let's revisit jay-z's grammy family freestyle....rap genius style

[18th letter]

I know all of you us rap geniuses were able to decipher this as soon as hov spat it so save the comments. Just thought it would be cool to have a visual to go with some of the things hov is saying. Goes to show why he is one of the top in the game, the way he is able to say things that you think are simple but they have a deeper meaning. I only highlighted a few, you can find the rest of the list here.









I been crushing the building since Izod socks

Hov proclaims that he’s been a great rapper since the 1980’s, when Izod Lacoste clothing (with its trademark alligator logo) became popular

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]I'm so independent, sh..I might buy Koch[/color]

Koch Records, now known as E1 Music, is the largest independent record label in the U.S. They have released or distributed tons of hip-hop albums including records from Snoop, Cam'ron, Slim Thug, Foxy Brown, and more. Plus, they also release records by Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock!

I might not stop
Places to cop, [color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]76 floors, you can call me the Doc[/color]

As Jay explains in a spoken aside, his offices as President of Def Jam were on the 76th floor of the Universal Music Group building at 825 8th Ave, New York City. Julius “Dr. J†Erving was a high-flying basketball star who played for the Philadelphia 76ers during the 1970’s and 80’s

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Inspired by Basquiat[/color][color= rgb(255, 0, 0)],[/color]

Famous 1980’s NYC artist (and onetime Madonna paramour) Jean-Michel Basquiat started his career as a graffiti writer with the handle SAMO. One of his early tags read “Pay for soup / Build a fort / Set that on fireâ€. Hov would later claim to have “Basquiats in the lobby of my spot†on “Ain’t Iâ€. Basquiat in his studio in 1985, below:

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)] [/color][color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]my chariots of fire[/color]

Play on the name of 1981 hit movie Chariots of Fire about a Jewish athlete running to overcome prejudice

Everybody took shots, hit my body up, I'm tired
Build me up, break me down to build me up again
They like, "Hov we need you back so we can kill your +@* again"
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Hov got flow though he's no Big and Pac, but he's close
How I'm 'posed to win? They got me fighting ghosts[/color]

Jay feels that the only rappers in his league are the deceased icons Pac and Biggie. How is he supposed to ever be considered the best when he’s competing against the dead?

Jay has controversially compared himself to Biggie before. On 2001’s “Hola Hovitoâ€, he rapped, “If I ain’t better than Big, I’m the closest oneâ€

Same sword they knight you they gon' good night you with
Sh.., Thats' only half if they like you
That ain't even the half what they might do
Don't believe me, ask Michael

That would be Michael Jackson, who faced controversial child sexual abuse accusations in the 1990’s and again in 2005. In the former he settled while admitting no wrongdoing, and in the latter he was acquitted on all counts, though both cases took a huge toll on his image and well-being

See Martin, see Malcolm
You see Biggie, see Pac, see success and its outcome
See Jesus, see Judas; see Caesar, see Brutus
See success is like suicide
Suicide, it's a suicide
If you succeed, prepare to be crucified
Media meddles, [color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]$**##* sue you, you settle[/color]

A not-so-veiled reference to R. Kelly’s 2004 lawsuit against Jay after their joint tour devolved into chaos. This lawsuit also inspired some immortal lines on Jay’s verse of the “Drop It Like It’s Hot†remix:

You wasting your time trying to sue S Dot
Tell your lawyer, take that civil case and drop it like it’s hot

Every step you take, they remind you you ghetto
So it's tough being Bobby Brown
To be Bobby then, you gotta be Bobby now
Now the question is, "Is to have had and lost
Better than not having at [all]?"

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Everybody wanna be the King then shots ring
You laying on your balcony with holes in your dream[/color]

A poetic reference to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was killed on a motel balcony on April 4, 1968. The “holes in your dream†line refers to King’s most famous speech, the one he gave in August 1963 that became known as “I Have A Dreamâ€

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Or you Malcolm X'd out, get distracted by screams
Everybody get your hand off my jeans![/color]

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom. Someone (presumably one of the killers) created a disturbance by yelling, “"!*@@+$! Get your hand outta my pocket!†As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun

Hov uses the “Everybody get your hands off my jeans†line both as a reference to the assassination, and as a call for haters to stop worrying about/trying to get some of his money

