Unreviewed Annotation 2 Contributors ?

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No longer rapping for free because I’ve just realized how ill I am. But Blu still does give material out for free

“Cautious when I lace the flow cuz Pos think I’m painting codes”

He is saying that he knows hip hop police are listening to his music so he can’t divulge certain information.

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Blu recognizes people yearn for the style he showcased on “Below the Heavens”.

He calls it his “forever 21 album” citing the way he felt and wrote at the time just that: a moment in time that is not immune to it.

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Unreviewed Annotation 4 Contributors ?

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True art died with Blu because he kept trying to write these “empty,” unrealistic lyrics even if it meant the death of his artistic integritym.

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Unable to maintain relationships, Blu turns to writing rhymes to get some of his thoughts and experiences about women off his shoulders

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Unreviewed Annotation 3 Contributors ?

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He’s talking about her dream that she “taped” for him since in the line before he says “Dead Men Walking Don’t Dream” it’s a highly abstract piece so some things may just be up to listener’s interpretation

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She teased him by acting like him, imitation is the greatest form of flattery

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A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome is also slang for head. Referring to Classical Greek architecture in which stone pieces were placed together seamlessly. Greece was a hotbed for many of the greatest thinkers, architecture and art of Western Civilization

He’s also refering to the fact that his ‘dome’ is civilized, much like the architecture of ancient Greece

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RZA paints a picture reminiscent of the Shogun Assassin scene referenced in the song’s intro, where the protagonist and his family are threatened by a deadly force of killers directed by secret, conspiratorial powers.

The verse updates this theme to refer to the suppression of African Americans' rights, culture and history (referred to in the next lines). Like RZA, who sees himself as the holder of secret knowledge he must spread through music to liberate his listeners, the character he creates here is in conflict with the White Supremacist agenda of the American propaganda machine.

RZA himself as a camouflaged assassin in Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai

As a side note, contrary to popular belief, actual chameleons do not change their appearance to hide themselves. Rather, their color changes are dictated by their emotions and body temperature.

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The Asiatic Black Hebrews (like the Nation of Gods & Earths) are a sect with many adherents in urban areas that claim they (as opposed to the collection of peoples commonly acknowledged as Jewry) are the actual descendants of the Biblical Israelites. RZA acknowledges this ancestry with his verse.

The “Asiatic Black Man” in 5% theology is God.

In the Nation of Gods and Earth Asiatic black man can be broken down into ‘asia’ meaning the body, ‘attic’ meaning the mind, ‘black’ is the dominant force and usually ‘man’ means the higher intelligence. Hebrew refers to an ancient group of Israelites or someone from Phoenicia.

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Carry off the last line with ‘Old Asia’ where he’s referring to the Chinese who used to be referred to as ‘the sick men of Asia’ because of their world standing and because they were essentially colonized by the Europeans and Japanese in the 30s and 40s

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