Our favorite lines this week cover a wide spectrum, from tributes to rap heroes to dirty jokes. It was also a good week for up-and-comers, with Busta Rhymes being the only veteran to make the cut. Below, the week that was — with an extra bonus at the end.
5. “Now let me give you the magic/Y’all ni**as must like getting your ass kicked/You think you’re playing with fire?/Nah ni**a, y’all playing with acid” – Busta Rhymes, “Bad Girls (Remix)” lyrics
Busta continues his status as king of the cameos by putting his own spin on this M.I.A. hit. He uses this rather unusual (for rap) A-A-B-A rhyme scheme several times in the song, always to great effect. It works best by far on this boast.
4. “Blaze the booth, blaze the buddha, this ain’t hookah/You hit this s**t a few times, you might see the future” – Ab-Soul, “Pineal Gland” lyrics
Ab-Soul, a member of Kendrick Lamar’s Black Hippy collective, has been making strides of his own lately. Here, his woozy ode to the drug DMT (which is rumored to be naturally produced in the body via the gland of the song’s title) contains a nod to a greener drug as well.
3. “Cristal by the cases — wait, hold up, that was racist/I would prefer the Aces; ain’t no different when you taste it” – ASAP Rocky, “Goldie” lyrics
Popular newcomer ASAP Rocky has thus far impressed us more with his image and marketing smarts than his raps. With this new song, however, he finally gets us. His reference to Jay-Z’s falling out with the company that makes Cristal over allegedly racist statements leads right into an endorsement of Hova’s new beverage of choice, Armand de Brignac, popularly known as “Ace of Spades”.
2. “Bumping Chad Butler, Bernard Freeman/Antwan Patton, Dre Benjamin, and Earl Stevens” – Naledge, “Certified” lyrics
Chicago’s Naledge here gives a South-heavy list of rap icons. Butler and Freeman are the members of Texas titans UGK (Butler sadly passed away in 2007). Patton and Benjamin are the ATLiens Outkast. The odd man out is Earl Stevens, better known as Oakland’s slang titan E-40.
1. “This here is Givenchy, nine hundred dollar jeans, homie/All these girls be raunchy, like, ‘Let me see your peen,’ homie” – Theophilus London, “Big Spender” lyrics
We could come up with all sorts of elaborate justifications as to why this made it to the number one slot. But honestly, the word “peen” is pretty funny. And that’s enough for us.
**Bonus Groaner of the Week: “Made it out of Brooklyn, but my heart in Brooklyn/Black bandanna, yeah, this one for Brooklyn” – Maino, “Shine” lyrics
While we at RG love Brooklyn as well — our main office is there — this lyric could not pass unnoticed. We didn’t leave a line out to make it look worse than it is; it’s just as lacking in rhyme and meter as it appears. The “black bandanna” is Maino’s (rather transparent) attempt to start a trend. He claims in interviews to have started wearing it to represent his “struggle as a black man.” While this is certainly a worthwhile goal, we hope that next time he does it through, you know, rhyming.