Everybody look at you strange, say you changed
Uhh! Like you work that hard to stay the same
Uhh! Game stays the same, the name changes
So its best for those to not overdose on being famous
Most kings get driven so insane
That they try to hit the same vein that Kurt Cobain did
No dangers, so shameless
Invited to the inner sanctum of your chambers
Low chain 'em as the enemies approach
So raise your draw bridge and drown them in the moat
And the Spirit I'm evoking
**Mumbles** Hold on

Everybody screaming they want the old Hov
But the new improved Hov hit like Albert Pujols
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Everybody wanna hear me talk that money like Phil Rizzuto[/color]

Legendary New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, who played with the team in the 1940’s and 50’s and was also a radio and TV announcer of Yankees games for decades, was a longtime spokesman for The Money Store, appearing in their TV ads for almost 20 years. See one of the ads here

But my mind is on Pluto
Bills that I do fold, I now invest on
Trying to find some loopholes in the IRS
As where I used to have a few %%#% I am just
Concentrating on making a new Hov through sex
I've awakened just in time to school those putos
Trying to follow in my shoes with jewels froze
Better adhere to this text 'fore you go
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Broke, spending more than you've accrued on silly baguettes
I know silly begets silly you'll learn on your own
At least my conscience is clear, I'm no longer steering you wrong
Ain't nothing wrong with baguettes after you get a home[/color]

Jay, a man who has done love songs to diamonds, here counsels young rappers not to spend money on flashy jewelry until they have their financial houses in order. He also uses a favorite device of his, homophones, rhyming “baguettes†and “begetsâ€

Take care of your home, you can go back and **Ugh!**

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]I'm getting courted by the bosses
The Edgars And Doug Morris-es-es
Jimmy I's and Lyors-es[/color][color= rgb(255, 0, 0)] [/color]

Hov lists a bunch of music industry bigwigs who are trying to make deals with him. They are:

Edgar Bronfman, Jr., CEO of Warner Music Group

Doug Morris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group

Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M

Lyor Cohen, who was a top person at Def Jam at the time but is now North American Chairman and CEO of Recorded Music for Warner Music Group. Hov is pictured with Cohen, below:

Oddly enough, Hov would snub all these bigwigs and make his next deal with concert promotion company Live Nation

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news...article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003797885
-- it's
Gotta be more than the choruses
They respecting my mind now
Just a matter of time now
Operation: Takeover Corporate
Makeover offices-es-es then takeover all of it
Please may these words be recorded
To serve as testimony that I saw it all before it
Came to fruition, sort of a premonition
Uncontrollable hustler's ambition
Alias Superstition, like Stevie
The writing's on the wall like my lady, right BB?
Saw it all before -- some of y'all thought I was crazy -- maybe
Like a fox I'm cagey, Ah Ah!
The more successful, the more stressful
The more and more I transform to Gordon Gekko
In the race to a billion got my face to the ceiling
Got my knees on the floor please Lord forgive him
Has he lost his religion, is the greed gon' get him?
He's having heaven on earth, will his wings still fit him?
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]I got the Forbes on my living room floor
And I'm still talking to the poor[/color][color= rgb(255, 0, 0)],[/color]

This line is central to Jay’s whole project: no matter how rich he becomes, he is from the projects and speaks first and foremost to those in similar circumstances. As he claimed in the past, “I didn’t cross over, I brought the suburbs to the hoodâ€

!#$#+ I want more
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]TIME's most influential, was impressive
'Specially since I wasn't in the artist section
Had me with the builders and the titans
Had me right with Rupert Murdoch
Billionaire boys and some dudes you never heard of[/color]

Indeed, Jay did make TIME magazine’s 2005 list of the 100 most influential people, in the “Builders & Titans†section along with Fox media titan Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs, the Google and Blackberry guys, and, just like he says, people that we’d never heard of, like Airbus chieftain Noel Forgeard

Word up on Madison Ave is I'm a cash cow
Word down on Wall Street, homie, you get the cash out
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]IPO Hov, no need for reverse merger[/color]

An IPO, or initial public offering, is when a company (called the issuer) issues common stock or shares to the public for the first time. It is done as a way for companies to raise money. Jay is saying that he doesn’t need the help, and has that kind of money on his own

