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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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Eyedea actually chipped his tooth on a microphone at a show. Using figurative and literal senses of the word chip, he describes aspects of both his appearance and his mentality.
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The warfare and those caught between Sean and the Slug Atmosphere (Ft. El-P) – Homecoming
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What is this?
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Record stores became less and less common as vinyl was replaced by tape, then cd and finally digital music. However, vinyl is intrinsically linked to hip-hop. This is most likely what inspired Slug and others within the Rhymesayers crew to start Fifth Element, a hip hop record store in Minneapolis.
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What is this?
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What is this?
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Everyone in Jay-Z’s team is a baller, either figuratively like Kanye or literally like LeBron.
Jay is also carefully structuring these two lines, referencing classic aspects of hip hop (one of its landmark albums, ILLmatic, along with the idea of ‘balling’ – which has been spoken on so many times by so many rappers that it has become a distinctive idea in hip hop, subject of one of 2011’s most memorable lines).
In the same breath, intermingling the ideas, Jay mentions two of the modern art world’s most distinctive names: Basquiat and Warhol (see above annotations).
The point of this song, and indeed its music video (which got its inspiration from the famous performance piece The Artist is Present by Marina Abramovic who made an appearance in the video), is to reconcile the two worlds: hip hop and modern art. By mentioning distinctive elements of both in the same breath, Jay is showing that this can be done. As he said, speaking about exactly this:
We’re artists. We’re alike, we’re cousins. That’s what was really exciting for me – bringing the two worlds back together.
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The first track on the original Ford One EP released in 2000, which was later released on the Album Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EPs. One of the very few tracks released on an Atmosphere album which is not produced by Ant.
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The following two lines are also a tribute to 2Pac, who on his track “Against All Odds” said:
Jay-Z paid a similar tribute to Pac in his song “Some People Hate”, saying:
The similarity between Jay’s line and Game’s, coupled with the reference to button-up shirts is probably what attracted a lot of attention in the first place.
This bar has no connection with 2Pacs. The only connection is the word “Payback”. It’s not even said with the same cadence. Jay-Z' line though, is definitely a reference to Pac’s