Greatest Opening Lines In Rap History

"My name is __________ & I'm here to say..."

"I got a letter from the government/The other day/I opened and read it/It said they was SUCKAS"

"Hi kids! Do you like violence?/Wanna see me stick nine inch nails in each one of my eyelids?"

"Just wakin' up in the mornin, gotta thank God/I don't know but today seems kinda odd/No barkin from the dogs, no smog/And mama cooked a breakfast with no hog/Got my grub on, but didn't pig out/Finally got a call from a girl I wanna dig out/Hooked it up for later as I hit the door/Thinkin' 'will I live for another twenty-four?"

I dunno if it counts or not but I've always loved how "You're now tuned in to the muhfuckin' greatest" jumps right into that beat in "Dirt Off Your Shoulders."

"Alright Gambino is a mastermind, fuck a bitch to pass the time/mass appeal, orange rind, smoke your green I'm spending' mine/The beat is witches brew, but beware that shit is potent/E.E. Cummin' on her face, now that's poetry in motion." - Childish Gambino

Now Peter Piper picked peppers but Run rocked rhymes
Humpty Dumpty fell down that's his hard time
Jack B. Nimble what nimble and he was quick

But Jam Master cut faster Jack's on Jay's dick

--"Peter Piper" RUN DMC

I came in the door, i said it before
I never let the mic magnatize me no more
But it's biting me, fighting me, inviting  me to rhyme
I can't hold it back, I'm looking for the line,
Taking off my coat, clearing my throat
My rhyme will be kicking it until I hit my last note
--"Eric B. Is President" ERIC B. & RAKIM

Yes - the rhythm, the rebel
Without a pause - I'm lowering my level
The hard rhymer - where you never been I'm in
You want stylin' - you know it's time again
D the enemy - tellin you to hear it
They praised the music - this time they play the lyrics
Some say no to the album, the show
Bum rush the sound I made a year ago
I guess you know - you guess I'm just a radical
Not a sabbatical - yes to make it critical
The only part your body should be parting to
Panther power on the hour from the rebel to you
--"Rebel Without A Pause" PUBLIC ENEMY
 

I sure hope this is an opening line(and not a guest spot on another song), because I haven't heard it in a long time...

"Guess who's back in the motherfucking house with a big fat dick for your motherfucking mouth?" - Snoop

I frequently greet people on chat programs with that one.

"I like BIG BUTTS and I cannot lie..." - Sir Mix A Lot.

This is a throw-down, a show-down
hell no, I can't slow down
It's gonna go

-Maestro Fresh Wes

When I step up in the place u know I step correct, Woo ha. I gotchu all n check. -Busta

"I'm a slow typer, a so-so writer
Been the shit ever since I was an infant in diapers
And Imma be dope all the way to the end
From the cradle to the grave, the pampers to the depends" - Atmosphere

"What y'all thought y'all wasn't gon' see me?
I'm the Osirus of this shit
Wu-Tang is here forever, motherfucker"

- ODB on Wu Tang's Triumph

... as the first single of the long awaited (and totally bloated) follow up to 36 Chambers it was exactly what I needed as an introduction. It still sets the table nicely for an evening of Wu.

"Straight outta Compton crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube.  From the gang called Niggaz With Attitudes."

"First off, let me say I'm drunk off of shitty wine, so I'll probably use the b-word a couple times." - Childish Gambino

"You can get the dick, just call me the ballsack, I'm nuts, Michael Vick in this bitch dog, fall back ya mutts, fuck your worms, you never seen such a sick puppy, fuck a that sick duck, I want my duck sicked mummy, and my nuts licked, gobble them up trick, yummy, bitch you don't fuckin' think I know that you suck dick dummy?  You get your butt kicked, fuck all that love shit, honey, yeah I laugh when I call you a slut, it's funny." Eminem, Cold Wind Blows.

My personal favorite: "That's right, I fucked your bitch you fat motherfucker." - Tupac, Hit 'Em Up.

Here I am . . . R-A-W
terrorist, here to bring trouble to
phoney emcees, I move on and sieze
I just conquer, and stomp another rapper with ease
Cause I'm at my apex and others are be-low
nothing but a milliliter, I'm a kilo
--"Raw" BIG DADDY KANE

Here it is
BAMMM
And you say G*ddamn
This is the dope jam

--"Night of the Living Baseheads" PUBLIC ENEMY

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't care
I can't take the smell, I can't take the noise no more
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkie's in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far
'Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car

--"The Message" GRANDMASTER FLASH & THE FURIOUS FIVE

 

Some really great one's in here!

I said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie
to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.

- "Rappers Delight" Sugarhill Gang

Who you calling a bitch?

