GENIUS
Sign Up
I was so Biggie, you was Faith Fabolous – Pachanga
Unreviewed Annotation 2 Contributors ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Faith Evans was married to the Notorious B.I.G. until the time of his murder. The marriage was by all accounts a turbulent one, but posterity says it was mostly Biggie cheating on Faith, not the other way around

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +0 Downvote
Copy Embed
End up watching friends like Joey, Chandler and Ross Fabolous – Pachanga
Unreviewed Annotation 1 Contributor ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Joey, Chandler and Ross, the central male characters on the long-running NBC sitcom Friends, were never (to my knowledge) seen watching an episode of Friends–which is a shame, because that’d be some stone-cold Cervantesian meta shit

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +1 Downvote
Copy Embed
Default_avatar_100

0

4 years

The punchline is that you have to watch your friends, and people watch the TV show Friends, so he uses the characters in Friends to convey the metaphor.

Upvote +0 Downvote
Vance Matthews
10 years

I don’t know what the author of the first suggestion is saying. But I think this PunchLine is Fab saying you literally have to watch your friends. thank you.

Upvote +3 Downvote
Show all improvement suggestions
Had a crush on you, now we Kim and Cease Fabolous – Pachanga
Unreviewed Annotation 1 Contributor ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Lil' Kim and Lil' Cease, both protégé(e)s to the Notorious B.I.G. after a certain fashion, collaborated on the single “Crush On You,” and then had a bit of a falling out

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +0 Downvote
Copy Embed
A thug changes and love changes
And best friends become strangers Fabolous – Pachanga
Unreviewed Annotation 1 Contributor ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

This hook is lifted from “The Message,” from Nas’s second album, It Was Written

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +4 Downvote
Copy Embed
Jaws is hanging, frauds is left in they draws on the floor complaining Ghostface Killah – The Champ
Genius Annotation 3 Contributors ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Ghost leaves robbees–partygoers, wack rappers, frauds–speechless and understandably bitter when he strips them of their riches, right down to their underclothes (drawers)

It’s also a boxing reference, he has knocked out a challenger to his title. Double entendre.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +4 Downvote
Copy Embed
Catch a breath 'fore you catch a left, even worse, catch a Tef'
Only way you catch an F, to the A-B Fabolous – Breathe
Unreviewed Annotation 1 Contributor ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

And here we enter the final connotation of the song’s title: “breathe” now means to back off, to slow your roll, lest you catch a left hook, or, worse, a Teflon bullet somewhere that will complicate your respiratory functions

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +4 Downvote
Copy Embed
Marked this as missing something?
4 years

“Only way you catch an F / to the A/B” is a reference to New York subway lines connected to the “New York minute” line from the previous bar.

Upvote +0 Downvote
Default_avatar_100

4

8 years

ReillyCapps- it’s really “catching F” not “catch an F.” So by saying “F, to the A-B” he’s referring to himself as Fab (Fabulous). So the lyric translates to the only way you’re seeing him is in his maybach rolling with his lady friend.

Upvote +3 Downvote
Default_avatar_100

4

8 years

I"m confused. Can you explain further was “catch an f” means? I don’t see it in Big L. Does it just mean “be prosecuted for a felony”? And can you explain what A-B is?

Upvote +2 Downvote
Show all improvement suggestions
, Fabolous – Breathe
Unreviewed Annotation 1 Contributor ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

This is a pretty great distillation of Fabolous’s ability to spend the entire song suspended between literal and figurative imagery: you can ride up on someone, i.e. show up unexpectedly and beat the crap out of them, or you can obviously ride an escalator to the next floor up instead of taking the stairs

Note that “ride up on ‘em like I’m a pair of silk boxer shorts,” though equally credible, wouldn’t fit the rhyme scheme

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +3 Downvote
Copy Embed
Marked this as missing something?
5 years

ride up on them, like they escalators is a play on words. Driving a Escalade, a SUV that was popular for showing off wealth and hated by environmentalists.

Upvote +1 Downvote
Marked this as missing something?
7 years

Fun fact:
These two lines and the next two are actually borrowed from Fabolous' 2001 debut album “Ghetto Fabolous.”
Slightly modified for “Breathe”, the lyrics originally appeared on the track “Gotta Be Thug” as: “I’m ready to address the haters and underestimaters
Hop in the truck ride up on ya’ll like escalators
Hit ya’ll chest up leave ya’ll hooked to respirators
Bed ridden talkin' to investigators”

Upvote +1 Downvote
Show all improvement suggestions
I'm splitting atoms, Jay Electronica – Exhibit A (Transformations)
Genius Annotation 7 Contributors ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

“They call me Jay Electronica—fuck that, call me Jay Enrico Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory”

(“Splitting atoms” means spreading the message; see the 1991 album Breaking Atoms by Main Source, which also has amazing cover art. Jay E also cracked atoms on “Eternal Sunshine”)

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +5 Downvote
Copy Embed
Clarence 13X Allah's rhapsody from Bellevue Jay Electronica – Exhibit A (Transformations)
Genius Annotation 2 Contributors ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Clarence “13X” Smith, founder of the Nation of Gods and Earths, was institutionalized at Bellevue Hospital in 1965. Jay Elec, like Nas, the members of Wu-Tang, etc., is a confirmed five-percenter

Clarence 13X got arrested in 1965 just after Malcolm X’s death for vandalizing nearby buildings and blocking the street near the former headquarters of Muslim Mosque. He was visiting the Mosque No. 7 and when the cops told him to leave, him and several five percenters got agitated. When charged in a court he told the judge he was “Allah” and that the city would face judgment if he wasn’t released. The judge not being too pleased at that comment sent him to a psychiatric examination at the “Bellevue” Hospital Center.

Jay in essence is just trying to channel the thoughts through his music that provoked Clarence 13X calling himself “Allah”. Which is basically what being a five percenter is all about.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +18 Downvote
Copy Embed
I blast on Judas Iscariot and peel off in the chariot, uhh Jay Electronica – Exhibit A (Transformations)
Genius Annotation 4 Contributors ?

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.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Judas Iscariot, is the Judas from the Bible. He’s saying he will “blast on” the ones who turn on him and peel off in a chariot which of course was what the Romans had at this time when traveling.

Is he rationalizing drive-by shootings on divine grounds, or is he imagining an alternate ending to the Gospels where Jesus behaves more like Tony Montana than the son of God? Either way… damn

The chariot could be reference to the ‘Merkabah’ – God’s chariot – which is also known as the ‘light vehicle of ascension’. Merkaba is also a mediation technique. His daughter’s middle name is also Merkabah.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +28 Downvote
Copy Embed
Ryan
5 years

Jay refers to Judas Iscariot because he was a traitor to Christ “The Savior”. In the previous line Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner was known to threaten or “blast” on “traitors” (the slaves that did not want to rebel against oppression), Jay is saying he is cut from that cloth as well using spectacular analogies and word play.

Upvote +2 Downvote
Show all improvement suggestions