I'm real - how you think I got rich, ho?
Pack steel - ain't afraid to let a clip go

from M.O.P. (Ft. Jay-Z & Teflon) – 4 Alarm Blaze Lyrics on Rap Genius

An interesting couplet to unpack. On the surface, it’s Jay bragging that his street bona fides are what got him money even before his rap career started — something he had been saying from the beginning

However, there’s another reading. It ties into a way rap is different from other genres, in that there is less of a disconnect between someone’s worth as an artist and their commercial success. Essentially, rappers prove their skill in the rap game by succeeding commercially, a dynamic Jay calls out here

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