While most of the hip-hop community spent this week debating the merits of Rick Ross’ new album (our verdict — fair, with occasional moments of excellence), artists who direct their efforts towards dope rhymes rather than unlikely accounts of dope sales made a boatload of superb music. Killer Ben showed us an unlikely body part, Fabolous put a new spin on an old dance, Jae Millz reminded us of some of our favorite tunes, Pusha T made fashion brands get physical, and Ras Kass reappeared on our list to take us back to Biblical times. Below, the lines of the week.
5. “Where I’m from, girls only care about that brown purse/Black girl lost, but Louis Vuitton made her feel she found earth” — Jae Millz, ‘Dutch Masters’ lyrics
Millz gets introspective on this new cut, where news of his impending fatherhood (congrats!) makes him question the materialism so prevalent in his hood. But more than the rhyme itself, we love this line because it hearkens back to two amazing songs, Jay-Z’s “Where I’m From” and Nas’ “Black Girl Lost”.
4. “Stand back while I bust this/You look like you does this/Come and rub my head, girl — teach me how to Douglas” — Fabolous, ‘Dance Move’ lyrics
Fab is a punchline master, and thus a regular on our list. Here, he makes a dirty joke at the expense of the ever-present Dougie dance, which does indeed involve a lot of arm movement. Plus, the faux-formality of calling the dance the “Douglas” cracks us up every time.
3. “So cantankerous/Shit floating, fishing where the anchor is/Swag away, flagging pistols poking in your pancreas” — Killer Ben, ‘The World’s Most Dangerous’ lyrics
To be fair, we’re not exactly sure what this couplet means. However, it sounds dope, the beat is amazing, and it rhymes “cantankerous” with “pancreas”, which is an automatic win.
2. “MCM hold the Fendi buckle/Ha! That’s what I call an interracial couple” — Pusha T, ‘Runway’ lyrics
While the Iggy Azalea song which contains this verse is notably terrible (Iggy, who is Australian, raps for some reason with a distracting Southern accent), Pusha rides in for the save. He jokes that his MCM belt and Fendi buckle make an odd couple, since MCM, while German originally, is now based in South Korea, and Fendi is Italian.
1. “I spit science and philosophy, giving meaning to letters/Y’all babble on like Nebuchadnezzar” – Ras Kass, ‘Beat2Def’ lyrics
Rassy is also a regular on our list, and he’ll keep showing up as long as he rhymes like this. Nebuchadnezzar II, who is most famous for his cameo in the Bible where he destroyed pretty much everything, was the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 605 – 562 BCE. We wish that more rappers would turn their punchlines into history lessons — we would have done much better in school.