Coulda been a chemist cause I cook smart

from Kanye West (Ft. Jay-Z) – Who Gon Stop Me Lyrics on Rap Genius

A reference to his drug dealing days.

Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3, common baking soda) is used as a base to yield the net reaction:

C17H21NO4.HCl + NaHCO3 → C17H21NO4 + H2O + CO2 + NaCl

If you’re not up to date with your chemistry, that’s the (100% ideal) conversion of cocaine to crack.

If you fuck up this reaction, your lab instructor won’t be happy; and will have you arrested for cooking crack in his lab.

NOTE: Explosions and such are unlikely to occur if you “fuck up,” but achieving truly pure freebase cocaine (C17H21NO4) is unlikely without employing filtration of some sort. However, a talented cook (like Jay-Z) could render nearly pure crack cocaine from street cocaine (estimated circa 2001 to be only 71% pure on average). He could also intentionally create impure product (“cutting”) in order to create a larger yield to sell; however, the conversion typically results in a profit for the dealer either way.

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