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In Greek mythology, a Pegasus was a horse that could actually fly. Therefore, Mike claims to be as “fly” (cool/stylish) as the mythical beast. Bonus points for claiming to be for real about being as cool as a mythological (literally non-real) beast.
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Martin Luther King Jr. was an iconic figure of the civil right’s movement. He promoted Gandhi-influenced civil disobedience instead of the more militant notions put forth by Malcolm X and the Black Panthers.
While Mike has much respect for what Dr. King did for civil rights, he feels that peaceful protest might not be enough, and refuses to sit back and let his oppressors continue to take advantage of him, which leads to the allusion in the second half of the line, the famous Malcolm X reference to “By Any Means Necessary.”
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Mike is driven by thoughts of greed and obsession to get whatever he wants. He recognises these as demons inside him, but still he gives in.
This could in part be commentary on the excessive materialism in American society. People feel like they HAVE to own a particular item in order to be accepted or feel better about themselves.
“I Want It I Need It” is also the name of a song by Death Grips – it’s hard to overlook their influence. RTJ2 shares an aggressively dark and gritty sound with the cult industrial hip hop group.
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Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that kills over half a million people each year and is a huge problem in Africa. Killer Mike is continuing from the previous lines where he has been deported to Nigeria. He is saying that America is not doing enough to help solve these 3rd world problems and just allows people to die. Killer Mike is trying to show the fear that is present in 3rd world countries, especially Africa.
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LL Cool J immediately says that he has a variety of “Styles”, hence the plural, for destroying MC’s. He is also saying that his styles are really great and he is an original rapper. He is also saying here that he doesn’t need to just focus on his lyrical content to make his diss tracks clever or damaging for other rappers, he can just show off his skills in the process of dissing rappers such as MC Hammer. This shows how effortlessly he disses other rappers.
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While Black Thought was at high school, he converted to the Islamic section of “Five-percent nation” which means he believes in Allah. However, some muslims would not think that Black Thought was a Muslim because he does not necessarily follow the conventions and accepted views of most Muslims therefore what he says/does may not be piety. He may sometimes act in non-religious ways.
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This line is Black Thought explaining how he has changed from a “Culprit” who is someone that is responsible for a criminal act or a misdeed which shows that Black Thought was seen as a criminal and now he has turned his life around by going from a culprit to a pulpit which is where a preacher in a church delivers their sermon. The pulpit could be a metaphor for the platform that the music industry has given him to be heard across the world. Black Thought now preaches from this platform to tell his stories about how his life has turned around and how to stop people going down the same path as him and that, in itself, is a good act.
Or holla marijuana, heroin, and coke shit
For people that hustle did a snort and then smoke it STS (Ft. Black Thought) – $5,000 Dolla Coat Shit
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Black Thought plays on the word “dope” in these lines. First of all, he says that if you are a hardworking person who makes money legally and in a way that is not lazy, then holla “Dope shit” which is a way of saying something is good and the fact that there are hardworking is good. However, in the next line, it lists drugs which plays on the word “dope” because dope is also a slang word for illegal drugs such as “Cannabis”. So then he asks anyone who makes their money illegally to holla whatever drugs that they deal in order to make money in a way that is frowned upon in society.
Or maybe a quarter that Action Bronson (Ft. Kool A.D.) – Arts & Leisure
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The phrase “Half a glass full” is often used when referring to optimism. This line shows that Kool A.D. is an optimistic person. However, the next line may suggest that he is not referring to being an optimistic person but by having half a glass of a drink, that is being optimistic so he decides to have a quarter of that. This might imply that he is about to drink alcohol and is a lightweight and was too optimistic when he asked for half a glass.
Nigga type a script with a pen and pencil Mick Jenkins – The Waters
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Scores are soundtracks to movies which play a huge part in telling the story that the writer intends on telling. Mick is saying that instrumentals in music is like a film score as it helps tell the story that the rapper wants to tell. He also compares rappers writing to movie scripts. Saying that the instrumentals are like a scores and writing raps are like writing scripts, implies that Mick thinks a lot of rappers are making up their lives just like how movies are made up.
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