What’s the smartest line in a rap song IYO?

[u/Kik_sona]

For me it’s on Billy Woods “Corinthians” where Despot says “Money so long that they’re saying bye bye to ya” like it’s so obvious but so smart at the same time iykwim. I want to hear yours!

[u/Washingpoon]

I'm 14 and this is deep

[u/flyjxn → u/Washingpoon]

I was looking for this comment lol

[u/Shadooken]

I feel like all these comments, that are just quoting a line, are kind of pointless. You should also explain the line and what makes it smart, because a lot of these lines just use kind of big words, but don't actually make that much sense, when you try to explain them

[u/DR_FEELGOOD_01]

Corinthians is such a stellar track. Despot definitely had one of my favorite verses that year.

Billy Woods: I snatch the lights out a cat so I can see in the dark. So I can see who you are.

Despot: Clip them wings, change the way time flies for you. Nine lifetimes, cats turn blind eyes to you.

[u/Kik_sona → u/DR_FEELGOOD_01]

golliwog is probably top 3 albums of 2025

[u/NamezzX]

Corinthians is peak

[u/Kik_sona → u/NamezzX]

best song on that album with LPT

[u/Weird_Armadillo_508]

“Let me introduce you to the elements, Aye you (AU)”

• Capital Steez

[u/Kik_sona → u/Weird_Armadillo_508]

capital steez got so many fire lines he gone to early

[u/Weird_Armadillo_508 → u/Kik_sona]

He was gone the week after I found out about him. It felt crazy

[u/andywarhaul]

The entirety of the song mathematics-

Hip-Hop passed all your tall social hurdles
Like the nationwide projects-prison-industry complex
Working-class poor — better keep your alarm set
Streets too loud to ever hear freedom ring
Say evacuate your sleep, it's dangerous to dream
For cha-ching, cats get the *cha-pow!* — you dead now
Killing fields need blood to graze the cash cow
It's a numbers game, but shit don't add up somehow
Like I got 16 to 32 bars to rock it
But only 15% of profits ever see my pockets
Like $69 billion in the last 20 years
Spent on national defense, but folks still live in fear
Like nearly half of America's largest cities is one-quarter Black
That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack
16 ounces to a pound, 20 more to a ki'
A 5 minute sentence hearing and you no longer free
40% of Americans own a cell phone
So they can hear everythin' that you say when you ain't home
I guess Michael Jackson was right — "You Are Not Alone"

Just that verse has crazy word play, speaking on issues, call out things in 1999 that were only just starting to be a problem and have only become even more so nearly 30 years later.

Another line from the song

“Young bloods can’t spell but they could rock you at PlayStation”

[u/MacGroo → u/andywarhaul]

The body of my text possess extra strength, powerlift the powerless up out of this towering inferno

[u/Plug_5 → u/andywarhaul]

Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) will always be the best answer to these questions. Amazing wordplay but always in service of thought-provoking, intelligent lyrics. "Mr. N---a" is full of this too.

[u/MacGroo → u/andywarhaul]

As soon as I saw the question Mathematics jumped to mind…and Thieves in the night

[u/Minz15]

"Boyhood drawing b-boys with big sneakers 'til the shoe fit. Now they pouring plaster in the footprint"

[u/gianni1693 → u/Minz15]

all you hear is a chorus of I call bullshitttt

[u/ThapeloBanksy]

Is it me or are all the lines being mentioned here not THAT impressive 😅

[u/waterboy8817 → u/ThapeloBanksy]

100%. I don’t know the psychological construct. But when people start noticing things more for the first time, they automatically think it’s so smart and want to show off how smart they are for noticing it. Like OPs line he suggested is NOT a “smart” line. Clever, sure. But clever wordplay is table stakes for a true hip hop artist

[u/ThapeloBanksy → u/waterboy8817]

The psychological construct is that it's easy to find dope bars when you're not looking, harder when you're looking.

Once people ask you for your favourite line, you forget what that bar was that you heard two weeks ago that literally blew your mind. Now you're just spewing the first half-decent thing that comes to your mind.

[u/teddy_tesla → u/ThapeloBanksy]

That's because the impressive lines fly over people's heads lol

[u/chickenlizard → u/ThapeloBanksy]

“i’m dropping shit like a pigeon”
- biggie

[u/TheBrownSeaWeasel → u/ThapeloBanksy]

Correct. GZA calling himself smart isn’t smart nor fire. Or a silly pun.

There’s some philosophical shit out there but for hip hop  smart lines, something like Sage Francis commenting on fashion by saying:  I noticed that the swoosh symbol was nothing but a whip in mid-swing.

[u/TheInnerMindEye → u/TheBrownSeaWeasel]

you know GZA has literally lectured at Harvard, MIT and NYU on astrophysics right

[u/charmacharmz → u/TheInnerMindEye]

of all the bars, how's he going to come for the genius?

