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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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Because the inmates work while in prison, the government gets free labor, essentially making the prisoners slaves.
For more, click here.
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Riccardo Tisci is a fashion designer and the creative director for Givenchy, a brand that Jay wore at the Met Ball in New York.
Also, Tisci himself has been to the Met Ball, and designed artwork for Kanye and Jay-Z’s projects such as HAM and Watch the Throne. He also kitted out Jay-Z and Kanye West in custom outfits for the Watch the Throne tour.
What is this?
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Yet another reference to the artist Jean Michel Basquiat, but ommiting his last name.
A prodigiously artistic child from Brooklyn who dropped out of high school and was subsequently estranged from his family, Basquiat began his painting career as a grafitti artist in lower Manhattan in 1976, but by 1982 his work was being exhibited by famed art dealer Larry Gagosian and he was recognised as one of the foremost American Neo-Expressionist painters. Basquiat’s meteoric rise to fame in the art world in some ways mirrors Jay-Z’s own successes as a rapper, and there are parallels between their stories – like Jay-Z, Basquiat was one of four siblings born to Brooklyn parents, and like Hov’s mother Gloria, Basquiat’s mother also worked hard to encourage her young son’s artistic abilities despite his relatively underprivileged background. Hov has frequently cited Basquiat, and his elevation of a historically black urban artform into commercially lucrative high art which combined social and political commentary and popular culture, as a source of inspiration to his music. Basquiat’s visibility as one of America’s most successful black artists has made him a popular cultural touchstone among rappers generally, and Basquiat himself was a fan of the early 80s New York hip hop scene.
Despite his rapid rise to fame and his continued importance in art history, Basquiat also represents something of an outsider figure in art. His visibility in the international art market in the 1980s was unprecedented for a Haitian-American, a black artist and an artist in his early 20s, and his work’s overt political themes and interest in African-American history and experience was a contrast to that of his older, white Pop art contemporaries; in 1985 Basquiat covered New York Times Magazine in a story titled “New Art, New Money”. Jay is likening himself to this type of cultural revolutionary; a figurehead for a new movement in art, breaking down barriers for other artists and blurring the traditional distinctions between high art and mass culture.
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With the recent signing of all-star sports players such as Robinson Cano and Kevin Durant, it is fitting that he is on the world’s biggest sports network.
Also a reference to his hit single from WTT, “Niggas In Paris.”
Drive slow homie, drive slow
Drive slow homie, drive slow Joey Bada$$ – Trap Door
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What is this?
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A magnum opus is the greatest work or the peak of a career of a musician or artist. Magna Carta Holy Grail will be Jay’s biggest achievement.
This is also about the Philosopher’s Stone, the stone of immortality, it can be created following the Magnus Opus) process in alchemy.
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ESPN is a sports channel made in the late seventies that covers almost every sport.
Here “work” could mean either:
- Crack (Hodgy is a heavy smoker)
- Music
Because both involve challenges and determination, it should be a sport and would get a spot on ESPN.
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What is this?
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A lucid dream is where the person is aware that they are dreaming. Because of the dream-like state one enters when doing drugs, Chance could be aware of the dream that is going on, most likely about his music.
Also note the genius of Chance here. “Lucid” and “loosely” have a loose rhyme, which he referenced in the bar.