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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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Here, Lupe puns on the English band Tears for Fears, popular in the 1980’s for their hits “Shout” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”
This is also a reference to the rapper Q-Tip, whose character died at the beginning of Poetic Justice.
What is this?
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The Black Panther Party was a black leftist revolutionary organization started in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. From its humble beginnings in the Bay Area, it worked its way up to having a national organization, thus attracting the attention of the FBI, whose illegal and sometimes murderous ruses helped to weaken and eventually destroy the group
The Panthers' best-known statement of principles was their original Ten-Point Program
The organic masters, the cream of the planet Black Star – You Already Knew
What is this?
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This shout-out to the “Asiatic black man”, a term used by the Nation of Gods and Earths, includes a subtle shout out to Aretha. The label she was with when she did her classic r&b material was Atlantic Records:
They would be at the rally telling cops back up off 'em Black Star – You Already Knew
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Kwe makes the excellent point that if the racial makeup of the Tea Party movement was all-black, like the Congressional Black Caucus, they would have met with a far different response from authorities, the media, etc. – more along the lines of, say, police response to the Black Panthers:
Now my President is black and his name is hard as mine Black Star – You Already Knew
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Kweli nods to Jeezy’s “My President”, while luxuriating in the fact that another public figure has a name even more complicated than his:
Grace, enthusiasm, sincerity, passion
Known through the classes and masses, Black Star – You Already Knew
What is this?
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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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What is this?
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The first release from the duo’s upcoming mixtape tribute to Aretha Franklin, Black Star Aretha. Produced by OhNo
I changed my name in '89 cleaning parts of my brain
Like a baby nine dead prez – They Schools
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stic.man (born Clayton Gravin) changed his name to Khnum Muata Ibomu, much as the man born Malcolm Little cycled through several different names in his lifetime. stic’s name change allowed him to “clean out” his old prejudices, in the same way one would clean a gun
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