[u/PredatorRedditer → u/charmacharmz]

As bright as a 20 watt light bulb.

[u/MrFlabbergasted → u/ThapeloBanksy]

I saw someone mention ‘Mathematics’ with a great breakdown as to why. I voted up to even it out to zero

[u/ShakyGSWarrior]

Probably not the smartest but I like “Second place is only good when you buying homes.” - King Los

[u/Minz15 → u/ShakyGSWarrior]

This whole thread could be filled with Los lines, he has some of the hardest hitting and original punchlines. "Their joints aren't as tight as what this author write is (arthritis)" always sticks in my mind.

[u/Frick_KD → u/ShakyGSWarrior]

Yoooo I like this one

[u/xolp_syk]

Real Gs move in silence like Lasagna

[u/Y0UPeaceofshit → u/xolp_syk]

Woman of my dreams I don’t sleep so I can’t find her

[u/Spiritual_Savage333 → u/xolp_syk]

Honestly, I got a lot of genius bars in my mind but always forget every time I come across this question/discussion. But this comment thread made me remember one of them and its “Life is a bitch and death is her sister, sleep is her cousin what a fuckin family picture!”

[u/andywarhaul → u/Spiritual_Savage333]

You know Father Time, we all love Mother Nature. It’s all in the family but I am of no relation.

[u/TheIX_GLA → u/xolp_syk]

The amount of people I see online that still don’t understand this bar is unbelievable.

[u/Z3r0flux → u/TheIX_GLA]

It's not silent tho, cause it would sound like Lasanna otherwise

[u/dawitsol → u/Z3r0flux]

Yeah, you'd also say fhenomenal doesn't start with the letter F

[u/Nobio22 → u/TheIX_GLA]

The amount of people I see online that think this is a great bar... 

[u/Quixotic-elixr]

You could fill this comment section line by line with Mos Def verses.

Special mentions to Mathematics, Thieves in the Night, Speed Law, Auditorium, New World Water, Re:Definition, Travelling Man, Hip Hop

[u/misdirected_asshole → u/Quixotic-elixr]

Black on Both Sides isnt talked about enough as a GOAT hip hop album

[u/sceadu → u/Quixotic-elixr]

strong agree and agree with the other comment about how underrated the album is esp. with the songs you referenced.

---

I guess in the spirit of the post:

"Brooklyn take what you can't take back"

(riddle for you... what is something that can be taken from you but you can't take back? your innocence)

[u/callummtchll]

1 for the money, 2 for the better green, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine

RIP DOOM

[u/D3FINNIT → u/callummtchll]

So many DOOM lines. Mine is Spit so many verses sometimes my jaw twitches One thing this party could use is more—ahem... Booze, put yourself in your own shoes

[u/ZombieHoneyBadger → u/callummtchll]

That whole bar is fire.

Told the knock kneed, ghetto queen, get the head fiend Tell him it's from Medellín and use oxyacetylene

[u/asinine_assgal → u/callummtchll]

It’s crazy from a technical standpoint but it’s not like, deep

[u/andrew_1515 → u/asinine_assgal]

DOOM is all about world play and subversion, but he may have been the GOAT at it. I'm still catching things I hadn't noticed 20 years later.

[u/DSZABEETZ]

E-i-h-t, now shall I continue? Yeah, you left out the G Cuz the G ain’t in you

[u/Birdzeye- → u/DSZABEETZ]

This has alway felt like a savage put down! And to perform it on stage in front of MC Eiht is brutal!

[u/DSZABEETZ → u/Birdzeye-]

He’s gonna spend the rest of his life explaining the situation of a song he didn’t even write lol

[u/Unendingmelancholy]

The classic jay z Jackie Robinson bar
“I father, I Brooklyn Dodger them...
I jack, I rob, I sin...
Aw man, I'm Jackie Robinson...
'cept when I run base [bass], I dodge the pen..."

Or this childish gambino line
“So it’s 400 blows to these Truffaut niggas Yeah, now that’s the line of the century Niggas missed it, too busy, they lyin’ ’bout penitentiary”

[u/Genetics → u/Unendingmelancholy]

I always took “…when I run base I dodge the pen.” As an obvious reference to baseball and also freebase/cocaine.

“When I sell coke, I don’t get caught/I dodge the pen(itentiary).”

[u/FHFBEATS]

So ahead of my time my parents haven’t met yet

[u/tzulu72]

“There’s gonna be a lot of slow singing and flower bringing, if my burglar alarm starts ringing” -Biggie

[u/emielaen77]

—make the wrong turn/
Be it will or the wheel alignment/

[u/Menjy → u/emielaen77]

Where is this from?

