Farrinto
Who's the best MCs? Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas
Eminem produced this song and came up with the concept, which was to attack the mistaken perceptions people had of him. By the time I got my hands on it, he'd already recorded his verse, which is absolutely fukking brilliant, in his lyrical concept and rhyme schemes-go to war with the Mormons, take a bath with the Catholics/in holy water it's no wonder why they try to hold me under longer-and in his ridiculous flow-now I'm disputed hated and viewed in America/as a motherfukkin drug addict, like you didn't experiment. "Renegade" appeared on the Blueprint album, which I intended to be spare and personal and soulful; Em's verses here are the only guest appearances on the album.
"Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?"
This is directed at critics who only listen to the songs that fufull their preconceived expectations-the "bling bling" in the background summarizes their usual complaint about my music.
"I give you the news with a twist it's just his ghetto point of view"
This is one of the things that makes me-and all serious rappers-renegades: When we report the news, it doesn't sound the same as when you hear it from CNN. Most of us come from communities where people were just supposed to stay in their corners quietly, live and die without disturbing the master narrative of American society. Simply speaking our truths, which flew in the face of American myths, made us rebels.
"Got dropped roasters, from botched robberies nikkaz crouched over"
The image of nikkas "crouched over" is meant to show the other side of the usual street story-what happens when shyt goes bad, the gun gets dropped, and you're the one on your knees.
"Knocked down again by some clown when child support knocked/No he's not around-now how that sound to ya, jot it down"
Again, I'm talking about the flip side of the "Money, Cash, Hoes" type songs. Sex can knock you up and knock you down. The jot it down line is meant to show that I'm talking to a reporter, giving him my "ghetto point of view".
"I help them see they way through it-not you"
Magazines, even hip-hop magazines, would reduce a song to a rating, a number of mics or stars or some other system. But I always wondered how much they could try to pin down and attach a rating to music that was really helping people understand their own lives. I always thought that critics should factor in the truthfulness of the rhyme. Truth is a constraint. It's easy to make up a complete fantasy in a song. Trying to rhyme and be clever and witty and tell a coherent story or talk about a coherent concept and stick to something true about life is difficult. But it's that element of truth that makes songs deeper than just entertainment, that make the music a light that can help people see their way through a hard life.
"Bet everything you worth; you lose your tie and your shirt"
This is meant both literally and figuratively-the critic I'm imagining here is a suit-and-tie sort of guy, who literally doesn't dress like me. But he also can't wear the life I've worn, and if he tried to step in my shoes, walk the streets I walked, he'd lose that tie and shirt, not just his clothes but the smug attitude they represent.
"I had to hustle, back to the wall, ashy knuckles"
Here's the dark side of hustling-actually, not the dark side, which has its own glamour, but the pathetic side of the young hustler's life: ashy knuckles, pockets full of lint, broke, can't pay rent.
I'll post the rest of it later. I'm going to revisit this song and album later
"Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?"
This is directed at critics who only listen to the songs that fufull their preconceived expectations-the "bling bling" in the background summarizes their usual complaint about my music.
"I give you the news with a twist it's just his ghetto point of view"
This is one of the things that makes me-and all serious rappers-renegades: When we report the news, it doesn't sound the same as when you hear it from CNN. Most of us come from communities where people were just supposed to stay in their corners quietly, live and die without disturbing the master narrative of American society. Simply speaking our truths, which flew in the face of American myths, made us rebels.
"Got dropped roasters, from botched robberies nikkaz crouched over"
The image of nikkas "crouched over" is meant to show the other side of the usual street story-what happens when shyt goes bad, the gun gets dropped, and you're the one on your knees.
"Knocked down again by some clown when child support knocked/No he's not around-now how that sound to ya, jot it down"
Again, I'm talking about the flip side of the "Money, Cash, Hoes" type songs. Sex can knock you up and knock you down. The jot it down line is meant to show that I'm talking to a reporter, giving him my "ghetto point of view".
"I help them see they way through it-not you"
Magazines, even hip-hop magazines, would reduce a song to a rating, a number of mics or stars or some other system. But I always wondered how much they could try to pin down and attach a rating to music that was really helping people understand their own lives. I always thought that critics should factor in the truthfulness of the rhyme. Truth is a constraint. It's easy to make up a complete fantasy in a song. Trying to rhyme and be clever and witty and tell a coherent story or talk about a coherent concept and stick to something true about life is difficult. But it's that element of truth that makes songs deeper than just entertainment, that make the music a light that can help people see their way through a hard life.
"Bet everything you worth; you lose your tie and your shirt"
This is meant both literally and figuratively-the critic I'm imagining here is a suit-and-tie sort of guy, who literally doesn't dress like me. But he also can't wear the life I've worn, and if he tried to step in my shoes, walk the streets I walked, he'd lose that tie and shirt, not just his clothes but the smug attitude they represent.
"I had to hustle, back to the wall, ashy knuckles"
Here's the dark side of hustling-actually, not the dark side, which has its own glamour, but the pathetic side of the young hustler's life: ashy knuckles, pockets full of lint, broke, can't pay rent.
I'll post the rest of it later. I'm going to revisit this song and album later
It's definitely a real freestyle though 
