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Writing this verse, Jay got tears in his eyes because it took him so far back to Marcy projects. You can hear it as Jay displays his vivid imagery of him growing up and becoming a drug-dealer and most of all seeing it all.
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Olu´s first and true love was music, he was a musician foremost, a husband secondarly. Nas further explains it in the song “Poppa Was A Playa”:
Not knowing the pain he gave my mother
Night after night, fighting yelling at each other
My papa played the street all day
Mama was either home, at work, while we played inside the hall way
She sacrifices all she got to feed us
When she was alone she cried by the phone peeping out the window heated
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What is this?
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What is this?
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What is this?
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In an interview with The Combat Jack Show about the hook and song:
The sample says “help get the keys to the kingdom”; You don´t think everyday about spirtuality. When you are in the streets you trying to survive. So I´m writing from that perspective cause I know that perspective.
The song is like negro spirituals, they were going throught the roughest times but somehow they made you feel like you could make it and thats what I want that song to be like. A reinforcement – even if it doesn´t provide all the solutions it says wait and hold on.
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A reference to the Catch A Fire cover.
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Wiz turned this into a real remix by changing the beat. The original boisterous, trap-heavy beat driven by the matching, thunderous drums is slowed down. Making it more relaxed and mellow.
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If you are a convicted felon, you cannot vote. The warden caught his first case, which means he ran into trouble with the law. He apparently committed a felony, because he can no longer vote.
Ties to the previous and the next line about democracy you should count yor blessing for being able to vote.
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Ann Jones warned Nas about the “Gateway drug” phenomenon that states that the use of less deleterious drugs can lead to a future risk of using more dangerous hard drugs. Implyinh his weed smoking habits would turn into snorting lines, which is especially common in the club industry.
That weed would be one of these gateway drugs has been questioned and disapproved. Note the consonance on the letter “D”: drugs – deep – dish – dubs.
Nas is saying that his mother is saying, now you are smoking weed, next thing you know you are sniffing coke. And Deep Dish was popular DJ/Producer duo that was popular for their “dub remixes” at the time this song came out.