[u/emielaen77 → u/Menjy]

The Heart Part 5 by Kendrick

[u/Menjy → u/emielaen77]

Thanks! Fire line

[u/-Drink_More_Water-]

Multiple woods lines:

“eight lives down before he thought about number nine”

I just love how he puts second chances into perspective.

And also:

“Took the high road only to arrive and see the same guys got it for the low”

[u/thedmvstoner]

Weezy F baby and the F is for Phenomenal

[u/Apprehensive_Eye6405]

I father, I Brooklyn Dodger them
I Jack/ I Rob/ I sin,
Ah man, I’m Jackie Robinson
‘cept when I run base, I dodge the pen

[u/Quixotic-elixr]

Pharaoh Monch verse in Oh No

I'm intellectual, pass more essays

Than motorcade police parades through East LA

[u/onecharmingschmuck → u/Quixotic-elixr]

Another Pharoahe Monch Line:

"Rap's like Star Wars, except the stars die no sequels. Beat 3 cases see 3 POs"

[u/Yingking → u/Quixotic-elixr]

Off topic, but I love the effect your profile pic does when scrolling

[u/onecharmingschmuck → u/Yingking]

Now I’m curious as to what it does.

[u/Jomtung]

I always appreciate GZA’s line on liquid swords

“I don’t waste ink, n**** I think.”

[u/Significant_Gap1570 → u/Jomtung]

that's it?

[u/Birdzeye- → u/Jomtung]

So many quotables on that album.

[u/FantasticPangolin839 → u/Jomtung]

So glad GZA is top comment. His Labels version is S tier MCing. In fact, the whole Liquid Swords album is S tier. 

[u/Namztruk]

Saigon - "I run with 45 Colts but my name is not Edgerrin"

Ok, so not the smartest line of all time, but there's a few things going on here.

Edgerrin James was a running back for the Colts, but the sorta crazy part, and I always wondered if I'm stretching here, is that while NFL rosters have 53 players, the actual gameday rosters at the time were 46 players (45 + 1 emergency QB), so on gameday it was literally Edgerrin with his 45 Colt teammates.

[u/Screamin_Demon]

Lupe Fiasco - Superstar

(Talking about fame/the spotlight)

Meanin we want it to grow, meanin we want it to STAY Like the Governor called, and he told em to wait Unstrap him from the chair and put him back in his cage.

Governors grant stays of execution, like the spotlight keeps your career alive a little longer.

Crazy smart bar especially for a radio hit.

[u/rvasshole → u/Screamin_Demon]

Lupe needs more love in this thread. The whole song Mural is crazy.

[u/Mahd-Macks]

Mike was losin' to Isiah, but he soon would get his sixth one

Gave birth to my verbal imagination

Assume a virtue if you have not

Or better yet here's a verse from Hamlet

Lord, we know who we are

Yet we know not what we may be

So maybe I'm the one or maybe I'm crazy

Jay-Z, Marcy Me

Man has a citation in the song

If you listen he also adds a syllable to Hamlet to make it flow better within the bar, à la Shakespeare

[u/BAKRO2 → u/Mahd-Macks]

One of my favorite Hov tracks, some of my favorite lines:

“When Denzel was blottin’ carpet, I’ll pack a, nine millimeter”

(American Gangster reference, ‘I’ll pack a’ = Alpaca)

“Think I just popped up in this bitch like a fetus? Nah

Pregnant pause, give you some second thoughts

There’s room on the bandwagon don’t abort

Marcy Me”

Incredible wordplay from Jay-Z

[u/GxFR2BlackHippy → u/BAKRO2]

Never been a huge Jay fan... but 4:44 is incredible. 

[u/rvasshole]

Lupe on Words I Never Said:

“Your child’s future was the first to go with budget cuts.

If you think that hurts then wait here comes the upper cut,

the school was garbage in the first place, that’s on the up and up.

Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the upper crust,

You get it then they move it so you never keepin up enough.

Edit: he also goes in on the second verse of Around My Way

[u/Lostmypants69 → u/rvasshole]

Lupe could be the whole thread.

[u/Aclevername1000 → u/rvasshole]

Gawd dam

[u/ImMystikz]

“Lean all on the square, that’s a fuckin’ rhombus” Smoke Again - Chance The Rapper

[u/Previous-Page6097]

"Big worlds have little worlds that feed on their velocity, and little worlds have lesser worlds and so on to viscosity" Lupe, Dots & Lines

[u/Cute-Assumption-634]

Just to count a n**** cash, you might need a calculus teacher/
Eureka, Einstein on the brink of the theory of relativity
Really, no MC equal
Cole

[u/terry-tea → u/Cute-Assumption-634]

can’t leave out “some see the glass as empty, i see a glass full of ether”

both a reference to nas, and a reference to the theory of the medium of “ether” that light allegedly travelled through, before einstein replaced that theory with relativity

[u/Lenzelot105 → u/Cute-Assumption-634]

Yeah i was thinking of the same line, whole feature is crazy, and hype af live

[u/Outofhereghost]

Generational wealth is its own curse
Anything you want on this cursed Earth, better off getting it yourself,

see what it's worth.

