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Salt ‘n’ Pepa are considered one of the great rap groups of all time, as well as two female pioneers in the game.
Jamaican-American rapper Heavy D and Biggie eventually became friends. They recorded “A Buncha Niggas”, “Jam Session” and Heavy D made a cameo on the video for “One More Chance”
And, while they’re not actually in the picture together, they were both featured on the cover of the June 1990 issue of Word Up!:
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The Radisson Martinique Hotel is located near Madison Square Garden, a drug hub in Manhattan
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Nah, them my niggas, nah, love, wouldn't disrespect The Notorious B.I.G. – Warning
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“Bones” are joints/cigarettes.
RZA has a similar line to this and the previous bar in the track, “Tragedy”:
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Notice the double entendre on “rolling”:
Rollin as in chilling and cruising in their whip.
Rollin as in rolling a joint/blunt.
An MPV is not exactly the most impressive car; the fact that he is reminiscing about getting to drive one is meant to underscore his humble beginnings. Though, as the second half of the line reveals, he was making $40,000 a week and could probably afford a better car, so it is possible that he drove the MPV for practical reasons, as elaborated below.
Mazda MPV’s were a popular hood car in the 80’s and early 90s, and was often used by drug dealers for practical reasons; the MPV has sliding doors on both sides, making it easy to get in and out of the car quickly. It also allowed for quite a bit of room for moving drugs and guns. In the Wu-Tang Manual, RZA described them as “the hottest minivan back then”.
Fun Fact: If you watch the video, you can see them jump out of an MPV.
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‘Lo is short for Polo, and Goose means any jacket that is filled with down/goose feathers.
Raekwon is a known Polo head – he even wears Polo drawers – and you can peep him rocking a Polo Snow Beach jacket in the “Can It Be All So Simple” music video:
Goose jackets were hot back when Raekwon was a teenager, and they can be seen worn by Run-D.M.C. on the cover of their 1986 album, Raising Hell:
The goose jacket worn by Run DMC is called the V-Bomber Jacket made by Double Goose.
Word up, two for fives over here, baby
Word up, two for fives, niggas got garbage down the way
Word up, know what I'm sayin'? Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M.
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Two crack cocaine vials (containing a rock) for $5, a standard discounted price. Obviously, of superior quality to the garbage sold down the street by the other guys, too.
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When you play a tape all the way to the end of one side, the cassette door pops open. In 1980s it was very common for kids to tape the radio shows they loved, while choosing the songs they wanted to record, so they could listen to them again later.
Biggie was implying that Rap Attack was so good that he’d “rock his tape” (record the whole show) without making any edits until he hit the very end of the tape and it popped out. This is major props to the show’s hosts, Mr. Magic and Marley Marl.
Biggie might also be saying that he played those tapes so much that they eventually “popped” (got ruined), which was very common with old cassettes.
Talking about listening to tapes was a different thought from the line about the radio shows. When you played a tape over and over again, (especially in the same spot; i.e. your favorite song, or even favorite line in the song) the actual tape would break, or pop. You could fix with with scotch tape by just joining it from underneath with the scotch tape.