A reverse merger is exactly the opposite, and is sometimes called a “reverse IPOâ€. It is the acquisition of a public company by a private company to bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public


The boy money talk no need to converse further
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]The baby blue Maybach like I own Gerber[/color]

In a cute pun, Hov jokes that the “baby†blue Maybach car he owns makes it seem like he owns the Gerber baby food company

Boardroom I'm lifting ya skirt up

 

[18th letter]

I know all of you us rap geniuses were able to decipher this as soon as hov spat it so save the comments. Just thought it would be cool to have a visual to go with some of the things hov is saying. Goes to show why he is one of the top in the game, the way he is able to say things that you think are simple but they have a deeper meaning. I only highlighted a few, you can find the rest of the list here.









I been crushing the building since Izod socks

Hov proclaims that he’s been a great rapper since the 1980’s, when Izod Lacoste clothing (with its trademark alligator logo) became popular

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]I'm so independent, sh..I might buy Koch[/color]

Koch Records, now known as E1 Music, is the largest independent record label in the U.S. They have released or distributed tons of hip-hop albums including records from Snoop, Cam'ron, Slim Thug, Foxy Brown, and more. Plus, they also release records by Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock!

I might not stop
Places to cop, [color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]76 floors, you can call me the Doc[/color]

As Jay explains in a spoken aside, his offices as President of Def Jam were on the 76th floor of the Universal Music Group building at 825 8th Ave, New York City. Julius “Dr. J†Erving was a high-flying basketball star who played for the Philadelphia 76ers during the 1970’s and 80’s

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Inspired by Basquiat[/color][color= rgb(255, 0, 0)],[/color]

Famous 1980’s NYC artist (and onetime Madonna paramour) Jean-Michel Basquiat started his career as a graffiti writer with the handle SAMO. One of his early tags read “Pay for soup / Build a fort / Set that on fireâ€. Hov would later claim to have “Basquiats in the lobby of my spot†on “Ain’t Iâ€. Basquiat in his studio in 1985, below:

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)] [/color][color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]my chariots of fire[/color]

Play on the name of 1981 hit movie Chariots of Fire about a Jewish athlete running to overcome prejudice

Everybody took shots, hit my body up, I'm tired
Build me up, break me down to build me up again
They like, "Hov we need you back so we can kill your +@* again"
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Hov got flow though he's no Big and Pac, but he's close
How I'm 'posed to win? They got me fighting ghosts[/color]

Jay feels that the only rappers in his league are the deceased icons Pac and Biggie. How is he supposed to ever be considered the best when he’s competing against the dead?

Jay has controversially compared himself to Biggie before. On 2001’s “Hola Hovitoâ€, he rapped, “If I ain’t better than Big, I’m the closest oneâ€

Same sword they knight you they gon' good night you with
Sh.., Thats' only half if they like you
That ain't even the half what they might do
Don't believe me, ask Michael

That would be Michael Jackson, who faced controversial child sexual abuse accusations in the 1990’s and again in 2005. In the former he settled while admitting no wrongdoing, and in the latter he was acquitted on all counts, though both cases took a huge toll on his image and well-being

See Martin, see Malcolm
You see Biggie, see Pac, see success and its outcome
See Jesus, see Judas; see Caesar, see Brutus
See success is like suicide
Suicide, it's a suicide
If you succeed, prepare to be crucified
Media meddles, [color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]$**##* sue you, you settle[/color]

A not-so-veiled reference to R. Kelly’s 2004 lawsuit against Jay after their joint tour devolved into chaos. This lawsuit also inspired some immortal lines on Jay’s verse of the “Drop It Like It’s Hot†remix:

You wasting your time trying to sue S Dot
Tell your lawyer, take that civil case and drop it like it’s hot

Every step you take, they remind you you ghetto
So it's tough being Bobby Brown
To be Bobby then, you gotta be Bobby now
Now the question is, "Is to have had and lost
Better than not having at [all]?"

