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He’s not trying to flatter this woman, he’s just telling her what’s on his mind.

When you “gas someone up” it means to fill someone up with lies and half lies/bullshit, till they start believing and don’t trust their own feelings/guts anymore. In a 1944 movie the protagonist uses “gas lighting” as a way of psychologial warfare, making his wife distrusting her own feelings/thoughts and causes her to go insane, lose reality.

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An original way to hand over the verses. Biggie starts spelling Method Man’s name and Meth finishes it. To get the timing right, Meth starts rhyming over Biggie’s line. So his T-H-O-D Man actually comes before the M-E.

The Ready To Die (OG Edition) mixtape has an alternate version with a different first verse. This version uses the same M-E / T-H-O-D handover, but Biggie’s shorter last line matches up exactly with Meth’s first line:

You don’t want none a me, N-O-N-A-M-E
T-H-O-D Man, here I am

In The Rap Phenomenon documentary Meth explains Biggie considered Meth’s verses to be better and thus may have changed what was originally recorded.

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To get “stuck” means to get stabbed. Prodigy uses this as a metaphor to convey how the authenticity of their music hits individuals. “Stuck” may also be a substitute for “hooked"—they keep listeners coming back for more music from The Infamous Mobb Deep.

In Prodigy’s autobiography, My Infamous Life he explains where the moniker of The Infamous originated from:

We decided to call the album The Infamous. Yamit (Yambo) from Hav’s block gave us the name; he had “The Most Infamous” tattooed on his biceps in black ink. We were already Mobb Deep, but he dubbed us The Infamous Mobb Deep.

This has gone on to be one of the most iconic opening lines in hip-hop history.

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In the movie Scarface, Tony killed his best friend Manolo when he found out that Manolo was sleeping with his sister. Manolo was also softer and lacked the cojones that defined Tony

Nas is referring to Bring it on by Jay Z:

had to turn away when Tony killed Manolo

Nas flips the meaning of this line, which was 5 year old at that time.

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Better explained by Jay-Z on “Super Ugly”

“Wanted me on his songs” also refers to a poignant moment as to why the Jay vs Nas beef happened. The story goes (as told by Nas) that Jay wanted Nas on his 1st album, but Nas either was unable or unwilling.

Jay supposedly held a grudge regarding this for years and knew although he had higher sales, Nas still had the street cred and respect in regards to whom was the better lyricist, so he sought to lyrically assassinate Nas.

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King of New York was a contentious title in the 90’s

Its appropriation by Biggie (e.g. calling himself Frank White, the main character in the film King of New York) together with the famous Rap Pages magazine cover annoyed Raekwon and Ghostface. And Nas and Jay-Z battled for the crown after Big’s death

It’s not an issue these days. The people that originally fought for the title have moved on. And New York is no longer the focal point of hip hop that it used to be.

Oh really?

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And at age six, he learned to do wheelies!

From Vibe (2003):

I was four years old but I remember that morning clearly. As my mom left for work, she told me to wait till she got home to practice riding my bike. My uncle had promised to put training wheels on the second bike I’d received from my cousin, but he hadn’t gotten around to it. Me being the younger of four kids, I was determined to be independent and not spoiled (Although my family will tell you that I am the latter.) I took the bike outside, and from 10 a.m. to 5pm. taught myself how to ride without training wheels. Because I was so small my whole block in Brooklyn was watching in amazement. It was my first feeling of being famous.

And from O Magazine in 2009:

I was too short to reach the pedals, so I put my legs through the V of the frame. I was famous. The little kid who could ride the ten-speed.

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In the preceding four bars, while Nas raps about his dream, producer DJ Premier takes the piano loop out and just plays the beep sound

When the beep sound goes off, Nas snaps back to reality by saying “but just a nigga walking with his finger on the trigger”

The ‘beep sound’ symbolises an alarm. Like in the morning where your alarm helps you make the transition out of sleep and in to reality.

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When one’s trigger finger is itchy, it means that the person is ready and willing to shoot at any cost. He really does not care about the consequences.

In one documentary, Fat Joe said that Pun used to actually shoot his gun on many occasions.

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Rakim tells us that people are fiending for his lyrics so much that even the rhymes that he’s thrown away, like ancient artifacts, are being looked for by researchers. His rhymes are so lethal and complex that scientists still can’t seem to figure it out

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