Eazy-E – Real Muthaphuckkin G’s – Lyrics analysis, explanation & meaning

()
Gangsta-rap songwriting

Eazy-E – Real Muthaphuckkin G’s – Lyrics

Intro

Compton, Compton, Compton
Ahh, real muthaphuckkin G’s
Ahh, real muthaphuckkin G’s
Ahh, real muthaphuckkin G’s
Ahh, real muthaphuckkin G’s

Verse 1 – Eazy-E

Hey yo, Doctor, here’s another proper track
And it’s phat, watch the sniper, time to pay the piper
And let that real shit provoke
See, you’s a wannabe ‘loc, and you’ll get smoked, and I hope
That your fans understand when you talk about sprayin’ me
The same records that you makin’ is payin’ me
Motherfuck Dre! Motherfuck Snoop! Motherfuck Death Row!
Yo, and here comes my left blow
‘Cause I’m the E-A-Z-Y-E and this is the season
To let the real motherfuckin’ G’s in
You’re like a kid, you found a pup, and now you’re dapper
But tell me, where the fuck you found an anorexic rapper?
Talkin’ ’bout who you gon’ squabble with and who you shoot
You’re only sixty pounds when you’re wet and wearin’ boots
(Damn, E, they tried to fade you on Dre Day)
But Dre Day only meant Eazy’s payday
All of a sudden Dr. Dre is the G Thang
But on his old album cover he was a she-thang
So, nigga please, nigga please
Don’t step to these muthaphuckkin’ real G’s

Chorus

Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless
Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)
Boy, you should’ve known by now

Verse 2 – Dresta

Every day it’s a new rapper claimin’ to be dapper than the Dresta
Softer than a bitch but portray the role of gangsta
Ain’t broke a law in your life
Yet every time you rap you yap about the guns and knife
Just take a good look at the nigga and you’ll capture
The fact that the bastard is simply just an actor
Who mastered the bang and the slang and the mental
Of niggas in Compton, Watts, and South Central
Never ever once have you ran with the turf
But yet in every verse claim you used to do the dirt
But tell me, who’s a witness to your fuckin’ work?
So you never had no bid’ness, so save the drama, jerk!
Niggas straight kill me, knowin’ that they pranksters
This is goin’ out to you studio gangstas
See, I did dirt, put in work, and many niggas can vouch that
So since I got stripes, I got the right to rap about that
But niggas like you, I gotta hate ya
‘Cause I’m just tired of suburbia niggas
Talkin’ about they come from projects
Knowin’ you ain’t seen the parts of the streets, G
Wearin’ khakis and mob while you rhyme
Little fag tried to sag, but you’re floodin’ at the same time
And your set don’t accept ya; scared to kick it with your homies
‘Cause you know they don’t respect ya
So, nigga please, check nuts
Before you step to these muthaphuckkin’ real G’s

Verse 3 – B.G. Knocc Out

Well, it’s the Knocc Out, definition “Original baby gangsta”
Approach me like you hard, motherfucker, I’ma bank ya
Shank ya, with my fuckin’ shank, if I have to
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg are fuckin’ actors
Pranksters, studio gangstas, busters
But this time you’re dealin’ with some real motherfuckers
G’s, nigga please, don’t try to step
‘Cause if you do, then a pealed cap is all that would be left
See, young niggas like me will break you off somethin’
Claimin’ my city — but Dre, you ain’t from Compton
Niggas like y’all is what I call wannabes
And ain’t shit compared to real muthaphuckkin’ G’s

Chorus

Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless
Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)
Boy, you should’ve known by now

Verse 4 – Eazy-E

I never met a O.G. who never did shit wrong
You tried to diss the Eazy-E, so now, nigga, it’s on
You and your Doggy Dogg think that y’all hoggin’ shit
Both of you bitches can come and suck my Doggy dick
Beatin’ up a bitch don’t make you shit, but then again
Some niggas think it makes a man
Damn, it’s a trip how a nigga could switch so quick
From wearin’ lipstick to smokin’ on chronic at picnics
And now you think you’re bigger
But to me you ain’t nothin’ but a bitch-ass nigga
That ain’t worth a food stamp
And at Death Row, I hear you gettin’ treated like boot camp
Gotta follow your sergeant’s directions
Or get your ass pumped with the Smith & Wesson
Learn a lesson from the Eaze
Stay in your place and don’t step to real muthaphuckkin’ G’s

