Jay-Z went to George Westinghouse Institute of Technology in Downtown Brooklyn for high school, along with Biggie Smalls and Busta Rhymes, who presumably couldn’t be reached by the teachers either

Jay-Z’s record label at the time, Roc-A-Fella Records, is located in New York. So is his new label, Roc Nation

The life of a street dealer can drive you insane, under psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue Hospital

No matter how you bend the pronunciations, “terrible” and “Bellevue” do not rhyme. This isn’t even a “soft rhyme” (which is when two words sound similar but not exactly the same). It really just is not a rhyme.

There don’t need to be kilos of heroin at stake: Cam will “pop” (shoot) his friend over some petty prescription painkillers

“Ack” is the hood slang for the Nation of Islam’s use of the word “acki” which means “my brother” in Arabic

$5.50 was the federal minimum wage when this song was written (late 90s). It’s now $7.25 (Milton Friedman is rolling in his grave..)

WJLB is the hip-hop radio station in Detroit. Eminem — not a fan

“No One’s Iller” is one Em’s early tracks, a group effort with Proof and other members of D12

Maliah Michel is a model who started in Smooth and BlackMen magazines (the black equivalents of Maxim and Stuff — BUT MORE BOOTY) and is now featured in many rap videos, including Drake’s own “Find Your Love.” She uses fire imagery a lot, hence the “I’m on fire” line

Since CJ has brought Drake a lot of dollar bills, he is putting in a personal request for Maliah to dance at the strip club tonight (party time!)

“Trill” = “True” + “Real”

In other words, nothing’s fake.