This song was so far ahead of its time its almost unbelievable.
Let it be known today that I really don't care if a rapper decided to direct his talent towards orating about money ... as long as he can actually rap good doing it! AZ's intro on this song sets up about Jacksons and Grants and whatnot, but he then proceeds to drop (most likely) my second favorite verse in all of history. This was Illmatic. This was the debut album by which all debuts were going to fail in comparison to in the future. And the single featured artist on the entire album laced Nas something he actually couldn't follow up. And Nas' verse is great, too, don't get me wrong. I already said that lyricists pushing lyricists can do no wrong. Legendary to me. It's ridiculous.
Visualizing the realism of life and actuality,
Uff who's the baddest, a person's status depends on salary,
And my mentality is, money orientated.
I'm destined to live my dreams for all my peeps who never made it.
Plus AZ used the word "schweppervescence" in the song. Who else can claim that? Nobody. Watch this video and cry that Nas & AZ never got it together enough to do a collabo album. No one's ever come so hard for corporate. Well ... except Kanye, Rakim, KRS-One, & Nas again for Nike ...
dope blog Chris...I forgot you had one...
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