Best Verse: Nas ‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’ (1994)

When listening to Illmatic, I always await my favourite track on that album, ‘It Aint’ Hard To Tell’ with a certain excitement.

To me, it’s the moment that Nas throws social commentary out the window, jumps on the mic and shows off his lyrical prowess and clever wordplay, he rhymes within rhymes, within rhymes again. He’s hard to touch on this track, IMO.

I think the 2nd verse, is potentially my favourite. But I sway between Verse 1 & 2, at the moment I’m going with Verse One due to the introduction and lines like:

‘My mic check is life or death, breathin a sniper’s breath
I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous steps.’

But what’s yours?

 

Originally Posted by Nas It Ain’t Hard to Tell Verse One

It ain’t hard to tell, I excel, then prevail
The mic is contacted, I attract clientele
My mic check is life or death, breathin a sniper’s breath
I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous steps
Deep like The Shinin’, sparkle like a diamond
Sneak a uzi on the island in my army jacket linin
Hit the Earth like a comet, invasion
Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazin
Cause in my physical, I can express through song
Delete stress like Motrin, then extend strong
I drank Moet with Medusa, give her shotguns in hell
From the spliff that I lift and inhale, it ain’t hard to tell

jay-z grammy family hot97 radio freestyle (corporate takeover)

drey: arguably one of if not THE  best showcasing of lyrics in this century

a bit after jay ‘retired’

jay-z – grammy family hot97 radio freestyle (corporate takeover) 2006

I been crushin the buildin since Izod socks
I’m so independent sh.. i might buy Koch
I might not stop
Places to cop, 76 floors you can call me the Doc

Inspired by Basquiat,my chariots onf fire
Everybody took shots, hit my body up, I’m tired
Build me up break me down to build me up again
They like “Hov we need you back so we can kill ya ass again”
Hov got flow, though he’s no Big and Pac, but he’s close
How I’m ‘posed to win? They got me fighting ghosts…

Same sword the knight you they gon’ good night you with
Sh.., Thats only half if they like you
That aint even the half what they might do
Dont believe me ask Michael
See Martin, see Malcolm
You See Biggie, see Pac, see success and its outcome
See Jesus, see Judas, see Caesar, see Brutus
See success is like suicide
Suicide is a suicide
If you succeed, prepare to be crucified
Media meddles, niggas sue you, you settle
Every step you take, they remind you, you ghetto
So its tough being Bobby Brown
To be Bobby then, you gotta be Bobby now
Now the question is, “Is to have had and lost
Better than not having at [all]?” maaan.. 

Everybody wanna be the King then shots ring
You layin on your balcony with holes in your dream
Or you Malcolm X’d out, get distracted by screams
Everybody get your hand off my jeans!
Everybody look at you strange say you changed
Uhh! Like you work that hard to stay the same
Uhh! Game stays the same the name changes
So its best for those to not overdose on being famous
Most kings get driven so insane
That they try to hit the same vein that Kurt Cobain did
No dangers, so shameless?
Invited to the intersanctum of yo chambers
??Low chained em as the enemies approach??
So raise ya draw bridge and drown em in the moat
And the Spirit I’m evokin
**Mumbles some BS** Hold on…

Everybody screamin they want the old Hov
But the new improved Hov hit like Albert Pujols
Everybody wanna hear me talk that money like Phil Rizzuto
But my mind is on Pluto
Bills that I do fold, i now invest on
Tryna find some loopholes in the IRS
As where I used to have a few hoes I am just
Concentratin on makin a new hole for sex
I’ve awaken just in time to school those putos
Tryna follow in my shoes wit jewels froze
Better adhere to this tax ‘fore you go
Broke, spendin more than you’ve recouped on silly baguettes
I know silly begets, silly you’ll learn on your own
At least my conscience is clear, I’m no longer steering you wrong
Aint nothing wrong with baguettes after you get a home
Take care of your home, you can go back and **Ugh!**

