Rap Genius: The top 5 rap lyrics of the week — Treach and Vin cloud our memories
RAP GENIUS - We watched a small part of our childhood die this week, as Naughty By Nature finally (and viciously) split up...
We watched a small part of our childhood die this week, as Naughty By Nature finally (and viciously) split up. Â The recent sniping between Treach and Vin will forever cloud our memories of middle-school dance moves to “O.P.P.” and “Hip Hop Hooray”. Â But we managed to find the strength to move on from this tragedy and bring you our Lines of the Week.
5. Â “Cash I get it, grab it; feel the punishment from the savage/Legend lyrical lord — they call you Uncle Ad-lib” — Treach, ‘Tall Midget’ lyrics
Speaking of Naughty, our #5 entry this week is Treach’s rather vicious dis of his now ex-bandmate. Â He plays on Vin’s long-time second-banana status with this rhyme.
4. Â “Glamour with a panoramic view for me to scan her/I love this sister like I’m Tony Montana” — Common, ‘Fine China (Remix)’
Scarface is by far the most common movie for rappers to reference, for reasons we’ve already talked about at length. Â By now, most shouts to the movie tend to feel recycled and tired. Â But Common manages to make giving props to Tony Montana feel new and fresh by mentioning an unusual angle — Tony’s rather intense (and creepy) overprotectiveness of and love for his sister.
3. Â “Money can’t buy happiness, but that sh*t can support it/’Cause what’s a family of five if you can’t even afford it?” — Logic, ‘Young Jedi’ lyrics
As folks who spend all day looking for triple entendres and polysyllabic rhymes, we can often forget the value of a good simple pun. Â Young Sinatra reminds us here, with wordplay around “five” and “aFOURded.”
2. Â “Where I’m from, little kids been shooting since laser tag/By the time they 20, they martyrs or someone’s baby’s dad/Cops wanna kill me ’cause I’m darker than a paper bag/Parked the latest Jag by the police sergeant and made him mad” — Crooked I, ‘Underdogz’ lyrics
Long Beach’s finest throws a lot of ideas at us in these four lines. Â The sadness and violence of his native city, police racism and violence, his success as revenge for past and present slights and, most notably, the sad history of the so-called paper bag tests that continued through at least the 1950’s.
1.  “They keep us at sea level so I’m staying on my A game/They local like the C when I express like the A train/My a-alikes take what I write, use it to maintain/We be alike and see alike, cause we got the same brain” — Talib Kweli, ‘Ready Set Go’ lyrics
As with Logic’s entry this week, the puns and wordplay here are top-notch. Â The abecedarian plays on “C” and “B” are fantastic and, as New Yorkers, we can never resist a good subway joke.
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