Chorus

Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless
Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)
Boy, you should’ve known by now
Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless
Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)
Boy, you should’ve known by now
Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless
Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)
Boy, you should’ve known by now: Eazy Duz It

 

Eazy-E – Real Muthaphuckkin G’s – Lyrics analysis, explanation & meaning

In this analysis, we’ll use the concept we teach in our 4 scenario courses.

Intro

Compton, Compton, Compton

Ahh, real muthaphuckkin G’s

At this point, after STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON and FUCK THA POLICE, we have already met a whole gallery of motherfuckers.

Yet Eazy in general tends to want to innovate, so here is the magic word again, with the exact spelling you need when you don’t intend to teach Moral Philosophy at Stanford: muthaphuckkin. It ‘s like motherfucker, with three extra faults, so that you really understand that your spelling rules, your English language that you are so proud of, and even your mother, all that the author fucks it. In Shakespeare’s day things were not so clear.

And so this time the motherfucker creature is a G. What’s that?

Greek? Gay? G-dot, Gravity? Good? Game?

Naaahhh… G is a secret code name that means gangsta. Only real G’s understand, and you’re not a G.

All this is a form of self-description, since here, apparently the real muthaphuckkin G’s have a language of their own, which you do not understand, which excludes you as your language excluded them. In fact, the author makes you live his experience of a dominated language speaker, so you can know what it is. If you do not understand, you’re probably American or English.

Ahh, real muthaphuckkin G’s

Ahh, real muthaphuckkin G’s

Ahh, real muthaphuckkin G’s

 

Verse 1 – Eazy-E

Hey yo, Doctor, here’s another proper track

Hey yo, Doctordirect address, but not to us as often, but to someone else, someone we know, an old friend: the Doctor, aka Dr. Dre, the ex-colleague of Eazy-E in NWA. To sum up their mess:

  • In 1986, Eazy-E and Jerry Heller found Ruthless records, hip-hop label.
  • In 1986, Eazy-E invites Dr Dre to found N.W.A. with him and a 3rd rapper named Arabian prince. Then Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella join them and Arabian Prince leaves the band.
  • In 1988, they release the LP Straight outta Compton.
  • In 1989, Ice Cube leaves the band after contract and money conflicts.
  • In 1991, four-member NWA (Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren, DJ Yella) released a second album, on which is a brief interlude (“skit”) entitled MESSAGE TO BA, where NWA violently attacks Ice Cube.
  • Ice Cube responds the same year and attacks all his ex-colleagues in a diss-song, a slanderous and defamatory song, NO VASELINE.
  • NWA then responds on his album Niggaz4Life by attacking Ice Cube again.
  • In 1992, Dr Dre leaves the band N.W.A. and the label Ruthless records, to start his own label, Death row, and revives the war on his first album, The Chronic, on which he attacks Eazy-E in his diss-song, FUCK WITH DRE DAY  (AND EVERYBODY’S CELEBRATIN’).
  • In 1993, Eazy-E fights back with this REAL MUTHAFUCKKIN’ G’S diss-song against Dre.
  • The conflict will only go away with the death of Eazy-E in 1995, and this series of defamatory songs will continue in a series of songs of reconciliation.

One more track: yes, Dre could have thought that without him, Eazy would not continue making music, but Eazy went off alone, and as a revenge he swung his new track in the face of his former producer. It’s hostile, it’s rebellious, it’s aggressive and sly, it’s Eazy all spit.

And it’s phat, watch the sniper, time to pay the piper

Phat rather than fat, it’s like a parody of spelling, like painting gold on a garbage can to make it look like… like… like it’s painted gold, fool! It’s phantasy, not phantastic but not phamiliar, it makes phun of this bullshit spelling, and Authorities that go with it, which the author contests.