I’m getting courted by the bosses,
The Edgars And Doug Morris-es-es
Jimmy I’s and Lyors-es its
Gotta be more than the choruses
They respecting my mind now
Just a matter of time now
Operation: Takeover Corporate
Makeover offices-es-es then takeover all of it
Please may these words be recorded
To serve as testimony that i saw it all before it
Came to fruition, sort of a preminition
Uncontrollable, hustler’s ambition
Alien, SUPERSTITION, like Stevie
THE WRITINGS ON THE WALL, like my lady, right BB
Saw it all before some of yall thought I was crazy maybe
Like a fox I’m cagey, Ah Ah!
The more successful, the more stressful
The more and more I transform to Gordan Gekko
In the race to a billion got my face to the ceiling
Got my knees on the floor plz Lord forgive him
Has he lost his religion, is the greed gon’ get him?
He’s having heaven on earth, will his wings still fit him?
I got the Forbes on my living room floor
And I’m still talkin to the poor, ni..a I want more
TIME’s most influential, was impressive
‘Specially since, I wasnt in the artist section
Had me with the builders and the titans
Had me right with Rupie Murdoch
Billionaire Boys and some dudes you never heard of
Word up on Madison Ave, is I’m a Cash cow
Word down on Wall Street homie, you get the cash out
IPO Hov no need for reverse merger
The boy money talk no need to converse further
The baby blue Maybach like I own Gerber
Boardroom I’m liftin ya skirt up
the corporate takeover

1.

holy are you

For those who find it hard to believe, and it is
Why they call me the God MC, the lyricist
Trace this down to the roots from Genesis
The world wonder, I’m still standing like pyramids
Design so vivid, every brick it got a story to tell
My rhyme flow different like a hieroglyphic
Mind prolific, infinite, like mathematic
The first language, now add that, and add graphics (Go ‘head)
Then go let the blocks know it’s the gospel
Life’s new manual, so watch close
The new Michaelangelo and Pablo Picasso
Prepared to show you the cosmos and rock flows
Even my lyrical metaphysical
What this’ll do is help you get to your spiritual pinnacle
You find your mind too far-fetched for it to fathom
I bring the darkness to the light, split the atom
It’s like watching the big bang theory emerge
I take titles, bond them to reveal new words
They want a clear view
From the farthest and the darkest corners of the universe
To a corner near you
A pharaoh in ghetto apparel, stay blinged up
Fort Knox display, a modern day King Tut
Wrapped tight, rap like I’ve been preserved in time
Spit the holy water, then touch it and turn it to wine
It’s the God

Holy are you
Holy are you
There is no God but you (I am, I am the Alpha and Omega)
There is no God but you
Praised be the Lord

i gave you power

Damn! Look how muh-fuckers use a nigga
Just use me for whatever the fuck they want
I don’t get to say shit
Just grab me, just do what the fuck they want
Sell me, throw me away
Niggaz just don’t give a fuck about a nigga like me right?
Like I’m a f… I’m a gun, shit
It’s like I’m a motherfuckin gun
I can’t believe this shit….
Word up.. (word up..)

I seen some cold nights and bloody days
They grab and me bullets spray
They use me wrong so I sing this song ’til this day
My body is cold steel for real
I was made to kill, that’s why they keep me concealed
Under car seats they sneak me in clubs
Been in the hands of mad thugs
They feed me when they load me with mad slugs
Seventeen precisely, one in my head
They call me Desert Eagle, semi-auto with lead
I’m seven inches four pounds, been through so many towns
Ohio to Little Rock to Canarsie, livin harshly
Beat up and battered, they pull me out
I watch as niggaz scattered, makin me kill
But what I feel it never mattered
When I’m empty I’m quiet, findin myself fiendin to be fired
A broken safety, niggaz place me in shelves
under beds, so I beg for my next owner to be a thoroughbred
Keep me full up with hollow heads

How you like me now? I go blaow
It’s that shit that moves crowds makin every ghetto foul
I might have took your first child
Scarred your life, crippled your style
I gave you power
I made you buck wild

gorgeous

[Kid Cudi]
Ain’t no question if I want it, I need it
I can feel it slowly drifting away from me
I’m on the edge, so why you playing? I’m saying
I will never ever let you live this down, down, down

Nothing nothing I’ve forseen it, I dream it
I can feel it slowly drifting away from me
No more chances if you blow this, you bogus
I will never ever let you live this down, down, down

Penitentiary chances, the devil dances
and eventually answers to the call of Autumn
all of them fallin’ for the love of ballin’
got caught with 30 rocks, the cop look like Alec Baldwin
inter century anthems based off inner city tantrums
based off the way we was branded
face it, Jerome get more time than Brandon
and at the airport they check all through my bag and tell me that it’s random
but we stay winning, this week has been a bad massage
I need a happy ending and a new beginning
and a new fitted and some job opportunities thats lucrative

This the real world, homie, school finished
they done stole your dreams, you dunno who did it
I treat the cash the way the government treats AIDS
I won’t be satisfied til all my niggas get it, get it?

big lou – goya product with a twist of soul food

click cover to DL

1.

mood muzik 4

1.

