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Everybody in your crew has beamed up to Scott Blaq Poet (Ft. DJ Rockwell Noel) – Beat You Down

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Just as KRS accused Shan’s homeboys of being on crack on “South Bronx”, Poet now accuses BDP of the same thing. Beaming up Scotty (as in Star Trek) was popular slang for smoking crack back in the day.

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Beat You Down Blaq Poet (Ft. DJ Rockwell Noel) – Beat You Down

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After MC Shan failed to respond to BDP’s “The Bridge Is Over”, QB native MC Poet (later Blaq Poet of Screwball fame) weighed in on the battle.

Poet reiterates Shan’s point that he never said Hip Hop started in Queens, accuses KRS of using Shan and Marley’s fame to build his own name, and stands up for the early Hip Hop crews from Queens.

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Over there in the Bronx you jammed with house speakers
We was rocking bass bottoms, and JBL tweeters Blaq Poet (Ft. DJ Rockwell Noel) – Beat You Down

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Poet claims that Queens crews had better quality equipment than their Bronx counterparts. It’s difficult to know how true this is. Certainly there were renowned sound systems in The Bronx like Kool Herc’s Herculoids and the Funky 4’s Mighty Sasquatch.

Even so, this description of Queens crew Infinity Machine’s set-up from DJ Divine sounds pretty impressive.

Four L 48’s Cerwin vega Speakers. 6 B 36’s Speakers, mind you all this is just bass so far. Then we had 4 V 32’s which had two 12 inches one horn and two piso’s in it. We had twenty JBL speakers which is high ended tweeters. Two multi-cells horns with tangerine drivers. Four altec lancen horns. Later on we got 2 V- 35’s Vega speakers. The amps we used to push those speakers was two Vega 3000 I amps. Two 1800 I amps. Four crown DC 300 amps. 6 B 75 crown amps. A Cervwin vega equalizer. Two Crown 1050 pre amps. 1100 technic turntables. Two of those. Two 1200 technics.

That’s some serious gear. Could The Bronx compete with that back in the 70s?

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Poet claims that Queens crews had better quality equipment than their Bronx counterparts. It's difficult to know how true this is. Certainly there were renowned sound systems in The Bronx like Kool Herc's Herculoids and the Funky 4's Mighty Sasquatch.

Even so, this description of Queens crew Infinity Machine's set-up from [DJ Divine](http://thafoundation.com/divine.htm) sounds pretty impressive.

> Four L 48’s Cerwin vega Speakers. 6 B 36’s Speakers, mind you all this is just bass so far. Then we had 4 V 32’s which had two 12 inches one horn and two piso’s in it. We had twenty JBL speakers which is high ended tweeters. Two multi-cells horns with tangerine drivers. Four altec lancen horns. Later on we got 2 V- 35’s Vega speakers. The amps we used to push those speakers was two Vega 3000 I amps. Two 1800 I amps. Four crown DC 300 amps. 6 B 75 crown amps. A Cervwin vega equalizer. Two Crown 1050 pre amps. 1100 technic turntables. Two of those. Two 1200 technics.

That's some serious gear. Could The Bronx compete with that back in the 70s?

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Was Infinity Machine and Nu Sounds Blaq Poet (Ft. DJ Rockwell Noel) – Beat You Down

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Two old school crews from Queens.

Infinity Machine were from Jamaica Queens and ran from 1978 to 1985. See this interview with DJ Divine from Infinity Machine for more info.

Nu Sounds are a bit of a mystery – not much info around on them. According to this interview they were the inspiration for Infinity Machine. DJ Divine saw them play at 127 park in Queens:

They had these speakers called Earthquakes, and after I saw that I had to have me a pair too.

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I know you remember when the Bertha rocked
With the bass so low, it shook the ground Blaq Poet (Ft. DJ Rockwell Noel) – Beat You Down

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The Bertha was the name of a speaker cabinet designed by Richard Long. They were used by Queens crews like The Disco Twins and Infinity Machine.

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Bound up and down, Richard Long bound Blaq Poet (Ft. DJ Rockwell Noel) – Beat You Down

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Richard Long was a sound engineer who designed sound systems and DJ consoles in the 70s. As well as kitting out world-renowned New York clubs like Studio 54 and Paradise Garage, he sold high-end equipment to crews in Queens.

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Just flew in from Dallas, and, boy, is my talons calloused Monsta Island Czars – MIC Line

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Sometimes misheard as boy is my talents callous, this is actually a play on the old (Bob Hope?) joke:

I just flew in from [some city], and boy are my arms tired

The King Geedorah character is a three-headed winged dragon so the references to flying and talons make perfect sense.

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I don't need a Japanese flag, Vash the Stampede of hip-hop Lupe Fiasco – Trials and Tribulations

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Lupe is a lyrical sharp shooter.

The Japanese flag is a red dot, like the laser sighting on a gun. Vash the Stampede is a Japanese manga character who is an expert marksman.

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Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber Wu-Tang Clan – Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber

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“Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber” combines grimy jazz-groove with complex lyricism from seven Wu-Tang rappers—hence the title, “7th Chamber.”

Clan beatsmith RZA lifted the drums from Lonnie Smith’s 1970 record, “Spinning Wheels,” and sampled some soulful effects from Otis Redding’s 1965 track, “Down in the Valley,” to create the song.

This track appears twice on the 36 Chambers album—once in its original form and again as the second to last track in a remix called “Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber – Pt. II.” The remix uses the same vocals but begins with a snippet of “Clan in Da Front.”

In an interview with Brian Coleman, Inspectah Deck elaborated on the meaning behind the title:

There were thirty-six chambers that we were going to show people, and that was only the seventh. I did the “9th Chamber” on my album, and GZA had the “4th Chamber” [on Liquid Swords].

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"Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber" combines grimy jazz-groove with complex lyricism from seven Wu-Tang rappers---hence the title, "7th Chamber."

Clan beatsmith RZA lifted the drums from [Lonnie Smith](https://genius.com/artists/Dr-lonnie-smith)'s 1970 record, ["Spinning Wheels,"](https://genius.com/Dr-lonnie-smith-spinning-wheel-lyrics) and sampled some soulful effects from [Otis Redding](https://genius.com/artists/Otis-redding)'s 1965 track, ["Down in the Valley,"](https://genius.com/Otis-redding-down-in-the-valley-lyrics) to create the song.

This track appears twice on the [*36 Chambers*](https://genius.com/albums/Wu-tang-clan/Enter-the-wu-tang-36-chambers) album---once in its original form and again as the second to last track in a remix called ["Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber - Pt. II."](https://genius.com/Wu-tang-clan-wu-tang-7th-chamber-pt-ii-lyrics) The remix uses the same vocals but begins with a snippet of ["Clan in Da Front."](/Wu-tang-clan-clan-in-da-front-lyrics)

In an [interview with Brian Coleman](https://bit.ly/2tfGYxY), Inspectah Deck elaborated on the meaning behind the title:

> There were thirty-six chambers that we were going to show people, and that was only the seventh. I did the "9th Chamber" on my album, and GZA had the "4th Chamber" [on *Liquid Swords*].

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No need to speed, slow down and let the leader lead
Word to daddy, indeed Eric B. & Rakim – Follow the Leader

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A shot at Big Daddy Kane, who had a mild beef/verbal rivalry with Rakim at the time.

The first line alludes to Kane’s reputation as a fast rapper, earned with songs like “Raw”, “Set It Off” and “Wrath of Kane”. The second line plays on Kane’s song “Word to the Mother”.

Also see Rakim’s lines in “No Competition”

No-one in my path can withstand
Under pressure the wrath of a swift man

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