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Iron Horse is a term referring to trains, dating back to the 19th Century.

Big L no longer needs to ride the train, as he has accumulated enough wealth to afford a luxury Porsche vehicle.

He also referenced this on “Ebonics”.

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Sugar Hill is a 1994 movie that stars Wesley Snipes as Harlem drug dealer Roemello Skuggs, whose father was a heroin addict.

Jada’s 16s—his verses, which generally consist of sixteen bars—are so dope that he’s comparing them to actual dope that’s injected into an addict’s veins.

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This subliminal was directed at Nas. When his debut album and seminal project, Illmatic, dropped in April 1994, the hip-hop community recognized him as a genre heavyweight.

Biggie’s debut album, Ready to Die, dropped five months later, and it too received critical and audience acclaim; however, it garnered considerably more commercial success and mainstream recognition.

Notably, Jay-Z interpolated this lyric for his 2001 Nas diss track, “The Ruler’s Back”. Nas himself referenced this lyric in 2002 on his God’s Son track, “Last Real Nigga Alive”.

Y'all don’t know about my Biggie wars
Who you thought “Kick in the Door” was for?

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A reference to the song “C.R.E.A.M.” from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Interesting Note - This reference to C.R.E.A.M. is executed in exactly the same way as Biggie does in his song “Who Shot Ya?”, which was released a year or so before Criminology. This is odd since on the track “Shark Niggas (Biters)” Rae and Ghost diss him, which led to a short beef.

This is also a reference to the movie Scarface, which is also sampled in the song’s intro, where Omar Suarez is thrown off an airplane and hung by his neck.

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In Damien I, DMX said he would give up his right hand for Damien.

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Since life in the hood was so hard, even AZ’s most righteous friends eventually committed to criminal actions. While some will stay on their grind to make their racks multiply, AZ says that some people will act friendly just to use you and steal your money. AZ illustrates a depressing reality, but the harsh reality is that it’s all about getting ahead in a poor and damaged environment.

AZ has a money orientated mind, which is also represented in the artwork of Doe or Die, featuring many stacks of money.

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Biggie Smalls runs through a list of his favorite R&B singers, detailing what sexual acts he’d like to engage in with them, including: Patti LaBelle; Regina Belle; Jasmine Guy; Mariah Carey; Mary J. Blige; Chanté Moore; Whitney Houston; Chaka Khan; Sade; Tina Turner; Toni Braxton; Patra; the duos Zhané and Terri & Monica; the trios SWV, TLC, and Jade; vocal group En Vogue; and—most controversially—then nine-year-old Raven-Symoné. He also shouts out the famous drag queen RuPaul, saying she is preferable to the women from Xscape.

The concept was later rehashed by Lil' Kim on 1996’s “Dreams,” mentioning male singers. Eminem’s 2009 “We Made You” has similar subject matter, focusing on the celebrity gossip punchbags of 2008. In August 2018, Nicki Minaj put her own spin on the idea with “Barbie Dreams,” where she sneak-dissed a variety of rappers.

Biggie originally used the first verse on Mary J. Blige’s December 1993 track, “What’s The 411? (Remix)”—the next recorded version appeared as “Dreams,” buried away on a 12-inch promo for “Juicy.” However, the song quickly became a club favorite and was eventually added to the 2004 remaster of Ready to Die.

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A play on The Wiz, a former electronics store based in the New York area, which had a famous slogan “Nobody Beats the Wiz.”

And, of course, “the R” stands for Rakim.

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The hook and this line was taken from Jadakiss' “Put Ya Hands Up”:

Start with straight shots and then pop bottles
Flirt with the hoodrats then pop models

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