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Everybody wanna be the King then shots ring
You laying on your balcony with holes in your dream[/color]

A poetic reference to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was killed on a motel balcony on April 4, 1968. The “holes in your dream†line refers to King’s most famous speech, the one he gave in August 1963 that became known as “I Have A Dreamâ€

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Or you Malcolm X'd out, get distracted by screams
Everybody get your hand off my jeans![/color]

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom. Someone (presumably one of the killers) created a disturbance by yelling, “"!*@@+$! Get your hand outta my pocket!†As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun

Hov uses the “Everybody get your hands off my jeans†line both as a reference to the assassination, and as a call for haters to stop worrying about/trying to get some of his money

Everybody look at you strange, say you changed
Uhh! Like you work that hard to stay the same
Uhh! Game stays the same, the name changes
So its best for those to not overdose on being famous
Most kings get driven so insane
That they try to hit the same vein that Kurt Cobain did
No dangers, so shameless
Invited to the inner sanctum of your chambers
Low chain 'em as the enemies approach
So raise your draw bridge and drown them in the moat
And the Spirit I'm evoking
**Mumbles** Hold on

Everybody screaming they want the old Hov
But the new improved Hov hit like Albert Pujols
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Everybody wanna hear me talk that money like Phil Rizzuto[/color]

Legendary New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, who played with the team in the 1940’s and 50’s and was also a radio and TV announcer of Yankees games for decades, was a longtime spokesman for The Money Store, appearing in their TV ads for almost 20 years. See one of the ads here

But my mind is on Pluto
Bills that I do fold, I now invest on
Trying to find some loopholes in the IRS
As where I used to have a few %%#% I am just
Concentrating on making a new Hov through sex
I've awakened just in time to school those putos
Trying to follow in my shoes with jewels froze
Better adhere to this text 'fore you go
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Broke, spending more than you've accrued on silly baguettes
I know silly begets silly you'll learn on your own
At least my conscience is clear, I'm no longer steering you wrong
Ain't nothing wrong with baguettes after you get a home[/color]

Jay, a man who has done love songs to diamonds, here counsels young rappers not to spend money on flashy jewelry until they have their financial houses in order. He also uses a favorite device of his, homophones, rhyming “baguettes†and “begetsâ€

Take care of your home, you can go back and **Ugh!**

[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]I'm getting courted by the bosses
The Edgars And Doug Morris-es-es
Jimmy I's and Lyors-es[/color][color= rgb(255, 0, 0)] [/color]

Hov lists a bunch of music industry bigwigs who are trying to make deals with him. They are:

Edgar Bronfman, Jr., CEO of Warner Music Group

Doug Morris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group

Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M

Lyor Cohen, who was a top person at Def Jam at the time but is now North American Chairman and CEO of Recorded Music for Warner Music Group. Hov is pictured with Cohen, below:

Oddly enough, Hov would snub all these bigwigs and make his next deal with concert promotion company Live Nation

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news...article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003797885
-- it's
Gotta be more than the choruses
They respecting my mind now
Just a matter of time now
Operation: Takeover Corporate
Makeover offices-es-es then takeover all of it
Please may these words be recorded
To serve as testimony that I saw it all before it
Came to fruition, sort of a premonition
Uncontrollable hustler's ambition
Alias Superstition, like Stevie
The writing's on the wall like my lady, right BB?
Saw it all before -- some of y'all thought I was crazy -- maybe
Like a fox I'm cagey, Ah Ah!
The more successful, the more stressful
The more and more I transform to Gordon Gekko
In the race to a billion got my face to the ceiling
Got my knees on the floor please Lord forgive him
Has he lost his religion, is the greed gon' get him?
He's having heaven on earth, will his wings still fit him?
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]I got the Forbes on my living room floor
And I'm still talking to the poor[/color][color= rgb(255, 0, 0)],[/color]

This line is central to Jay’s whole project: no matter how rich he becomes, he is from the projects and speaks first and foremost to those in similar circumstances. As he claimed in the past, “I didn’t cross over, I brought the suburbs to the hoodâ€

!#$#+ I want more
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]TIME's most influential, was impressive
'Specially since I wasn't in the artist section
Had me with the builders and the titans
Had me right with Rupert Murdoch
Billionaire boys and some dudes you never heard of[/color]

Indeed, Jay did make TIME magazine’s 2005 list of the 100 most influential people, in the “Builders & Titans†section along with Fox media titan Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs, the Google and Blackberry guys, and, just like he says, people that we’d never heard of, like Airbus chieftain Noel Forgeard

