Until the day you finally bite the hand that feeds you Guilty Simpson – The American Dream
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I'm off, I was bred where the hungry man's dead Guilty Simpson – The American Dream
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Guilty opens up his amazingly melancholy album by describing the scenes and memories he has witnessed from inside his own ghetto neighborhood. The memories of those who have died from police and gang related shootings are still heavily imprinted in his memories. As Ashley Woods writes,
“Gun violence is nothing out of the ordinary to Detroit’s wearied residents”.
Also, Detroit being the incredibly poor city it is, will often have many homeless just dying from starvation in the middle of the streets. The task of feeding them is incredibly difficult due to the fact that those who do have houses and food are also struggling just to get by.
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The outro, which could basically be seen as the actual song with Gambino’s verse being the intro, contains several variations and chops of the phrase, “Move it if you wanna get it.” This wraps up verifies that this song was meant to be the club (or dorm) banger of the album. exemplifying this with an extremely trance influenced breakdown.
The actual phrase “Move it if you wanna get it,” could be seen as Gambino talking to the girls of the club. If they want to get notice by the men of the club, they should start putting themselves out there more for everyone to see.
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Wiz knows that you can’t take the money with you when you die, so he’s been trained to blow it on all the luxuries he can afford.
The renaissance, the rebirth, the avant-garde Re-Up Gang (Ft. Pharrell Williams) – What's Up
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Behind a big crib, big garage, a fleet of ten cars Curren$y – Moe Chettah
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“Pedigree bloodline” refers to dog breeding. Purebred dogs are dogs who have a flawless bloodline, and aren’t mutts. They are usually considered champions in the breeding world.
Spitta uses this comparison to show how he is “the big dog in charge”; proving this with his extensive car collection and amazing garage.
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The only law was gun law, and we don't walk with a pistol K'naan – Smile
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Mogadishu, is the largest city in Somalia, and also the main area where the Somalian Civil War was fought in the 80’s (during K'naan’s childhood). During this period, there was basically no force imposed over the citizens, so the only “law” was to own a gun and protect yourself.
K'naan and his particular group of friends chose not to tote these firearms, believing if they did that they would become interwoven into the war itself.
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Ahh, the struggling artist, obsessive over his work that he’s put all of his time and money into. Imagine devoting years of your life to an art form where people will blatantly tell you how bad you are.
The use of the word “fanatic” is ironic, given that a fan (and thus his fanaticism and how fanatic he would be) would do the complete opposite and shower the artist with praises. To “go on fanatic” could imply that he goes to a place filled with such people and do the inverse; his hatred (or perceived hatred – he is fukinwithus) is so great that he’d go to such lengths just to piss this artist off.
And leave bars, never cross paths with us Guilty Simpson – Yikes
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A Green Card is a document that grants permanent residence to a country. Guilty is stating that he doesn’t relate to what the wack MC’s are saying with their terrible lines, it’s as if it’s a foreign language to him.
The crossing paths portion could be referring to the US Immigration Problem of the 2000’s, when The US, in which tensions between Mexico and he US rose because too many Mexicans were entering the country. Meaning Guilty doesn’t ever want to see the wack MC’s enter his area, or genre again.
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