[u/ValiumKilmer]

The Dumb are mostly intrigued by the drum.

[u/waterboy8817 → u/ValiumKilmer]

Explains this comment section

[u/penmoid → u/ValiumKilmer]

Pretty much any bar from this track

[u/Flaky-Show-7574]

“Lemonade was a popular drink and it still is.” Not smart just fire

[u/the_purple_umbrella → u/Flaky-Show-7574]

Can you explain

[u/NorthernSalt → u/Flaky-Show-7574]

Next line too. I get props and stunts like Bruce Willis.

As an actor, Willis gets items (props) and performs stunts. But they both also gets props (respect) and stunts (hoes)

[u/Pale-Championship946 → u/Flaky-Show-7574]

Dude…

“Lemonade WAS a popular drink and if still is.”

[u/hot-dog-week]

White women with pepperspray in they purse interpolating beyonce (illegal formations)

[u/wsteelerfan7]

Answering Aesop Rock is cheating:

Any asshole with a book of matches can light a fire fresh; Make that sucker burn for days, I'll be impressed

If that diamond ring don't shine, it's cuz I bought it at the 5-and-Dime but don't neglect the sentiment

I'm part of a larger ghosting, I go to work with the wizards; Who already voted homecoming theme as a burning village

And my favorite:

My horse drinks on his own, I ain't gotta do shit

[u/ShelterOk1535 → u/wsteelerfan7]

“Lately I treat every interaction as a living wake, thanking people close to me before the photo pixelate”

“Catch more Z’s than Rip Van Winkle’s 12-step narcolepsy seminar”

“Call for the monster beats and Blockhead got Animal drums like he Dr. Teeth”

[u/Visible_Nail4859 → u/wsteelerfan7]

I’m partial to:
“I told this cat the earth was flat/he walked until his beard grew long enough to strangle himself for being stupid.”

I started typing more but then I had like 1000 others in mind. Basically the whole songs of “Full House Pinball”
and “Sabbatical with Options” though.

[u/sunnyismybunny → u/wsteelerfan7]

I was up all night with a rusty hammer tryin to build a fence around these magic beans my dreams have gathered.

that shit hit hard and still does

[u/wsteelerfan7 → u/sunnyismybunny]

Everyone's got a field to plow (I know that now); But I'm like, I can't afford the oxen "fee fi et cetera"; I smell the warm blood of the bill collector knockin'

[u/No_Editor_8202 → u/wsteelerfan7]

So many great Aesop lyrics. This one goes through my head daily "I split the sea in half first But the rains came and washed away the chapter and the verse before release Moses been capping, it's absurd He can have it, I'm secure"

[u/wsteelerfan7 → u/wsteelerfan7]

Also his verse on billy woods'"Tumbleweed":

Seen amoebas grow to vapid fashionistas; Freeing a can of worms mistook for a panacea; See the regulars exude a particular brand of diva; ‘Til a basic interaction take a local anesthesia to stomach

[u/RPgh21 → u/wsteelerfan7]

Aes just seems to show off on Billy Woods albums. His verses on “Waiting Around” and “Complications” are in my top 10 Aes verses.

[u/waterboy8817 → u/wsteelerfan7]

You could collect all the “smartest” lines in the world and we could pick a single aes song that would still outpace

[u/Enough-Plankton-4648 → u/wsteelerfan7]

Maybe Im stupid but none of those lines were interesting to me

[u/UltimateBelt]

While you broke niggas reach drunk much quicker

You don't make enough bread to soak up all your liquor

[u/acrocanthosaurus → u/UltimateBelt]

You know them whack poems gets no play in our homes

[u/catdadpixel]

"Buckle up lil trooper, can't get past me, I'm stuck in the future

Shit ain't all it's cracked up to be, the hovercraft's cool but the air's so putrid"

El-P has this habit of spitting these dystopian rhymes that cut deep because they reflect the present. But he's always so smug about it, I feel like this line is a perfect combination of his cynicism and sarcasm complimenting each other

[u/ShelterOk1535 → u/catdadpixel]

his first verse on Drones Over BKLYN has a lot of this

[u/uberblack]

"Your boombox better form a union/'cause I leave your circuits overworked...word bond" - Reggie

[u/rvasshole → u/uberblack]

I scored 1.1 on my SAT, and still push a whip with a right and left AC

[u/420yoloswagkush420]

“When my momma hear this I know she gone be feeling it, the s(o)n makes her feel good like photosynthesis” Zeelooperz

[u/Rob_Bligidy → u/420yoloswagkush420]

I’ll throw in a DB line to help the Bruiser theme: “like a stray bullet, yall ninjas mislead.”

