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Getting money usually corrupts people and makes them betray their principles; Nas managed to get money “and remain fly”. However despite remaining true, he has been in serious debt. But just like he says in “Loco-mMotive”, also on Life is Good:

I started out broke, got rich, lost paper then made it back
Like Trump being up down up, play with cash

As of 2013 his networth is estimated $30 million. Not only has he sold over 25 million, but currently owns a Fila sneaker store, a magazine publishing and his own record label. In fact, he currently serves as the associate publisher of Mass Appeal Magazine.

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Nas is a rebel to the American system because of the perspective he’s gained from a childhood growing up in the streets, and ever since birth, he’s been under an enormous amount of stress trying to get out of the ghetto.

Now that he´s made it he dress and act flamboyantly which many others, predominantly black males from poverty, did to make themselfs feel better about themselfs for their circumstance by overcompensating spending alot of money on cars, clothes, jewelry etc. When they finally made it getting everything they ever wanted.

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The reason that you don’t want static with Nas is that he’s liable to “flip” (get angry) and begin ripping you apart on a diss track, similar to how an acrobat does flips through the air.

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This was pre-Illmatic and he would later recycle this couplet in “N.Y. State of Mind”. In practice, “undressing niggas” with a Smith-N-Wesson looks something like this:

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going “back” to see the great rulers of Africa, but really its the future and Africa will become great in time. Clever way of saying that black people are going to rule the world again in the near future and also a reference to the movie by the same name:

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Fox has criticized Hip Hop and Nas for overly violent lyrics.
He has been criticized for the song “Shoot´em Up”:

Shoot ‘em up, just shoot 'em up, what?
(Kill-kill-kill, murder-murder-murder)

This is an example of interviews where he has been criticized:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKBjbgqLLfc

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Carlo Gambino of the Gambino crime family, say Gambine for rhyming dexterity.

The Gambino crime family is one of the “Five Families” that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia (or Cosa Nostra). The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group’s operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, pier thefts, and fencing.

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I smoke the most potent weed. Also an ironic juxtaposition with the last line; he is “clean” and “fresh” but always reeks of ganja. In other words, he can be a rich gentleman while retaining the culture of lighting up whenever.

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Methadone is often used to help ween addicts off opiate addiction (such as Heroin). People strung out on Heroin are often “nodding” out or leaning because the opiates slow people down. If you start falling asleep, you’re likely to start leaning over.

Jadakiss is saying this is that street shit you can lean to, in the same street fashion that Fat Joe referred to in the song “Lean Back”

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Before Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z had a fast paced flow. Nas is saying Jay copied his, Biggie’s, and Raekwon’s mafioso style of rapping.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=79JXXOvOyiw

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