Word up on Madison Ave is I'm a cash cow
Word down on Wall Street, homie, you get the cash out
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]IPO Hov, no need for reverse merger[/color]

An IPO, or initial public offering, is when a company (called the issuer) issues common stock or shares to the public for the first time. It is done as a way for companies to raise money. Jay is saying that he doesn’t need the help, and has that kind of money on his own

A reverse merger is exactly the opposite, and is sometimes called a “reverse IPOâ€. It is the acquisition of a public company by a private company to bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public


The boy money talk no need to converse further
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]The baby blue Maybach like I own Gerber[/color]

In a cute pun, Hov jokes that the “baby†blue Maybach car he owns makes it seem like he owns the Gerber baby food company

Boardroom I'm lifting ya skirt up

 

[cronicmolemolereturns]

The more successful, the more stressful
The more and more I transform to Gordon Gekko
In the race to a billion got my face to the ceiling
Got my knees on the floor please Lord forgive him
Has he lost his religion, is the greed gon' get him?
He's having heaven on earth, will his wings still fit him?


Straight Filthy.

 

[cronicmolemolereturns]

The more successful, the more stressful
The more and more I transform to Gordon Gekko
In the race to a billion got my face to the ceiling
Got my knees on the floor please Lord forgive him
Has he lost his religion, is the greed gon' get him?
He's having heaven on earth, will his wings still fit him?


Straight Filthy.

 

[airjordan jb23]

My favorite Jay freestyle

 

[airjordan jb23]

My favorite Jay freestyle

 

[jumpman2314]

Originally Posted by AIRJORDAN JB23

My favorite Jay freestyle

Easily...

 

[jumpman2314]

Originally Posted by AIRJORDAN JB23

My favorite Jay freestyle

Easily...

 

[optimusprimeaphia]

Was it REALLY a freestyle or just a memorized verse?


Being that he did it on-air is STILL appreciated nonetheless.


I just want to get across that I didn't feel like it was an ACTUAL on the spot verse.

 

[optimusprimeaphia]

Was it REALLY a freestyle or just a memorized verse?


Being that he did it on-air is STILL appreciated nonetheless.


I just want to get across that I didn't feel like it was an ACTUAL on the spot verse.

 

[rafool]

 

[rafool]

 

[trent ferris]

Originally Posted by OptimusPrimeAPhiA

Was it REALLY a freestyle or just a memorized verse?


Being that he did it on-air is STILL appreciated nonetheless.


I just want to get across that I didn't feel like it was an ACTUAL on the spot verse.

 

[trent ferris]

Originally Posted by OptimusPrimeAPhiA

Was it REALLY a freestyle or just a memorized verse?


Being that he did it on-air is STILL appreciated nonetheless.


I just want to get across that I didn't feel like it was an ACTUAL on the spot verse.

 

[flacobey]

So many quotables

 

[flacobey]

So many quotables

 

[Jordan8]

This Freestyle Changed My Life...

 

[Jordan8]

This Freestyle Changed My Life...

 

[awwsome]

I was astounded, dumbfounded, confused, amazed, inspired.

Hearing that as it happened, at 15 years old, wow.

 

[awwsome]

I was astounded, dumbfounded, confused, amazed, inspired.

Hearing that as it happened, at 15 years old, wow.

 

[brandon3000]

the most amazing freestyle i've ever heard. Anybody got the mp3 of him spitting it over "It blows my mind"?

 

[brandon3000]

the most amazing freestyle i've ever heard. Anybody got the mp3 of him spitting it over "It blows my mind"?

 

[joeykadesh]

MY goodness the most OVERATED freestyle to ever exist...It was hot as hell, no doubt but got damn yall make it seem earth shattering..Yea I said it  

 

[joeykadesh]

MY goodness the most OVERATED freestyle to ever exist...It was hot as hell, no doubt but got damn yall make it seem earth shattering..Yea I said it  

 

[ravagebx]

I was so geeked when I heard him kick this. Like it didn't even make any sense to me for someone to be that nice so effortless, and yet remain so intricate.

See Martin, see Malcolm
You see Biggie, see Pac, see success and its outcome
See Jesus, see Judas; see Caesar, see Brutus
See success is like suicide
Suicide, it's a suicide
If you succeed, prepare to be crucified
Some of the hardest bars ever penned thought.