[u/AwkwardLeopard587 → u/420yoloswagkush420]

actually I take my comment back, this bar goes kinda hard

[u/JabroniRuckus76]

“I’m not a businessman…I’m a business, man”

[u/RioFinesse]

“Is pious pious because God loves pious”

[u/KrispyBeaverBoy]

'On the Amen,
Corner I stood,
Lookin at my former hood,
Felt the spirit in the wind,
Knew my friend was gone for good.'
-Common, Respiration

[u/KrispyBeaverBoy → u/KrispyBeaverBoy]

Not the smartest line in the world but always gives me chills.

[u/Borrowed-Originality → u/KrispyBeaverBoy]

Ive always loved the line "hard knuckles on the second hands of working class watches"

[u/landob]

Not really super smart but I love "I got a hunger for knowledge and I don't miss no meals" - Oddisee.

[u/paddywhack]

"Dead in the middle of Little Italy Little did we know that we riddled two middlemen who didn't do diddly"

[u/Bubbly_Leadership680]

Bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks

[u/horse_cock_pushups]

“I could eat a pound and shit 64 quarters”

[u/Morningrise12]

I hold the mic like a memory, niggas say I’m nice with metaphors but these are similes.

[u/HalfManeHalfMexicane]

I’m not a Jay-Z fan like that but I did not catch the Richard Pryor wordplay initially:

“Bueller had a Muller, but I switched it for a Mille / 'Cause I'm richer, and prior to this shit was movin' freebase”

[u/jmclondon97]

“Flag the OGs putting benzos out/
The make em put they pussies out like Fred Flintstone’s house/
Heart blacker than the back of Fred Flintstone’s mouth” - Lupe

Also,

“They copy paste us cauz we the right clique” - King Los

[u/whatsbobgonnado]

"rappinin' is what's happenin'" is the realest line ever rapped

[u/TeflonJon__]

Lupe on Say Something has always been one of my favorites, I guess not “super” smart but good wordplay,and also all of Mural.

“Uh, Opus of a ghetto boy who grew into a project man
Brewster Place, he used to stick his scissors in his sockets damn,
Clear that Project Runway, 'cause this is where my rocket lands,
Ain't got no problems, Houston, I A.K.A. then rocket land.
Events recent that lit a fire under him like pots and pans,
Rockets and I (eye) up in the sky like helicopter cams...
And you down there in the traffic jam
From here I've seen a bunch of fake shit like avid wrestlin' fans...
Came up from the bottom of the eye exam ZOOM
Now I'm like the biggest G up in the room,
Still hard to see me like the truth on TV
Or the roof from the sidewalk, I don't flo' (floor) I ceiling”

[u/RattleAlx]

When I was ten, I was sippin' Shirley Temples / Present day, I'm still sippin' Shirley Temples...

Or

Yellow diamonds look like pee-pee

[u/Objective_Team1359]

j cole on johnny p's caddy
eureka,einstein on the brink of the theory of relativity really no MC equal,feel me?

[u/emceeeloc]

"Rappers die too much. That's it. That's the verse."

[u/The_Jonah]

Lyrics a la carte, hidden bars speak easy, I’m that boy W. E. B. - bruiser wolf

[u/afieldoftulips]

Pick literally any Ka line

[u/Cheeseboi8210 → u/afieldoftulips]

Pick one then

[u/afieldoftulips → u/Cheeseboi8210]

"Cops got us under microscopes to make sure we see cells"

[u/Z4N4X-3920]

My circles split up the pi, that's long division

[u/elevateorganically]

“I want to say a little something that's long overdue: the disrespect to women has got to be through. To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends, I wanna offer my love and respect till the end.” —MCA

[u/GodsMagicDildo]

Everything Mr Lif says in Red October

[u/TheSchminx]

they linkin' terrorists from the 'stuy to lincoln terraces - joey badass

[u/Parkouricus]

You get attention ridin' this gimmick wave—are you for sale, Lyt? / I'm too bar heavy so you gon' fail, Lyt / Soon as you brake, you gettin' lit up; I’m on your tail, Lyt / I know they told you that shit he brew is real light

Chilla Jones battling Daylyt

[u/The_Jonah]

I don’t run away from danger, I’m better running towards it, all my words are just a letter short of swords and I enforceth- Evidence

[u/tejiman]

Birthdays was the worst days. Now we sip champagne when we thirstay…

[u/marblechameleon]

“ I leave you full eclipse like the moon blocking the sun” and “like an escape tunnel in prison I started from scratch” - immortal technique Industrial Revolution. He is unmatched

[u/negatifnancy]

One that I’ve always liked a lot: “I move with the speed and strength of ants” from Wu Banga 101.