Conflict and Confrontation Can Make a Bond Unbreakable (Part 1)

jay-z(hova) –  coming of age (da sequel) (featuring memphis bleek)

In “Coming of Age (Da Sequel)” Jay and Bleek continues the criminal underworld story, which highlights the mentor/protégé relationship. In the original “Coming of Age” off the Reasonable Doubt album, Bleek is a young hustler, hungry to succeed in the drug game but lacks direction. Jay, a smart, experienced and successful hustler schools Bleek and makes him apart of his enterprise. Fast forward to the “Da Sequel”, Jay and Bleek are both very successful in their criminal enterprise but a confrontation is looming when Bleek begins to develop animosity toward Jay. This is a dynamic that often occurs in mentor/protégé relationships, business partnerships, friendships and families.

I decided to include Bleek’s lyrics as part of the analysis because this song is really a great example of intriguing thoughts, conversation and confrontation all in one musical collaboration.

This song received A LOT of play in my ride when “Vol 2… Hard Knock Life” came out.

——-

[Bleek] Cocaine whiter now
[Jay-Z] Operation is sweet
[Bleek] Whole game tighter now
[Jay-Z] Moving a brick a week
[Bleek] Plus a nigga price is down
[Jay-Z] We them niggas to see
[Bleek] Time to start the arisin now
[Jay-Z] I don’t know what’s wrong with Bleek

[Jay-Z]
It seems, I’m like Keenan, pickin up on the vibe
that he ain’t too happy, I could just see it in his eyes
I don’t know if it’s the chicks or how we dividin the loot
Time to pay his ass a visit ‘fore he decide to get cute
Jumped out like a star with the flavest car
Matchin the gator shirt, softer than my next door neighbors
These young niggaz think I fell out the loop
cause the last time they seen me hoppin, out the Coupe
I hopped out in a suit

[Memphis Bleek]
Look at this nigga Jay frontin tryin to take my shine
I didn’t say this verbally, just had some shit on my mind
Plus I’m puffin like an ounce, more than I used to puff
Takin advice from these niggaz but they ain’t used to stuff
They had me thinkin, “Shit, I’m the one that moved the stuff
while he drive around town in brand new Coupe’s and stufF”
Swear to God, they had me practically hatin his guts
As he approached I spoke, “Jigga whattup?”

hang ’em high

A lot of niggaz stepped up to the bad man
Chest bucked out with your head wide open
Hopin to spot a chip in this frame
I lived and died by the burnin flame
of the OK Corral Cowboy style
From the Quarters on down to Colorado’s
Big niggaz from uptown ridin into Tahoe’s
Saloon settin kids is walkin round
drinkin whiskey and scotch, strictly out of shotglasses
Lookin screwfaced at the next nigga who passes
There’s women in garter belts and ciggarettes
And on the side there’s the price game
Niggaz is playin the price game
Indian Red, was bangin niggaz in the head
With his man Apache Joe, they take your money off the floor
They side-bettin for a better, they makin cheddar
That tribal shit is work ya sound the wompom drums
Cause my Indian man’sll break your great dick, UHH
Walk in the New York terrority
On the back of a tree, there’s a picture of me
It says I’m lawless, flawless, a hustler plus gun rustler
Wanted in Carolina, for sellin some of New York’s finer
Marshal Cooper say he want me, Marshal Cooper gotta get me
Marshal Cooper say beat me, Marshal Cooper better wet me
I gather alla y’all, all of my trusted men
All of my baddest niggaz, niggaz that’s quickest with the triggers
There’s distrubin news on the wire
That my dome piece is done sent to piece out for hire
I ain’t goin down over no money exchange
You late for say I, who reigns as King of the Range?

In this land of wildness
Yo you better pack your vest
In the streets there’s nothin but crime
So you best to watch your behind…

4th Quarter Free Throws

Listen to the lyrics we are the one’s prophesied to return
My main concern is for all of you to learn
How to live, yes through the lyrics I give and send my friend
This age is coming to an end

Not the world, but the age is ending, ending
Listen to the astrological message I’m sending, I’m sending
Truth is truth, whether or not you like me
We are living now in the Age of Pisces

But Pisces is over, at the year two thousand
When the Sun of God, changes his house and
Enters the Age of Aquarius
The Sun of God as man is hilarious

When you think of Jesus, think of the Sun
The flaming Sun, that’s where they stole this concept from
Stop believing and read your Bible logically
The New Testament is really old astrology

Jesus is the Son of God no lie
But they might be talking about the Sun up in the sky
The Sun, that hangs on the cross of the zodiac
The zodiac with twelve signs to be exact