Yo, Chuck, where you at, G?   I think he went upstairs, y'know   A very furious mixture of noise   What Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee calls   'Music's worst nightmare'      {Hey, he's a good kid}      Air Hoodlum   Check the elevation   Air Hoodlum   Check the elevation      { Player, that can leap, with the best of them}      Risin' up in the 'Velt, Strong Island, New York   The hood, in case you did not know my base   There was a ballplayer who had all the skills   Wit the pill to pay the piper, plus all the bills      Mick his first name, Mack the awesome game   Practiced in the heat, in the rain or in pain   Mick so quick, at six foot six   Down to be picked by anyone but the Celtics      Oh, what a handle could score from the floor   With people bangin' on him or even hangin' on him   But what he did best, above all the rest was      {A player that can leap, with the best of them   {As a high school phenom, the Skywalker himself   I felt he could do to make this an effective basketball team}      Grades nine an' ten, Mickey Mack was all that   But in class, his ass sat way in the back   How I know? 'Cause I know, I used to flow wit the bro   He didn't mind I used to read him his own headline      'Cause he could not read 'em, his school wouldn't need 'em   If the lines wouldn'ta went like this   Mickey Mack jumped over the candlestick   His stack was his stats but his D was still whack   Grades eleven an' twelve, he found the wrong clientèle an' all   Durin' class, he would dribble in the hall      But never got in trouble in school, but the trouble was   It was cool if your brain was just another bubble   As long as he could score fiddy-two   Get thirty-three rebounds, fuckin' around      Teams lost to him, he went right through 'em   Division, county, state, that's three, count 'em   Championships for a small town bro   That's bound to go pro      {He gets free, turn on the jumper, good   Streak of lightning when he breaks loose   We all felt in our hearts we could win this ballgame   They just required me to have the game that I did}      {I'm just, that's all I, that's all I, that's all I can say   That's all I can say, he hauled down fifteen rebounds   And kept the ball away from everybody   Then he had a triple double, a sensational player}      SATs didn't matter 'cause he was all that   You know, the pat on the back   He was always in the news, you gotta know what it means   It means revenue an' I'm tellin' you      I saw cars an' Gs come to our school, please   Approach hell with the principal, where's the coach?   Went to college four years wit a scholarship   An' won the championship      But when it came to his life, he didn't care   'Cause he took it to the air      {Cross and a hook, he scores, he's fouled   From the far corner, breaks West and here's the jumper, good   There's the jumper, it's not gonna go, rebound batted back)      The fall began when Mickey Mack fell   Hell, ripped his knee, drafted last by personnel   Oh, how he loved the game, it was fantastic   Until he was cut an' couldn't stick      Times got tighter an' tighter   he had an attitude, was rude, so he turned into a fighter   School wouldn't give him the job that he needed   Assistant to the assistant coach, they didn't need it      Then he resorted to a stick up kid   Ski-mask an' gat but this game he wasn't good at   An' the drugs on the side   Police ambushed his ride, another homicide      He was over, ghost, y'know   Hometown hero but now a zero   To those hypocrites who ripped him blind   For his skills without the will to develop his mind      Forever in the news the community views him   Only as Air Hoodlum      {I don't understand it, the kid coulda been another Jordan}