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Who needs a chain when every thought's a jewel? The Roots (Ft. Greg Porn & Truck North) – Kool On
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A series of puns here as well on Greg’s intellect. “En garde” or “on guard” is a fencing term that refers to the stance that fencers assume when preparing to fence. And fencing’s origins are both as a sport and as a means to duel, as this nineteenth-century drawing demonstrates:
Continuing the theme of his great intellect, Greg drops a gem on em with his comparison of his thoughts to shiny precious metals
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Walter Cronkite, longtime CBS Evening News anchor, was the most famous American broadcast journalist
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What is this?
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Thought’s character on this album, the gangster Redford Stephens, is reaching a high point in his narrative arc here. He is rich, successful, and (of course) inevitably headed for his downfall, which we see at the album’s beginning
The theme of gangsters not being able to resist showing off their newfound wealth, and their lack of discretion getting the best of them, is a staple of gangster movies, most notably American Gangster, where Frank Lucas' wearing of a flashy fur coat to a boxing match marks the beginning of the end of his criminal reign. A movie still below, r, and the real Frank Lucas and his now-famous chinchilla coat, l:
Two queens is on my cuffs, good times is in the cards The Roots (Ft. Greg Porn & Truck North) – Kool On
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A series of card-game puns here. Playing cards and gambling are somewhat of a motif on this record:
- “Full house” as both an actual room full of people and the poker hand of that name, as well as the drink
Two “queens on [his] cuffs” as in two women on his arm and two face cards hidden up his sleeve (now now – play fair!)
And finally, a pun on the phrase “in the cards”
He is bluffing and acting like he’s got a royal flush (the best hand possible in poker), while he really only has a full house – still a good hand, but not enough to explain his showy appearance. If someone does happen to call his bluff, he still has a couple tricks up his sleeves to show he is still doing well (assuming the 2 Queens improves his hand).
It should also be noted that playing cards are a motif, or reoccurring theme, of this whole album. The idea that, because Redford was born in the ghetto, he already has an unfair advantage at life; he was dealt a bad hand; Fate.
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What is this?
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Cigarillos are generally 3-4 inches long and 5-8 millimeters in diameter. You would have to pack a lot of weed into one of these babies to get it to log-size
Hundred K in my pocket, that shit as thick as a Bible Jeezy – Just Like That (This Is What I Do)
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Jeezy goes back-to-back with the Biblical references here, first to the very first siblings, Cain and Abel – who were, it should be noted, brothers but not twins (Cain, who kills Abel, was the older one). This photograph clearly shows that they didn’t even look that much alike:
The other Biblical reference is to, um, the Bible
I'm Neo out this bitch, feel like I'm stuck in the Matrix Jeezy – Just Like That (This Is What I Do)
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Jeezy’s high-living ways (fancy watches, Diddy-endorsed liquors, etc.) have him feeling like he controls the universe, much like savior-of-humanity Neo in the Matrix films
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