Big Boi cooks up crack rock for the dope fiends in his home state of Georgia, as well as other regions across America. “The water” is probably the Mississippi River, so Big Boi has product on deck for his homies to the west of the Mississippi.

Big Boi rocks his Atlanta Braves hat to rep his city and twists it to the side for style.

Big Boi knows that his audience often expects him to get bodied by his counterpart André (“that there boy”), since 3 Stacks is a technical master and Big Boi is known more for his ability to keep it real than to spit complex rhymes.

But this verse is a perfect example of how he can keep pace with Dre just fine. It isn’t quite as imaginative as André’s, but it manages to be just as technically proficient while still addressing hard-hitting issues the hood has to deal with everyday. This is why André compared the duo’s style to Kool-Aid: “it’s totally opposite, but ay, it’s on”.

Eminem is being sarcastic as ever here, refusing to mention Kim by name even though you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out who he’s talking about. It’s not like he’s hesitated to call her by name in the past.

Eminem isn’t the unquestioned ruler of hip-hop anymore like he was during his reign in the early 2000’s. There are plenty of credible artists around gunning for his throne. And this gets him excited, giving him a metaphorical (we hope) woody that he plans to fuck his competition with.

Notice that stiff and hard are synonyms.

For a gangster, “slipping” could mean a breach in discipline that makes one vulnerable to ones enemies. For an artist, it could mean letting ones creative standards fall. Either way, a nightmare for a notorious perfectionist like Dre.

Ironically, this line about keeping everything perfect is often cited as one of the worst rap lines ever.

However, others consider it a profound line. With a slight twist of grammar, changing the predicate in the last clause to a form of the verb “to be,” Dre echoes the central existentialist idea of existence preceding essence. If Dre is what he does, as this would argue, than to slip would not merely be for him to take a wrong action, but to cease to be the man he has made himself (one who never slips). It’s a powerful testament to his perfectionist ethic.