- "U.N.I.T.Y." Queen Latifah

Yo, from the first to the last of it, delivery is passionate
The whole and not the half of it, vocab and not the math of it
Projectile that them blasted with, accurate assassin shit
Me and Kweli close like, Bethlehem and Nazareth
After this you be pressing rewind on top your master disk
Shining like an asterisk for all those that be gatherin
Connectin like a roundhouse from the townhouse to the tenaments
Cause all my Brooklyn residents, ? heavy regiments
Don't believe, here the evidence, where Brooklyn WHAAAAAAAoohhhh
See that? Bound to take it all kid, believe that
From where they sellin tree at, to where the police be at
Talib Kweli e-Kweli-ty yo tell them where we be at

- "Definition" Black Star

Now I rock a house party at the drop of a hat
I beat a biter down with an aluminum bat
a lot of people they be Jonesin' just to hear me rock the mic
they'll be staring at the radio
staying up all night
so like a pimp I'm pimpin'
I got a boat to eat shrimp in
Nothing wrong with my leg just B-boy limpin'
Got arrested at the Mardi Gras for jumping on a float
My man MCA's got a beard like a billy goat
oowah oowah is my disco call
MCA hu-huh I'm gettin' rope y'all
--"Shake Your Rump" BEASTIE BOYS

I ain't a killer but don't test me, revenge is like the sweetest joy next to getting pussy.

--Hail Mary, Tupac

Quote:

Originally Posted by CocoaSugarbaker 

I ain't a killer but don't test me, revenge is like the sweetest joy next to getting pussy.

 

--Hail Mary, Tupac

"...don't push me."  (Sorry)

Doom has this...

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,
After you, who's last? It's Doom, he's the worst known.

- MF Doom, Money Folder

...but Meth has a bunch of great ones too, including:

I came to bring the pain, hardcore from the brain...
Let's go inside my astral plane.

- Method Man, Bring The Pain

I also just remembered "At night I can't sleep, I toss and turn/candlesticks in the dark, visions of bodies being burned." - Scarface, "My Mind's Playing Tricks On Me"

Quote:

Originally Posted by JGButler 

"...don't push me."  (Sorry)

Oh yes, you're right. I suck. I knew something was off.

I came back to post Scarface's verse in "My Mind's Playing Tricks on Me" too.

I like that he technically starts with, "I sit alone in my four cornered room staring at candles .... ayo. Is dat shit on?" and then starts all over with the first verse.

I'm expressin' with my full capabilites and now I'm livin in correctional facilites- DRE from NWA

I also kinda wanna say "Fuck the police, comin' straight from the underground/a young nigga's got it bad 'cause I'm brown."  Except that it's not all that strong lyrically - it's all in the delivery.

"1989, the number / Another summer..." - Public Enemy, 'Fight The Power'

"Goddamn, I'm glad y'all set it off / Used to be hard, now you just wet and soft..." - Ice Cube, 'No Vaseline'

"One, two, three and to the four / Snoop Doggy Dogg & Dr Dre is at the door..." - Snoop, 'Nuthin' But a G Thang'

"I smoke on the mic like Smokin' Joe Frazier / The hell-raiser, raisin' hell with the flavour..." - Inspectah Deck, Wu-Tang's 'Protect Ya Neck'

"Before a blunt, I take out my fronts / Then I start to front, matter of fact I be on a man hunt..." - Nas, 'Half Time'

"Visualising the realness of life and actuality / Fuck who's the baddest, a person's status depends on salary..." - AZ, Nas' 'Life's a Bitch'

"A-yo, you better flee, Hops / Or get your head flown three blocks / L keep rappers' hearts pumping like Reeboks! - Big L. 'Put it On'

"Dial the seven digits, call up Bridget / Her man's a midget, plus she got friends, yo I can dig it..." - Souls of Mischief, '93 Til Infinity'

"Dance with the Mantis, note the slim chances" -Inspectah Deck

"I'm so cold, I need a coat in the kitchen / bust two verses & then go to intermission" -MJG

"Inslumnational underground / thunder pound when I stomp the ground / like a million elephants or silverback orangutan / you can't stop the train" -andre3000

Atmosphere isn't on the same level as the other lyricists on display here, get that weak shit outta here.

Beef is not what Jay said to Nas

Beef is when the workin' folkes can't find jobs

So they tryna find niggas to rob

Tryna find bigger guns so thema finish the job

Beef is when the crack babies can't find moms

Cause they end up inna PINE box or locked behind bars

Beef ain't the Summer Jam for Hot 97

Beef is the cocaine and AIDS epidemic

Beef don't come with a radio edit

Beef is when the judge is callin' you "defendant" ........fuck it, the whole verse  --  Mos Def

Yo, well I'm Eazy-E and I got bitches galore, you may have a lot of bitches, but I have much more... - Eazy-Motherfuckin E

Who apparently didn't have the cleanest bitches.

"I got you stuck off the realness, we be the Infamous you heard of us. Official Queensbridge murderers."

Prodigy - Shook Ones pt. 2 

"For every rhyme I write, it's twenty-five to life..."

Havoc - Shook Ones pt. 2

I'm kind of surprised that was overlooked, great opening lines on both verses from a then young duo of no good knicks. While the beat has been used and abused by everyone over the years.

Kind of a cheat as it isn't the opening line of the song, but, it is the first line the Tupac recorded after he got out of jail:

Out on bail fresh outta jail, California dreamin
Soon as I stepped on the scene, I'm hearin hoochies screamin
Fiendin for money and alcohol
the life of a west side playa where cowards die and its all ball

- California Love.

Great thread.  My contribution:

"Regulators
We regulate any stealing of his property
And we damn good too
But you can't beat any geek off the street,
Gotta be handy with the steel
If you know what I mean, earn your keep

Regulatoooooooooooooors.  Mount up!"

Warren G, feat. Nate Dogg (RIP!) - Regulators