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The third song of Nas' compilation album The Lost Tapes. U Gotta Love It is produced by L.E.S and contains a deep, swirling groove and a sample of the 1973 song “Love Song” by funk band Mandrill written by Carlos Wilson, Louis Wilson, and Ricardo Wilson

Nas makes reference to the “‘86 crack blitz” and discusses his own significance: “This thug life you claimed it, I make millions from entertainment / Now back in the hood, certain cats they wanna kill me / They ice-grill me, but on the low, niggas feel me.”

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“ sleeping with the fishes” is a reference to a famous line from the movie the godfather, meaning some one is dead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7RMKq8RQj4
But Nas is saying be suspicious because maybe they´re not dead and it´s a setup.

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Can be connected with the next line by Black thought: Laughing with a fan like its the elephant in the room. ‘Elephant in the room’ is an old saying that refers to when something very obvious is being ignored and it is usualy an awkward silence which alot of people laugh away to break the silence.

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Cise Starr takes us to an imaginary place in his mind where creativity and individuality are rewarded. While Cise is floating around in space (ocean of God) and having, he is dragged down to reality by the massive egos of people. Cise is obviously familiar with Newton’s law of universal gravitation. But more importantly, he might be commenting on how the hip hop industry sacrifices creativity for more material interests

Notice how this fits the title of the song. He went from an extreme high to a low

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Another referense to the godfather movies this one from the The Godfather: Part III where they kill a shooter at the opera.

Spoiler Alert – The movie’s theme continues in the next line since, at the end of the film while attempting to kill the godfather, a hitman accidentally shoots and kills the godfather’s daughter.

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A referense to a famous line by marlon brando in the moive The Godfather http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeldwfOwuL8

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Referring to Somalia’s piracy problem, and comparing his crew and his own actions to the heinous crimes committed by the seamen.

This could also be taken as him clearly hijacking this song and making it his own. Just like the Somali pirates have been doing with ships passing by.

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Track 15 from The Firm’s 1997 album The Album, featuring Canibus.

On an interview, Nas said that he was “scared” to lay a verse in fear of getting out-shined by Canibus on this particular track.

However, if you got DJ Clue’s mixtape the version featured both Nas and Foxy Brown.

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This is a play on words using the show Breaking Amish on TLC. Also Darker Thoughts = Black Thought the guy rapping.

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This song is on Nas' Hip Hop is Dead’s Album. This was Nas' first Def Jam release. Prior to signing to Def Jam, Nas and Jay-Z had maybe the largest feud in hip hop’s history. Jay-Z eventually became President of Def Jam. Jay-Z and Nas soon squashed their beef and later Jay-Z signed Nas to Def Jam. There was much talk, mainly by 50 Cent, that Jay-Z won the war buy simply buying out Nas and signing him under his label. This line is Nas addressing that he did not get “bought” by Jay Z. Nas would be rather be Killed than sell out!

For the record Jay didn’t own Def Jam. He was given the top job in A&R to sign and develop new artists (such as Rhianna) but that still made him an employee just like any head of a company who doesn’t have majority shares or outright ownership. LA Reid was the man who sealed the deal. It works
both ways. The artist produces the material and the label promotes and distributes the artist’s work. Its a partnership. Nas didn’t need Jay to get a deal. Def Jam wanted Nas for legacy.

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