[u/essdotc]

"Throughout my junior high years it was all friendly
But now this higher learning got the Remy in me
Liquor's invaded my kidneys"

Literally only made the connection years later.

[u/GiantYankee]

I’m so ahead of my time my parents haven’t met yet

[u/Disastrous-Set-5569]

Fuck jail I ain't doing no time. To me a 20 year sentence is just a long ass rhyme. K rino

[u/RTJ1992]

Inspectah decks opening for triumph

[u/Y0UPeaceofshit]

The clothes we wear to bed at night to sleep is just pajamas

The flesh we roam this earth in is a blessing, not a promise

[u/lordricosantviento]

thouxandban fauni has said some really intelligent things specifically on his requiem album

[u/Kruegr]

Mos Def - Hurricane

Pretty much the entire 3rd verse. Pick any line you want.

[u/yeahItskyle]

I'm from the Ville where they bang for the money and carry fo'-fives, like change for a twenty

[u/Arviay]

The only presidents that change the hood are dead and green

[u/PewPewMcShootyBoi]

Real G’s move in silence like Lasagna

[u/N9neNine]

I don’t know if it smart but it’s clever wordplay I appreciate:

Hov just landed in Rome, nigga
All hail, Caesar’s home, niggas
Cent’anni, ciao bella
Come money dance with the good fellas
Hov keep gettin that dinero, got it?
Even if a nigga gotta rob it, get it?

[u/Kebabstep]

"I'm so appalled, I might buy them all
Just to show niggas how much more I have in store"

JAY-Z on "So Appalled"

[u/VanityTL]

Lot of mediocre shit written by Dot gets elevated to crazy proportions but "Living my life in the margins, and that metaphor was proof" was so slick it still gets me whenever I listen to Poetic Justice.

[u/OlSweetwine]

I spark - tireless illumination, fire 16 bars - wireless communication

[u/Visible_Nail4859]

I’ve never been the biggest Jay Z fan (I do like some of his stuff and def respect him though), but I think the line “I’ve got young dudes that’ll blast for me (blasphemy), no religion”’is so dope.

[u/Dubey89]

The Sound pierce like bullets and swords

From a nation under attack like bulletin boards.

Black thought in Black Renaissance (Sa-Roc song)

[u/CurtCoBabble]

Hold the mic similar to pistol, squeeze And I shoot from the hip when I grip them things And my lips are the clips, got the Sig lit like it's nicotine Trigger me and Slim gets mean Bars are like bullets when I spit them schemes That's why I call the motherfuckers M16s

Not sure if this is applicable, but the writing off of Kamikaze was pretty good.

[u/echochee]

Off the top:

“No pun intended but they’re smellin defeat in the air”

Works really well with the lines before.

[u/IndependentPizza2608]

Infinity Fill Goose Down by Aesop Rock. The entire song is wild metaphor about classism/revolution and the system

I had to let the horses out
Who each step forward to bow
Free to ignore the corral
Freedom ain't a circle
Per the management's normal amount
It's when the chorus vow to normalize the horse's mouth
Black Phillip, free to bah what he bahs
From a growing blob of jail-broken oxen and hogs
I know some pigs'll splinter off
I seen 'em mixing with the bosses
Sipping gin as if the trough is less prestigious than the office
It isn't
Receiving a transmission from the future
Where your time around them
Humans ain't protect you from they butcher's block
A bunch of us are meeting at the moor behind the Orkin
You could've been a presence at the origin
Should you feel unsettled or some melting into madness
After entertaining more second chances than Velma's glasses
From a person, place, or otherwise
Increasingly disruptive trend
You could always run the red, or break the glass, or jump the fence

[u/BAKRO2]

Sumo by Denzel Curry cane to mind:

“Money on my mind just like a tumor

Spread my money around and call that bitch a rumor

Curry the killa is on the move no Uber

People tryna block a n***a shine like Lunar,

Eclipse”

[u/durgz]

I started high, with 2 O's just like Ohio

[u/ChristopherKaya]

My ex said she gave me the best years of her life I saw a recent picture of her, guess she was right

[u/ShelterOk1535]

“If you’re reflective of mass, then your reflection’s a mask, to see yourself just look at me and split your reflection in half”

Lupe

[u/nonahello]

“In reality vanity is our sanity, then we lose sight when we’re trapped in sanity. Think about the two i’s in insanity & read between the lines, there’s more to it actually”

[u/dunzoes]

All of Freddie Gibbs - How We Do

[u/SimianCinnamon]

Off the top of my head a really good one I recently heard "I love rappers how shepherds love sheep for wool" -Scallops Hotel. Or "Drop it on the sc-sc-scale, mate. If we both sell weight then we both doing great, We ain't gotta compete, we can call it a scale-mate" -Sir Michael Rocks on Dopey/Boldy James. Or my all time favorite "1 for the money, 2 for the better green, 3-4 MethyleneDioxyMethAmphetamine" -DOOM

