Billy Bear and Albert Ganz are characters from the movie 48 Hours

A lot of Nas’s lyrics contain criminal slang, but he also mixes in slang from other sources such as The Five Percent Nation.

Nas, aka “the rebel to America”, claims that America would rather toss black men behind bars than accept them and help them rise in society. But if his attempts to overthrow the government go through, they will be able to change this through sheer force of numbers. There are way more black men then there are law enforcers, so a nation-wide crime spree would really overpower the government and set off Nas’s revolution.

The main reason André dropped out of high school was to pursue a rap career. In his eyes, his time would be better spent perfecting a craft that he cared about rather than sitting in a place he didn’t want to be for 8 hours a day just so he could get a piece of paper.

“You come at Leviathan, you best not miss”

What good would a terrifying monster be without the ability to breathe flames?

Mayo is one of Nas and Jungle’s close homies who gets entrusted with money counting duties on “Represent”.

Almost every mainstream rapper is guilty of this to some extent, but “The Throne” – comprised of Jay Z and Kanye West – really took heat for this on their Watch The Throne album.

Chuck D of hip-hop supergroup Public Enemy was disappointed that “Otis”, a song dedicated to Otis Redding – “a humble country man from Macon, GA who bought a jet to work in, not flash” – turned into little more than bank account flexing. And Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune was highly critical of the duo’s needless boasts about private jets and ability to blow $50K like it’s nothing, concluding that:

In many ways, West and Jay Z are saying something similar on their new album. But their approach is not to shine a spotlight on their community. Instead, they urge listeners to “watch the throne,” and gaze in awe on their good fortune.