"Step Up" is the second song on the Hybrid Theory EP album. The theme of the song doesn't focus around the same ones that other Linkin Park songs do, instead, it foucuses around Linkin Park's style and the unoriginality of other rappers. The lyrics consist mostly of Mike Shinoda's rapping.
Trivia
- Some of the lyrics in the song were later used for the Reanimation song, Kyur4 Th Ich.
- This is the Linkin Park song before Minutes to Midnight that has profanity on it uncensored ("shit" is censored on the High Voltage Remix for Hybrid Theory and on Dedicated, it is only "sh—").
Lyrics
Watch as the room rocks mentally moonwalk
Mixed media slang, banging in your boom box
Verbal violence, lyrical stylist
In a time when rock hip-hop rhymes are childish
You can’t tempt me with rhymes that are empty
Rapping to a beat doesn’t make you an emcee
With your lack of skill and facility you’re killing me
And a deejay in the group just for credibility
I heard that some of you are getting help with your rhymes
You’re not an emcee if someone else writes your lines
Rapping over rock doesn’t make you a pioneer
'Cause rock and hip-hop have collaborated for years
But now they’re getting randomly mixed and matched up
All after a fast buck and all the tracks suck
So how does it stack up? None of it’s real
You want to be an emcee you’ve got to study the skill
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up
So you pick up a pen and write yourself a new identity
But mentally you don’t have the hip-hop energy
With a tendency to make up stories
Sounding like the only hip-hop you’ve heard is top 40
And your record company's completely missing it
All the kids are dissing it for not being legitimate
So in a battle you can't hack it, react with whack shit
And get smacked with verbal back flips
Get your ass kicked by fabulous battle catalysts
It's taken decades for emcees to establish this
You’re new to hip-hop and welcome if you're serious
But not on the mic, leave that to the experienced
(Using the waves of sound the true master
Paralyzes his opponent, leaving him vulnerable to attack)
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up, step up
(After years of pain staking research
By the world's leading sound scientists
We here at the sound institute have invented
A reliable audio weapons system
Actual movement of musical sound
In space used to carefully attack and neutralize
The cellular structure of the human body
And the question must be asked)
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Bring it to you every time like this?
Who can rock a rhyme like this?
Step, step up, step, step up, step up
Mix media
Mix media
Mix media
Step up to the microphone
And you do it like this
And you do it like this
Step up to the microphone
Mix media
And you do it like this
Mix media
Step up to the microphone
Mix media
And you do it like this
Mix media
Step up to the microphone
And you do it like this