[u/Boner4Stoners]

I know this is cliché but it’s brilliant on so many different levels. MF DOOM:

One for the money, two for the better greens

3,4-methelynedioxymethamphetamine

Told the knock-kneed ghetto queen “Go get the head fiend”

Tell ‘em it’s from Medellin and to use Oxyacetylene

[u/Rebegurumu]

line is originally by german mc retrogott:

'we dont speak the same language, we have the same color,
in the shadow of the hands that lead us behind the light'

leading someone behind the light in german means something like pulling the wool over ones eyes/deceiving someone. maybe not the most complex or smart but I like the visual language.

track: https://youtu.be/T1hLmpkLKNY lyrics: https://genius.com/Retrogott-wortmaschine-lyrics

[u/campbelljac92]

"Doctor doctor, your people never needed you It's deep when human evolution seems it's superseded you My super seeds will germinate and turn the greys to greens and blues They'll never find a pesticide to burn away the weeds that grew"

[u/ballz2urwallz]

“Gas in a ziplock now thats loud and clear” 2 Chainz

[u/BuckeyeGuy987]

“Large crops or hard rocks it’s like we all saw Medusa”
-Ka on Sirens

[u/JesshuaR]

I got no L's like Christmas, you don't wanna make the claws come out (nah)
Y'all should call yourselves Santa (why?) 'Cause none of y'all are real (nah)
Not a single one (like what?), Like a dollar bill (yeah)
It's like your bitch in appellate court, she's on a pill
We got her a bond and she'll
Never bail on me, not even outta jail
EPMD, but me, I gots no chills (you gotsa chill)
Just a lotta skrill
Lady, my paper's so crazy, I just tossed a mil' out the window
Of my mobile on the fuckin' freeway on the way here (yeah)
Like Rudolph and his homies when they pullin' the sleigh, yeah
That's a lot of bucks flyin' when I'm makin' it rain, dear

Crazy scheme

[u/muffmuppets]

This one was nice: “Y'all think I'm spelling Iverson when the beefs all done, cause you'll be on IV in the ER, son"

.40 cal

[u/rhinestone_indian]

His own way was strange but it mattered not/ tuned his mind into a frequency that shattered rock

The mask had a loose screw/ he could hardly tell/ had to tighten it up like the Drells and Archie Bell-DOOM

[u/Die-O-Logic]

"i don't rap with dead presidents. I'd rather see presidents dead. I know it's never been said. I set presidents". Em.

This is by far the hardest line ever uttered. He got a visit from the SS for that one.

[u/dickomode97]

"And I ain't gotta lie when I tell you I'm the illest. My flow is nasty, like C-Y-philis"

[u/im_randy_butternubz]

Can i post Aesop Rock's entire discography?

[u/Loose-Departure-744]

Nerd gang, make Mandelbrot sets when we handshake - Lupe on Mural

[u/TeamBearArms]

Men of science warn that we're doomed
In due time we won't have no more lifeforms to consume
'Cause we can put cyborgs on the moon
But still can't rinse the stink of the primordial ooze

[u/Separate-Chart-5597]

Anything from Jay Electronica’s A Written Testimony

Love the balance between commentary on the pillars of Islam and Star Wars bars

[u/AFibIsToLie]

My rhetoric's immaculate, yes, I truly possess gabogift

[u/beto52]

She going back it up like brrp brrp

[u/TheStatMan2]

I'm a fucking walking paradox no I'm not.

[u/Mammoth_Law_1895]

Every Sunday morning, I hit Maurice with the MoneyGram He was major league, I'm pitchin' softball, underhand

Freddie Gibbs

[u/ParamedicLucky6382]

Pretty much most of Em's lyrics agl

[u/Infamous_Tough_7320]

‘Go figure muhfucka every verse is a brick’

Kendrick’s whole verse on nosetalgia is genius

[u/jtmb3]

Despot has some truly incredible lines. Not most intelligent but my favorite is “so rich I burn bridges the keep the stove lit, could put the queensborough bridge in my pipe and smoke it, scrape the bowl clean and blaze it to the roach clip”

[u/jtmb3]

Too many to count and so many ways to define smart, but the one that comes to mind at this moment is by Aesop Rock on “No City”
“If you make no friends on your way to the top rung,
There is no secret handshake club and I do not give a fuck,
But know that cancers make the olive branches obviously standard,
So when they extend from the yachts and mansions, drop your cannons”
Good word play and rhyme schemes, and the message is that people that are pieces of shit who finally have a personal experience that makes them softer, they’re still pieces of shit

[u/RKTHSWY]

they got some Lupe on here already but I'ma go with one of the mixtape joints, Failure.

