You heard my melody, read about my life in the papers 2Pac – Against All Odds
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The “melody” here is a triple entendre:
- Nas used the same sample from 2Pac’s “All Eyes On Me” for his single “Street Dreams”, off the album It Was Written (which Pac cleverly alluded to in the previous line).
- “My Melody” is a Rakim song, so Pac is saying Nas took Rakim’s style. In the background you can even hear Pac say “This nigga sounds like Rakim!”
- In the song “The Message,” Nas had lyrics about being shot and leaving the hospital the same night, which is what Pac did less than two years earlier. Pac feels that Nas tries to mimic his life story.
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A pledge of loyalty to Suge Knight by dissing Dre when he left Death Row Records. Tupac referred to Dre as a homosexual numerous times after Dre left Death Row.
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Boxer “Sugar” Shane Mosely.
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Even though both were at the top of the world being the rap stars of NY, they were still friends. Friendly competion.
Biggie was 1995 Billboard Rap Artist of the Year and Nas' It Was Written hit #1 on the Billboard charts in 1996
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1993, his solo track, “Party and Bullshit”, appeared on the Who’s the Man? soundtrack
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David Star is the symbol of the Jews.
Entertainer Sammy Davis converted to Judaism in 1954 and had a son named Sammy Davis Jr. of the Rat Pack. This is ironic because Jewish people are known for being very anti-Black, yet it was Black Jew that helped pave the way towards civil rights.
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Nas makes a play on the sentence:
Monkey see, Monkey do
He wants to tell us how every gangster is influnced by other criminals to commit crimes, so he eventually compares them to monkeys.
In reality Nas is the predecessor here of the literary great
Langston Hughes but takes poetic license on this line.
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A reference to some of his Aliases:
Raekwon the Chef be cause he’s mad flavorful lyrically, and a reputed good cook among his Wu brethren, and hustler that cooks up crack cocaine.
Shallah – is combo of the Arabic Shams (or sun) and Allah (God), forming Sun God.
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Like is that mystery God real? JAY-Z (Ft. Da Ranjahz) – If I Should Die
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