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Mormons are a religious group that believe in Mormonism, a religious practice that formerly encouraged polygamy (certain offshots encourage it still). Polygamy is the act of having many different spouses at once.
Chino’ll take out more men, in this case married, that would equate to more widows than if he took out a polygamist.
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Brilliant line, a monopoly is when big businesses that make up a large sector of the market team up and therefore can manipulate (conventionally called “fix”) prices on necessary goods so that they can make extra profit. This monopoly Rass Kass is referring to, in essence, is the drug trade involving cartels and such.
The essence of the line describes how the realm of drug dealing (monopoly) is like a roll of dice, if you run out of luck (not passing go) you go directly to jail.
This line can also be interpreted as Monopoly, the highly renowned board game
The city's full of surprises, you can live or you can die
You can fuck on the first night, or try in the late night 2Pac (Ft. DJ Quik & Outlawz) – Late Night
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Here Tupac describes the vibrant ambiguity of the life, primarily the night life, of the city whether it be Los Angeles or Las Vegas. These major cities are well known and illustrious but at the same time they succumb to crime, drug dealing, poverty and prostitution which is a vicious cycle. The volatility of the night life of the city can bring many surprises in the realm of vice and luck. You read about the murders, yet in the same night you can indulge coitus – its all about how you test your luck.
Possibly a reference to not only the city of Los Angeles, but a reference to his song To Live & Die in L.A.
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Many different ways you can view this line.
One way, which seems like a fairly common to see it is the concept of being born in the ghetto. Many like Nas himself see their birth as being inadvertently placed instead a jail or hell. The “system” refers to the government and how it ends up that a high percentage of those in poverty are African American born individuals. The point is, when you’re born into poverty its very hard to get out.
Interestingly enough, Nas is selflessly speaking in behalf of his unborn son instead of himself. This alludes the listener that he has a pessimistic view of life and sees himself trapped with anything he produces; therefore he doesn’t have hope in getting out… It’s an extremely cynical line to say that least.
Back through Patterson, J.C
And Hacken-sack Redman – Pick It Up
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Red’s skills can be felt in Paterson, Jersey City and Hackensack, which are all cities in Northern New Jersey. Like his hometown Newark, these cities also have a history of crime, poverty, semi-antiquity and Hip-hop.
Note: That I am not making the conventional judge-mental assumption that Hip-hop is a garbage, low life, poverty-ambiance genre. Hip-hop emanates from it while portraying its hardships – but this in no way, shape, or form should be seen as putting Hip-hop in vain in such a derogatory manner as its a beautiful art-form.
Back to Middlesex with a couple of poor white trashy brats Chino XL – What Am I?
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Middlesex, New Jersey:
Middlesex is a predominantly white county in New Jersey. Middlesex, where Chino resided at early in his childhood, was the foundation of his hatred and anger as alluded in an abhorrent manner periodically throughout the song. To conclude it, he was discriminated against rather heavily there, which resulted in him feeling obsolete and isolated.
They figured that I'm black, white around
They kick me like a soccer ball
White people didn't accept me
Fuck you
Black people didn't accept me
Fuck you
Puerto Ricans didn't accept me
Fuck you
Diggin researchin my identity it gots me goin cuckoo Chino XL – What Am I?
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Back in Middlesex, he was obviously looked at in an execrable way. This led to anger, hatred, and depression as alluded in this track.
Previously, we saw the “zebra” metaphor, now we see the soccer ball metaphor both indicating how he was discriminated for being half African American and half Puerto Rican.
Interestingly here, Chino Describes how he really got hated on the fact neither Blacks nor Puerto Ricans were able to give him human respect.
Reason why:
Blacks didn’t accept him because he wasn’t dark enough
Puerto Ricans didnt accept him because he was half African American and not spanish enough
Whites didnt accept him because he was a minority
He was lost at this point…
("Half Puerto Rican, half black, but you don't speak Spanish")
Don't call me zebra y'all
("Half Puerto Rican, half black...") Chino XL – What Am I?
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With the theme of this song being discrimination, this chorus alludes it perfectly. First off, you notice the figurative language Chino Xl uses to describe how he was perceived as, regarding to racism. To reiterate, metaphors used to describe this are “zebra” and later in the song “soccer ball”.
These are derogatory terms emphasizing how Chino Xl got discriminated for being half Puerto Rican and half Black.
A woman's tryin' to make decisions, we should leave 'em a choice
'Cause who we to say who lives or die, breathes or stops 2Pac & Outlawz – The Good Die Young
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In these lines Pac is targeting mainly domestic violence. He’s telling the men to stop being such beasts and settle, from not doing so is the reason why they got aids in the previous lines. Men and people, in general, usually have a good conscious but choose to make bad decisions so Tupac is asking them to listen to their conscious and just do whats right.
Another thing is men are raping innocent and weak women and as a result of this, they’re getting pregnant. Some of them are restricted by poverty, heart-brake, inferiority complex’s from a bad childhood and such, which gives men no right to take advantage of these women trying to make it on their own. Not only are some getting taken advantage of and raped, but even killed. Tupac addresses the problem in these lines.
You either give a sucker two in the head, or you'll be dead meat Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Live and Let Die
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You can just see Kool G Rap’s influence here as his lyrics are identical to some of Biggies in Things Done Changed off his debut Ready to Die. Those lyrics were “Because the streets is a short stop: Either you’re slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot”
In this line its less generalized and its talking more about himself saying that how he personality lives in the street is a game of survival as either he gets his enemies before they get him.
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