Ain't nobody repping right, they scared, all talk Stro – KONY
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Astro believes New York rappers aren’t doing a good job at representing their city — whether it be literally giving shout outs and props to the city or by being good skillful rappers: which he believes is the reason why Kendrick can so easily claim the throne, since no one has the skill nor the audacity to claim it themselves.
One of the reason’s why Kendrick’s verse on Control is so great for hip-hop because it’s encouraging great competition which is fantastic since hip-hop by definition is a competitive genre (the nineties was an extremely competitive era especially given the rise of the East Coast vs West Coast rivalry initiated by the beef between 2Pac and Biggie)
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Again further reinforcing the fact that Kendrick’s pompous and highly controversial claim was disrespectful especially towards New York legends like Nas, Jay Z and Biggie who not only deserve the title much more than Kendrick because he is technically a new-comer and is not from New York himself, and therefore he should retract his statements and apologize. Also Kendrick owes a lot of his style to the same legends that he is implicitly dissing by claiming the aforementioned title.
There is also clever wordplay at work here, when he uses ‘owed them’ to sound like Odom in the Lamar Odom reference in the previous line.
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Double entendre:
Coming up short is referring and taking a stab at Kendrick’s short stature which is he known for in the hip-hop community (Kendrick is 5'6" or 168 cm which is a below average height among the America population)
Coming up short is also common idiom used to describe defeat by a small margin, which fits Kendrick perfectly since he is not in a position to be granted that title.
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Astro is further taking shots at Kendrick’s ego. He is stating that Jay Z, a New York legend, who despite his age (Hova being 43 is 17 years older than Kendrick which is old enough to be his father) is still selling more units (albums) than the young and popular Kendrick. Jay Z is also a father-figure in terms of fathering Kendrick’s style. Kendrick has stated previously that Jay Z is amongst other legends who influenced his rapping style.
If you have been following Jay Z’s new Magna Carta Holy Grail album you would know that his album reached platinum status on the day of the album’s anticipated release date, due to a digital download deal made with Samsung. This was the inception of the #NewRules movement.
In contrast, good kid, m.A.A.d city only reached platinum status in July 2013, ten months after it’s initial release.
ACCEPTED COMMENT: Astro mentioned this because in Control Kendrick rapped “Who’s the best MC? Kendrick, Jigga, and Nas”. Astro doesn’t think Kendrick should be putting himself on the same level with Jigga.
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Astro further taking shots at Kendrick’s arrogance for claiming he is King of both the East (New York) and the West (Los Angelos) which compose two sides of the compass (compass being an analogy to the world of hip-hop, as the east and west coasts are the main players)
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Referring to Kendrick Lamar’s verse on Control where he refers to himself as “The King of New York” among other boastful lines.
This line has been causing a great torrent of controversy recently simply for the fact that Kendrick is supposedly claiming a title which he is not worthy to hold because he is not from New York but from Compton, California.
'Cause I never thought I'd find a love like yours Allday (Ft. Brady James) – Girl In The Sun
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In another words he is killing other rappers.
Possibly a reference to the well-known Quentin Tarantino flick Inglorious Bastards where protagonist Lieutenant Aldo Raine (played by Brat Pitt) requests the Basterds (a special force team consisting of eight Jewish-American soldiers) to bring him 100 Nazi scalps.
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The queen appears on the Australian five dollar bill and on all Australian coins.
To print your own money – means to have a lot of money just like a printing press does.
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A scone is a small lightly sweetened biscuitlike cake which is usually served with jam and cream – it is usually served hot.
Jam: is another word for song or making music
Scone: means to spit fire on the track or rap well on a song
Cream: is referring to money (as popularized by Wu-Tang Clan’s song C.R.E.A.M)
All day is saying that he spits fire on every song so that one day he can be filthy rich – and so be able to fulfill his dream of swimming in cash.
