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The first track from Ruff Ryders' 2011 album ‘'Past, Present, Future’‘

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9th Wonder is a producer, record executive, DJ, lecturer, and Rapper from Durham, North Carolina. he produced this track

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Styles claims to not write any of his lyrics down. He just recites them from memory.
T.I., Jay-Z and Biggie all claimed to practise this.

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Talib is from New York,
Biggie was from Brooklyn

2pac was from East Harlem

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18th and final track on Talib Kweli’s Attack The Block mixtape

It samples Tracy Chapman’s ‘'She’s Got Her Ticket’'

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There are four seasons in a year so Ap is saying that he is 26 years old

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This is a reference to the Biggie song ‘My Downfall’ from his second album Life After Death

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This is a reference to “The Twelve Days of Christmas” an English Christmas carol

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

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This is Double Entendre

His jewellery is sick (good, cool) but, ‘I got a disease on my wrist’ is taking the meaning of ‘sick’ literally (afflicted with ill health or disease; ailing)

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This verse is lifted from the Life After Death track “You’re Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)”.

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