Jay is from the Magnolia Projects in New Orleans.
Jay is from the Magnolia Projects in New Orleans.
During Hip Hop’s Golden Age (1986-1993), the fashion was epitomized by ostentatious gold chain.
“Nasty” and “cold” are both adjectives used to describe verses, songs, and rappers that are particularly skilled. He plays on this by saying he’ll spit (rap) phlegm (flaming-hot verses).
Also, this could be another reference to Superman, since he could freeze enemies by breathing on them.
This is not the first time Jay has alluded to the JFK Assassination.
Jay’s usage of “USB flip cam” is the camera with which his assassination (should it ever happen) would be filmed with. He updates the technology (JFK was killed in 1963, and this song was made post-2008); times have certainly changed since ‘63. Also, see the Zapruder Film.
By this phrase, Jay will never be caught unaware of his surroundings, as President Kennedy and his Secret Service agents were when JFK was shot dead.
In this second part, Jay refers to Lassie, the famous TV show about a Border Collie that alerts the authorities to crimes and misfortunate accidents. He wouldn’t dare rely on a dog in a life or death situation.
At the time of this song’s recording, Jay was over 30. By that time, many people expect black men, especially those in urban environments to be dead, either from a prison suicide (“hangin' from my neck in jail”) or murdered in a morgue, with a horrible odor (“on a slab in the mortuary, freezing with a blank stare on my face, letting off a wretched smell”).
So, when these concert goers attend his show and call him a failure, they don’t realize that Jay has already defeated the odds of society in terms of life expectancy. This, surely, diminishes the importance of their criticisms of him.
