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Perhaps one of the greatest examples of irony in hip-hop history, as the entire second verse that follows is considered one of Lupe’s best ever by fans

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In the mid to late 1990s, around the time that Master P first broke out, Southern emcees were seen as “lame” by emcees from New York and other parts of the country, and were disrespected as having dumb lyrics and simple rhyme patterns.

As for “jacking our slang”, Jay points out how many emcees looked down on the South while copying their signature slang terms like “bling” and more.

Jay spoke more about this in a few interviews leading to a brief war of words with New York’s DJ Kay Slay:

Jay has touched on both of these topics before in “Bitches and Drugs” and “I Feel Good”.

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Jay-Z was once highly involved in drug trafficking, having his picture taken for mugshots. However, as his rap career has grown, these days have been put behind him. Forbes is a magazine that regularly lists the wealthiest people in the world, and around the time of this song’s release, Jay-Z was highest-paid rap star in the industry.

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Andy Warhol was the leading 20th Century figure in the Pop Art movement.

Continuing the play on being “forced to draw,” Jay’s saying that if circumstances dictate drawing weapons, he hopes for your sake you have the necessary capacity (i.e. gun power) to go to war (as having enough space on your walls would be required if you needed a bunch of Warhol paintings). Also, there is a play on the word “war”, which is a common card game, involving a nearly endless series of “draws” from a deck.

Warhols, of course, are highly in demand and fabulously expensive. A self-portrait sold for $32.6 million in 2010.

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Reference to Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool: The Pool Players, Seven at the Golden Shovel”:

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

…Heavy stuff!

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This reggae-flavored bridge is delivered by Connie Mitchell of the Australian electronic group Sneaky Sound System.

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Kanye’s stylist was Ibn Jasper.

Expensive, designer clothing companies often hail from Italy: Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Versace and Luigi Borelli are all Italian brands.

He’s a lot better than the old Kanye in “All Falls Down” who couldn’t pronounce Versace.

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  1. Jay-Z “spits green” – while that is usually the sign of a really bad throat infection, in Jay’s case it means that his rapping earns him a lot of money – in this case, the line is read as “[I have] too much green…”

  2. He also is saying “green” as in envy. Other rappers would be envious of him, but can’t talk in the same manner, or “hue.” Here, the line is read as “[You have] too much green…”

  3. On another level Jay-Z is saying that his competitors are too “green” or inexperienced to talk in his hue – they have “too much green” to challenge a veteran like Jay.

Thus, Jay-Z is positing that no emcee has the experience, money or talent he possesses.

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Jay-Z has deemed himself “Young Hova” (“Hova” being a shorthanded version of “Jehovah”, another name for God), thus calling himself the “god” or “savior” of rap

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If you start beef with Jay he’ll “draw” on you – a metaphor that extends to both gunplay and artistic creation. It’s a nice double entendre, since Jay-Z is constantly blurring the line between these activities in his lyrics. He sustains the metaphor brilliantly over the next three lines, where he threatens to turn his competitors to “murals” while also proclaiming his ability to fashion masterpieces.

Don’t make me do it!

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