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EMPIRE STATE OF MIND: HOW JAY-Z WENT FROM STREET CORNER TO CORNER OFFICE Zack O'Malley Greenburg (Ft. MC Serch) – Who Killed the Jay-Z Jeep?
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Buy it here, yo!

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Who Killed the Jay-Z Jeep? Zack O'Malley Greenburg (Ft. MC Serch) – Who Killed the Jay-Z Jeep?
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This excerpt from Zack’s Hov bio tells the real story of why The Man didn’t want Jay to have his own Jeep. Cameo by MC Serch!

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People wanna know where Malik, he right next to me The Roots – 100% Dundee
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Malik B, the Roots co-rhymer for a long stretch of their career, had a well-known tendency to be late or miss shows, something the group made fun of on the song “Adrenaline”

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6bf8961d6c8f2b6cb382c24bebe3b2e7

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10 years

Malik B’s absence from shows was partly due to a phobia (possibly a medical condition) of tours and stage perfomance:
http://archives.citypaper.net/articles/2006-06-29/music.shtml

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Lay It Down Al Green (Ft. Anthony Hamilton) – Lay It Down
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The Roots' Questlove and James Poyser help the world’s greatest living singer return to form

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Of the Black Thought and the Black man from Black Star The Roots (Ft. Yasiin Bey) – Double Trouble
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Black Star is, of course, the duo consisting of Mos (now Yasiin Bey) and Talib Kweli

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We double (Trouble), bubble (Bubble), bubble, bubblin' hot The Roots (Ft. Yasiin Bey) – Double Trouble
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The “double trouble” idea is a tribute to an earlier routine of that name. See below for more details

As mentioned in the song description, this tune originally featured a then-little-known Talib Kweli. Questlove recalled in the TFA liner notes what happened:

Initially, Talib Kweli laid down some vocals as well, but when the song was formatted there was only enough bars for two mc’s, and Black Thought insisted on doing some Run-D.M.C. ‘85 tug of war style

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Newfound ways of ripping shit up, I develop
Your squad chest swell up, still you're mini-ay-ture to me
Nature-ally I bring the extremity Big Pun (Ft. Black Thought) – Super Lyrical
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These lines show Thought’s patented trick of bending how words are pronounced in order to keep the rhyme scheme going

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[Verse 2: Dice Raw] The Roots (Ft. Dice Raw) – The Lesson, Pt. 1
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In the liner notes to the first volume of The Roots' greatest hits collection, Questlove remembered the then-barely-teenage Dice (he was around 15 at the time) recording his verse:

Dice did a freestyle off the top of his head. And I knew this couldn’t have been no pre-existing rhyme ‘cause all he rhymed about was stuff we were talking about prior to him doing his verse (Boosting Polo gear in his life-sized backpack, a Jeru the Damaga CD sitting on the music stand as he spit into the mic, us adjusting Rahzel’s “kicks” to sound like an 808, and of course, I got my shout-out.)

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I let 'em play like Donny Hathaway and shake a hand, shake a hand The Roots – Proceed
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A nod here to the Donny Hathaway classic “This Christmas”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj1mVUEHeUE

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Raised in the cellar with the rhythm like Ella The Roots – Proceed
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Black Thought names jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald as one of his musical influences. The “cellar” may refer to Thought’s lower class upbringing.

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nicolas birnbaum
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3 years

This isn’t a reference to low class upbringing, the Cellar was a famous venue that Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday preformed at.

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5 years

the “cellar” is a metaphor for basement, which is a metaphor for “underground hip-hop”, which in the 90s as well as today is considered “the real”. -Real hip hop head.

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Andrew Ellis
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7 years

Thought is more than likely also referring to the jazz standard I got Rhythm by George Gershwin which Ella Fitzgerald notably performs.

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