And now we’re here…
Past the point of breaking down songs from my first opus to another set of mixtapes that I wrote between 2005 and 2006. This particular set is a double mixtape that I released titled How To Make A Mixtape Volumes 1 & 2. Today we’ll focus on a track from Vol. 1
Originally intended to be my remake and ode to Jay-Z‘s In My Lifetime Vol. 1, this concept transformed in the year 2007 after all my initial recordings were lost to a producer who stopped communicating with me. That was the founder of my Balance crew, but that’s neither here nor there. When I began re-recording this mixtape, I decided the theme would be one that addressed the fact that so many rappers were flooding the landscape. The subtitle to this mixtape is “who doesn’t rap??!” So naturally, new tracks were added to poke fun of that. However, alot of the raps over the beats from the original concept remained – hence all of the Jay-Z instrumentals on there. One of the new tracks that I added was this one, entitled “Homicide”, from an E-40 song produced by Lil Jon that attacks and sounds super-menacing. It goes right with the theme as the 3rd song on the mixtape that follows me teaching rappers how to make a good mixtape intro, then proving that I can use popular rappers’ styles as well as them. This is the track where I’m threatening other rappers and attempting to purify the stream by flooding out the excess and bullshit guys. On a deeper note, it’s me using symbolic violence against those rappers in particular who glorify real violence and oversaturate so-called gangsta rap. I’m pointing out how ridiculous they are for promoting and embellishing that, but at the same time, I’m speaking to them in a language they’d understand. It’s my take on ethnic cleansing. A Hip-Hop genocide spearheaded by me. Better yet a straight…
HOMICIDE
“Homie I used to be scared of the 6, (a slight nod to the classic sexual Biggie intro line that Lil Kim used later. Also, an acknowledgement of the fact that I associate the number 6 with sin, superstitiously)
but now I throw a 1 in front of it, (by naming myself after a figure with the number 6 in it, I’m now owning and redefining something that I thought was negative)
to show muthafuckas who they gunnin’ with! (M-16 is also a gun. ‘Gunnin’ also means to contend. Double entendre at work)
That M-16’ll bring ’em punishment,
Ask ’em who he think that he’d be fuckin with??!
It’s clear that
(HOOK)
“They dont want it, they ain’t nuthin, they just bluffin, they won’t come an make their way up to the Hundreds
– they don’t wanna riiiide!
They ain’t dumpin’, they ain’t pumpin’, they ain’t buckin’, they just frontin, saying stuff and makin’ up shit
– they don’t wanna die!!
So call your help an, call your brethren, call your friends an, call your reverends, ‘fore they have to call the medics – be in trauma right?
They one theyself in, done theyself in, run theyself into a fuckin’ one-way dead end, 187 – call it homicide!”
(Basically, the summation of what the song is about; me versus the fake gangster rap goons exaggerating in rhyme and threatening to end their lives…In rap that is)
VERSE 1
“Nigga if you anything about me!
Then you’d know better than to doubt me…
You’d be well aware of your boundaries.
(or)
End up dead and you just get found deep,
6 feet in a hole,
nigga 16 put your soul, where them clouds be.
Them Pearly Gates…
Open and you up next to see an early grave,
While I’m hoping for FutureSex with a “Dirty Babe”… ( a Justin Timberlake reference to his hit album and the lead off single)
Have her making Love Sounds,
this that O.J. audiobook,
bloody glove found! (Before his last conviction, O.J. Simpson wrote a book titled What If I Did It? Speculating about the murder of his ex-wife thru hypothetical implications. I compare this track to an audio version of murder speculation and pondering such as his. The bloody glove referring to the infamous other glove that was never found at the scene of the crime)
If you’re not religiously Christian then don’t cross me, (Wordplay. Cross as a verb and noun – reference to Christian imagery and the act of being antagonized)
(I) beat ’em with Bibles,
hit ’em with Matthew :14
You lost b?
I’ll help you find a God,
I’m not violent at all – but your kind of dialogue,
is Vagina Monologue. ( A popular underground annual event celebrating feminists writings and recitation)
So half your niggas asking if it’s real,
the way you rap is bitch,
you need to splash your lips with Massengil!
You got pussy mouth, ( a derogatory statement that plays off of a metaphor, pointing to the fact that the rapper being addressed is expressing more feminine traits than masculine by his use of words. Kinda sexist, I know)
dush it out,
have you regretting the day that your mama pushed you out,
you’ll be dying to go back in the other way!”
(HOOK)
VERSE 2
“I guess I’m back up on my Brandy shit…
Killing muthafuckas by accident…
that was in bad taste – wait,
let me bring it back again;
They say that I don’t sound like the average New York rapper – Shit!
Who the fuck wanna sound like the average New York rapper – shiiiiittt!!
You can have the shit,
you think in the box – I think out more,
‘fuck is everybody still mad at the south for?!’ (paraphrased from a Jadakiss line that Fat Joe a.k.a “Joey Crack” re-used to address rappers complaining about the popularity of southern rap)
Crack I was listenin’…
Crabs in a barrel – so I’m in this bitch,
with my crabcracker and a bib… For that cleanliness…(If the game is synonymous to the crabs in a barrel allegory, then me with a crabcracker is symbolic to me killing and eating the competition)
And you know that cleanliness is next to Godliness,
so it’s obvious that ya’ll some fuckin’ sinners an…
What’s the last thing you did for New York??
Your actions show,
that you Love New York bout as much as them faggots on that show! (a reference to the old “reality” show I Love New York; a horribly staged and scripted dating contest filled with a slew of questionable male contestants)
Bad actin – I’m Patch Adams, I’m clownin cats that’s on,
their deathbed,
give them a laugh or so ‘fore they tag their toe! (a movie where Robin Williams portrayed a clown who touched the hearts of patients in a hospice. Metaphor)
You wont be happy til your new car’s a hearse,
actin too hard’ll, get you scarred,
or FUBAR, (fucked up beyond all recognition. See Tango & Cash)
or worse!”
(HOOK)
VERSE 3
“When it comes to that hood shit…
And it come to the question of who keep ’em guessin on whether he could spit…
I don’t make the impression like I was the best but I’m next on that good list…
And I come unexpected – ain’t no one suspect that this nigga here could twist…
So that’s why I put effort and never just mail the envelope – I push it! (‘Push the envelope’, meaning, break new ground and push boundaries as opposed to playing it safe – ‘mailing’ the envelope)
While,
ya’ll niggas wanna spit that trash…
I don’t get mad and steaming,
I get GLAD and even and I put ’em in a Ziplock bag. (Trashbag references. Bagging the competition up and getting rid of them)
But, when they put it in a Hip-Hop mag,
everybody run and wanna go read bout,
how they bustin’ guns and their so G’d out,
with a body in the trunk that they sold keys out.
But he keep it crunk – muthafucka Lik’s bout, (from this point on, I refer to myself in third person)
the particular motion niggas is goin’ – they goin’ all wrong,
while he quicker than most of them,
he isn’t for boastin’ and braggin’ how the toast and Magnum get blown!
(No!)
His approach is action – it’s shown,
as opposed to flapping his tongue,
I speak a little piece,
but you bring it to Malik,
and the heat’ll be the reason you gone!
Oh!
does it have to come to this,
No!
Do you have to jump to this??!
Conclusion…
That’ll get you nothing more than a lot of blood loss and contusions!
It is a little harsh,
but you piss a nigga off and you livin in a false, illusion…
And he don’t want no problems,
but if you thinkin’ that we got one,
then let’s prove it!”
Hope you learned something…
To listen to or download this song, click the picture of the cover below