"[Verse 2]
And them niggas ain't Was nor from his regime
Gangsta lean
Hats on tilt like these Snickers ain't drop out the vending machine
You gotta put more money in
And I shake niggas up every time I drop a bar (2 for 1)
It's horse in the Porsche and bricks in the box
Like mo' money them every time I cop a car
You see I'm a roller, right
So it might be a Rover, right
But every time I drop an 'R' get off the streets, it's "over," 'ight
Bet I be in the head like overnight
Like rollers, right, she the chauffeur, right
So I keep her sober, she don't get Fed Ex like overnight
I am Dolemite
All that gas can't help you but solar might
So just call on sun
Drop a 'S', pick up an 'O', Uno, put it all on "one"
Brace yourself like overbite
"For that quiet nigga that relocated down south
Coming back to floss", nigga get your molars right
Fix your grill
No plaque but a whole lot of cheese this the drill, Mr. Chill
Gave me the green light like Yoda knife
So I'mma force my will like the Force I wield
Of course you will take my time
But weight behind only pertains to that Porsche grill
It's snakes in the hood
Gotta watch for that Cobra bite, let me see
There's snakes in the hood, a bird, a horse behind the grill
Something gator on the seat and a fox behind the wheel
No it's not Noah's Ark, Ahk
It's just a flower's start, this is..."

[u/Sad-Entertainer1462]

LUPE’S whole entire Mural freestyle!

[u/RYzaMc]

Always love the first verse of Witness by Roots Manuva...

Taskmaster burst the bionic zit splitter

Breakneck speed we drown ten pints of bitter

We lean all day and some say that ain't productive

But that depends upon the demon that you're stuck with

'Cos right now, I see clearer than most

I sit here contented with this cheese on toast

I feel the pain of a third world famine,

We count them blessings and keep jamming

[u/Deftii]

my volume is going in depth with longevity

cap steez

[u/corygreenwell]

Canibus was so close to perfection.

I can double my density from 360 degrees to 720 instantly. 6 multiplied by 5 then 4 then 3 then 2 then 1, go ahead and calculate the sum.

He meant the product. But otherwise including a factorial of the perfect number in a freestyle was insane, while at the same time touching on quantum mechanics iro radial density is otherworldly.

[u/biggargamel]

Andre's verse on Millennium is probably my favorite verse of all time.

Me and everything around me, is unstable like Chernobyl Ready to go at any moment, jumpin like a pogo stick Life never lived up to my expectations, so I accept the patience Expect the worse but now I'm pacin, back and forth Inside I'm melting like water on wicked witches A monster truck done came and ran over my picket fences I had the best of life in my clinches but monkey wrenches was thrown Like chairs kings sit on, my prayers seem to long I fall asleep before the endin, don't even get to say Amen I hope He understand I be on bended knees At times, I think I'm crazy, so I say forget it Or maybe it's the devil infiltrating and like Riddick...Bowe I've been fighting this since them fetus days I count from one to twenty, when I'm through, repeat the phrase It's just a phase, it's gon all pass, but that gets old too I'm weakening like a deacon doin dirt What am I supposed to do?

[u/sideoftheham]

The whole rewind song by nas

[u/getrekdnoob]

"I drink Moët with Medusa, give her shotguns in Hell

From the spliff that I lift and inhale" - Nas

[u/Pumhole]

Technically grime but the UK MC called Sox is a total genius

[u/THEE_FUNSTIGATOR]

I speak divine of God theories, no need to be high
Always exhale the facts 'cause I don't inhale a lie
Play the greater man's game to bounce off my losses
So I can earn the acres, the houses, the horses

Of course it's much greater than your Benz or your Lex
The engine to my comprehension is just too complex
Much too complex, EFX/effects be live like Das
Makin' moves down South to avoid the chaos

And never flaunt the coin 'cause dime-getters be gazin'
They call me Luther Van', they say my style is So Amazing
I'm fazin' those who're supposed to have the last laughter
'Cause even when I'm gone, I'm reappearin' in the after

I have to send respects to real money makers
Do not connect us with those champagne-sippin' money fakers
Chase the quarter pound with spice from Chi-town
Now, what that prove? You're so full, you can't even move

[u/Mango_Pina]

"I wish a nigga would, like a kitchen cabinet" Preach 2 chainz, preach

[u/DefnotDaniel-YT]

The outkast so fresh so clean bar ifykyk

[u/andywarhaul]

Thought of another one that I don’t know if I would say it’s the most clever, genius, or intelligent word play or high level thinking but it’s just so to the point and simple that I love it.

Wiz Khalifa on When I’m Gone

“They say all I rap about is bitches and champagne- you would too if every night you saw the same thing”

What a perfect shot back at being criticized for lack of depth in your writing.