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Yellow on his ear (Who?) Cam'ron (Ft. Juelz Santana) – More Gangsta Music

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Cam is very fond of his canary-yellow diamond earrings

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Hello!
Brooklyn! JAY-Z (Ft. Lil Wayne) – Hello Brooklyn 2.0

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Sampled from the Beastie Boys' 1989 song “Hello Brooklyn” (hence the current song’s “2.0” appelation), which was part of the long suite called “B-Boy Bouillabaisse”.

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The day is coming that you'll all hate
Just think if niggas decide to retaliate Ice Cube – The Nigga Ya Love To Hate

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Cube is referring to what was still a very real possibility at the time: a potential resurgence in race riots, with blacks “retaliating” against perceived injustice. At the time, racial tensions throughout urban America were nearing an all-time high, as was urban crime. All that was needed was a spark to see everything off.

His words were prescient: that spark arrived only three years later when the L.A. area erupted into riots following the acquittal of the four LAPD officers who were caught on tape beating Rodney King, a black taxi driver, in the middle of the street. The tape of the beating had been played repeatedly for months on television throughout the world, so everyone was already on edge.

The ‘92 L.A. riots were the biggest in the U.S. since the 1960s (and no American riot since then has come anywhere close to it in size/scope), and they ended up as the second-deadliest riot in American history, with 53 dead and over 2,000 injured. Large portions of South Central L.A. were burned down, and businesses owned by people of Korean descent were broadly targeted. The riots ended only when the LAPD called in the National Guard as reinforcements.

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Cube is referring to what was still a very real possibility at the time: a potential resurgence in race riots, with blacks "retaliating" against perceived injustice. At the time, racial tensions throughout urban America were nearing an all-time high, as was urban crime. All that was needed was a spark to see everything off.

The '92 L.A. riots were the biggest in the U.S. since the 1960s (and no American riot since then has come anywhere close to it in size/scope), and they ended up as the second-deadliest riot in American history, with 53 dead and over 2,000 injured. Large portions of South Central L.A. were burned down, and businesses owned by people of Korean descent were broadly targeted. The riots ended only when the LAPD called in the National Guard as reinforcements.

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the damm scum that you all hate

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You ask me: "did I like Arsenio?" Ice Cube – The Nigga Ya Love To Hate

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Cube was certainly not a fan of the then-popular Arsenio Hall Show, a late-night talk show featuring a black host who was palatable to white audiences, and on which artists such as MC Hammer – the then-quintessential sell-out rapper – were frequent guests.

David Faustino of Married with Children tells a story about the possible direct origin of this line, when Arsenio seemingly played Cube like a nobody early in his career:

During his Amerikkka’s Most Wanted 30th anniversary retrospective on Instagram Live, Ice Cube detailed his feelings towards Arsenio when he made this song and today:

I love Arsenio. At the time, I was mad because Arsenio had 2 Live Crew on but he wouldn’t have N.W.A on, so I was a little hot. But he’s actually a cool dude.

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Cube was certainly not a fan of the then-popular [Arsenio Hall Show](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arsenio_Hall_Show), a late-night talk show featuring a black host who was palatable to white audiences, and on which artists such as MC Hammer -- the then-quintessential sell-out rapper -- were frequent guests.

![](http://images.rapgenius.com/5d29a0e79107f429927bca1994aacfca.320x240x1.jpg)

[David Faustino](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004910/) of *Married with Children* tells a story about the possible direct origin of this line, when Arsenio seemingly played Cube like a nobody early in his career:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfEhHlxWibY

During his *Amerikkka's Most Wanted* 30th anniversary retrospective on [Instagram Live](https://youtu.be/hdPTPzqAaBI?t=951), Ice Cube detailed his feelings towards Arsenio when he made this song and today:

> I love Arsenio. At the time, I was mad because Arsenio had 2 Live Crew on but he wouldn't have N.W.A on, so I was a little hot. But he's actually a cool dude.

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A bitch is a...ohhhh Ice Cube – The Nigga Ya Love To Hate

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Cube’s voice, sampled from N.W.A’s “A Bitch iz a Bitch”, here answers a background complaint about the controversial portrayal of women in Cube’s lyrics.

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I'ma tell T-Bone to pass the bottle Ice Cube – The Nigga Ya Love To Hate

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T-Bone was a Lench Mob member; J.D. was another, featured in interludes about robbing fast food places on Cube’s early solo albums

Cube, T-Bone and Da Lench Mob

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Picture us in the mall, coppin' Iceberg and yell out "Jigga"
Yeah, that's what we'll yell out, yell out Kanye West – Big Brother

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Jay used to reference this clothing brand so much back in the late 90’s (when this verse is set) that he would occasionally call himself “Iceberg Slim”, as a play on both the brand and the pulp writer

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(You don't like how I'm living? Well, fuck you) Ice Cube – The Nigga Ya Love To Hate

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In response to background nagging about the social responsibility of his music, Cube’s voice here is sampled from NWA’s “Gangsta, Gangsta”

Trick Daddy also quotes this line in his ode of love to the world’s children: “Trick Love Da Kids”

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I see a lotta others damn
It almost look like the Bandstand Ice Cube – The Nigga Ya Love To Hate

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He sees so many white folks (“others”) on an ostensibly black show that it looks like the almost-all-white, Dick Clark-hosted American Bandstand to him

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Soul Train done lost they soul
Just call it train cause the bitches look like hoes Ice Cube – The Nigga Ya Love To Hate

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The only part of the Soul Train title that still rings true is that the women on the show look so slutty that you’d expect them to engage in “trains,” which is slang for when a woman has sex with several men in quick succession

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