sing?
Who'll answer these said the great MCs
My man Gribbles battling a debilitating disease
He said you see a brother like me is willing to fight
And everytime I question death my only answer is life

Yeah, I've been telling people for a while now that One Life is the most beautiful verse I've ever heard.

yeah, emp drops one of the nicest verses on "one life"

He's got so many its hard to pick, but off the top of my head, this here is nothin short of genius.......

What if I had the, power to gather, all of my favorite emcees
With the illest comic book characters, and they became arch enemies?
Inconcievable? Unbelievable? Yet as wild as it seems
The Emperor and Stan Lee would coach the two opposing teams
Keep it clean, no bats, no gats, guns, no interfearance
Comic book characters would go head up with raw lyrics
Now I take, whoever might be on break from doin tours
And have them signed up for the Last Emperor's Secret Wars
Sure, for that kind of capacity, you need a crazy large arena
that might stretch from west Philadelphia to east Medina
If I'm able, I'd put it on pay-per-view through my label
And give free tickets to my neighborhood bums with no cable
Yeah, that sounds phat, now that we've squared away the propositions
Let's begin with the ultimate toughman competion

Last Emperor's back and you know upon hearing me

Emcees are scared so prepare for Rap Tyranny

There's no comparin' me

Most men?

Fearin' me

(Broke no it's a rarity???)

Mics I hold dear to me

Cool and sincere one

People wanna hear from

Words penetrate eardrums like spearguns

Run home

Unknown places I appear from

It ain't none of that jumpin' off over here son

I clocked you

Beat you

Had to stop you

Greet you

I write rhymes in Hebrew, Arabic and Greek too

I get so high, the slightest drop is lethal

Like the South American city of Macchu Picchu

Ladies say I do my thing with a passion

Brother like the way I swing into action

When I'm not coolin' in the crib, just relaxin'

I'm out in the streets with the Red Army faction

I specialize In microphone vandalism

Surround sound, or better yet panoramic vision

People of Earth know and understand the wisdom from

Monotheism to third-world animism

I get the best of men as the record spins

I stretch my limbs and rhyme till the session ends

No matter if, we enemies or the best of friends

Against the Emp you can never expect to win...

Deep concentration, mental penetration

Hits me off the paranormal psychic information

Imagine every b-boy and girl in third world nations

Unite become one through pure hip-hop meditation

Watch me closely, I separate the spiritual from the ghostly

Tap the Emperor get struck down like Obi Wan Kenobi

I am hip-hop so hold me, but no one had ever told me

That corporate America would attempt to over-throw me

Secretly plant and grow me, light me up and then smoke me

Got you thinking your the Godfather like Vito Corleone

As an underground artist my days and nights below me

Signing a contract like King Salo, now everybody knows me

Righteousness oppose me, wicked women don't approach me

I am a player-hater so ??? Nelson couldn't coach me

I flipped animalistic's, and the critics tried to poach me

Turned a crew of battle-cats into pussy-cats like Josie

Oh don't play me closely, it's the music that controls me

Hip-hop is mother earth and in my infancy she holds me

Single parent see single handily shape and hold me

When they tried to enslave me she train me how to set my soul free

Bounty Hunters capture me, in carbonate they froze me

I am the Dark Oder my two sons are Thor and Ockie

In the beginning there was the word and in the sentence hip-hop wrote me

If you're brave enough to meditate then come along and show me!

Hey tigerclaw, just to fill in the blank emp says "even Craig T. Nelson couldn't coach me", refering to the actor who played Coach in the tv series. tight verse

To many to say. To think i only heard a bit of him, Untill this week he is now my all time top mc.


I say Heaven, Do you remmber, Echo leader, Sercet wars(sp), To many to name.

"IMAGINATION is the FABRIC of LIFE!" from 'Do you Remember?'
It's a phrase I want to tattoo on my arm. It's a phrase I write somewhere on every notebook/folder I have. It's a phrase I will pass on to my children! How many rappers have verses that make you think of doing that? That's why, when I think Last Emp, I think Dr. Seuss, Jim Henson, Shel Silverstein, or anyone else whose been able to find a way to embrace, and remind us all of, that spirit that a lot of us lose when we grow up.