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Cream is a slang term for money that was popularized by the Wu-Tang’s own “C.R.E.A.M.” The acronym stands for “Cash Rules Everything Around Me.” Dollar dollar bill, y'all.

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Off of the Blackened White Re-Release . Hodgy’s flow in untouchable by any other OF member

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“Sticking” is another word for robbing someone. This line would later be sampled in Notorious B.I.G’s song “Gimme the Loot” off his debut album Ready to Die released in 1994.

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“Just To Get a Rep” was the first single from Gang Starr’s sophomore album, Step In the Arena. Similar to the Boogie Down Productions track “Love’s Gonna Get'cha,” “Just to Get a Rep” tells a story of a shorty who gets into crime within his urban environment. DJ Premier utilizes a sample from Jean-Jacques Perry’s “E.V.A.” while pairing it with a Greg Nice line from Nice & Smooth’s “Funky For You” and another line Grand Master Chilly-T & Stevie G’s “Rock the Message Rap” for the hook.

DJ Premier gave some background information about the song:

This record was based on a robbery, which happened to Guru. He got stuck up for a brand new car he had. We just got our deal, he bought a 4Runner, and I bought an MPV. He went over to Bedstuy with some of his people, and some cats were eyeing him during the day. Later on that night, Guru went to the same spot by himself, so the same guys ran up on him, and got him and took the car. Couple days later, we see the car, so we run up on and chased the guy, which caused the cops to jump in, and they started chasing us. Then the dude who stole the car gets hit by an ice cream truck and dies. The video was a little reenactment, but that was a true story. It’s sad he had to die like that, but that’s part karma and things like that can happen.

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Nas explains his anti-social behavior and illustrates how he is a villain. Some of these lines would later show up scattered throughout Illmatic.

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Snoop flips B-Real’s opening line from Cypress Hill’s classic single “Insane in the Brain”:

Who you trying to get crazy with, ése?
Don’t you know I’m loco?

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Nas would later pay homage to this line in The World is Yours, from his debut album illmatic

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Run from Run-DMC was known for wearing adidas. It may also be implying that he does not run from “any feud, any battle, any reason”.

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This line was from an old Boogie Down Productions’ song called “Love’s Gonna Get'cha (Material Love)” off their 1990 album, Edutainment where KRS-One raps:

But as we ran, there were the boys in blue
Pointing their guns at my four man crew
They shot down one, they shot down two
Now tell me what the fuck am I supposed to do

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Nas admits to a weed addiction on “N.Y. State of Mind” as well. He may have just been joking/boasting, but marijuana did actually get him in some trouble years later.

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