It’s time time to flip (make a profit on) bricks (quantities of cocaine) like McDonalds flips hamburgers.

Jay-Z could have ended up in prison for his crack dealing but was lucky enough to escape prison and go straight through his rap career. Like his man Beanie Sigel for instance.

Luda’s going to give rappers a chance to repent before he kills them with his lyrics.

Yom Kippur – also known as the Day of Atonement – is the holiest of Jewish holidays, traditionally observed through a 25 hour prayer period. The entire day of prayer is meant for repentance or atonement. Jay-Z is praying for the day when he can escape the hardships of the ghetto and make up for his drug dealing and other evil deeds. He’d echo this sentiment on “Beach Chair” in 2006.

Marcy was a hotbed of criminal and gang activity during the 80s, and the idea of shots being fired at midday is foreign to people who grew up in calmer surroundings.

Jay was caged by circumstance, yet he roamed, pushing work in Virginia, as well as expanding his horizons with hip hop music. He constantly challenged himself, and by 1999 had finally left the street behind for good.

Jay-Z grew up on the porches of the ghetto, freestyling raps with his friends and selling crack; the two things that have gotten him where he is today. He regularly pays homage to the influence of the streets.

#Double Entendre (with extra wordplay)

1. Other rappers can’t even do what I did in the past. How can they expect to keep up with what I’m doing now?

2. Nothing they produce can compare to Hov’s supreme Gift (& Curse) he has given to the game.

This also ties in with the previous lines in which Jay metaphorically laps everyone in the game, including himself, and therefore has two of him running the same race. Others can’t even catch up to the past versions of Jay, let alone the one that’s now miles ahead.

Also peep the “perfect present” wordplay as a reference to the “present perfect” tense.

In the early years of his career JAY Z used the nickname Iceberg Slim when talking about women. He named himself this after a famous writter and pimp from the 70’s and 80’s who wrote Pimp: The Story of My Life, published by Holloway House. He also used it as a reference to the Iceberg clothing brand which was a staple in street clothing at the time.

Jay is talking about everybody not wanting to see the corporate Shawn Carter/JAY Z, but the braggadocios JAY Z the rapper. This whole verse is about people wanting him to come out of retirement.

The days immediately after Hurricane Katrina, many news crews flew over the city and filmed the destruction afterward, but none stopped to help people.

Jay uses irony by repeating of the word “scoop” to represent saving the hurricane victims. The reporters are getting a “scoop” to bring the victims to peoples attention, while staying safe in their warm and dry helicopters. They could’ve “scooped” the survivors up, but no.

This line is more largely a social commentary pointing out the racism and class discrimination of the white or wealthy people preferring to half-assedly attempt to help the black or poor people however they end up only helping themselves which only fuels the cause and effect of the discrimination that Jay refers to in the previous lines.

From Decoded:

I had to wonder about all those dramatic photos shot from helicopters swooping over people stranded on roofs. I have no idea if those journalists could’ve picked up the people on the roofs after they’d taken their photos, but it seemed like a metaphor for what was happening all over the country: we were watching the story unfold but doing nothing.