Watch the sniper: After the explosion of NWA, Ice Cube and Dre having left the group, Eazy-E made a solo career, like a sniper.

Pay the piper: this piper comes from THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN, an old German tale in which a musician, poorly treated by the inhabitants of a village, returns the year after to avenge himself, seduces all the children with the charming music of his pipe, to lead them to a cave, lock them in and let them die in it. This reference identifies Eazy with the Piper: if we do not pay him, he will come back to kill the youth with his music:)

This Piper has been evoked countless times in rap lyrics… Like… does this remind you of something?

“Best believe somebody’s paying the pied piper”.

Guessed it? It’s Eminem in LOSE YOURSELF.

And let that real shit provoke

We do not know 100% what this real shit is, it can be this rap, or this singer, who makes fun of his own image, or this Doctor that can be provoked to make fun of him too.

See, you’ve got a wannabe ‘loc, and you’ll get smoked, and I hope

So he challenges him the status of leader – that Dre actually had in NWA as a producer and DJ and singer.

A loc is a boss in the slang of the Crips gang.

That your fans understand when you talk about sprayin ‘me

The same records that you makin’ is payin’ me

Eazy very deliberately attacks Dre’s reputation with his fans, and ironizes that he still gets royalties from him, acting as if it were a form of theft (but unfortunately for Eazy, this argument is bogus, abusive).

Motherfuck Dre! Motherfuck Snoop! Motherfuck Death Row!

This is a very clear verse, insult to Dre, his new rap partner Snoop Dogg, and their Death Row label.

Yo, and here comes my left blow

This verse emphasizes the fact that the previous one was a punchline, a striking and particularly aggressive verse.

‘Cause I’m the EAZYE and this is the season

cause: well, well, it’s always the same author so always the same logic of cause-without-cause. It’s like that because it’s like that (and because Eazy likes to believe he’s always the strongest, and that strength does not need reason).

To let the real motherfuckin ‘G’s in

These two verses sound curious, not to say absurd. There is no reason why there should exist a season to let the real gangsters in; for that to be possible, we should be inside a place where the gangsters can come in, but here, Eazy has not given us any information in relation to any place, so no place is active in the memory of the listener, and therefore these verses can not really make sense.

You’re like a kid, you’re a pup, and now you’re dapper

To understand this verse you have to know the contextYou, it’s still Dr. Dre. The puppy is his new artistic partner Snoop Dogg with whom Dre has just signed a diss-song, like the one Eazy is doing – the extended musical equivalent of an insult.

But tell me, where did you fuck anorexic rapper?

So it’s still Snoop Dogg, this anorexic rapper.

In fact, could Eazy explain how an anorexic rapper would be an outrageous rapper? What about the Slim Shady then? Too slim, too shady? And Notorious BIG,  too big to rap – though strong enough to scratch your mouth against a stone wall? What is this kind of logics, Eric? Would you say that a black, latino or female rapper, is unworthy because of the size or or weight color of some of his/her organs? Is that how artists can be judged according to Eric?

Those rappers are fun, they denounce racism all along their songs but use the same hateful kind of mentality to contribute to all the other oppressions of populations, like gays, women, anorexic or slim people.

Talkin’ ’bout who you gon’ squabble with and who you shoot

In previous verses, Eazy chained the degrading terms when applied to a gangster: kid, puppy, dapper, anorexic rapper. Suddenly, the terms squabble and shootactions from a kid and a puppy, are discredited.

You’re only sixty pounds when you’re wet and wearin’ boots

So this lightness goes hand in hand with the anorexic rapper. Eazy finds it clever to make fun of Dre and Snoop’s physical appearance – which shows by the way he hasn’t much to say against their real artistic talent?

The value at stake in the fight once again is manhood: Eazy-E is a voluntary vector of sexism for men, which asserts that a “real man” (yes, the others are fake men?) will necessarily be muscular, strong. It’s funny to hear that in the mouth of a man who does not conform himself to manly standards, because of his small size. Dre and Snoop had just parodied this small size in FUCK WITH DRE DAY‘s video, making dwarves dance around a ridiculous and smaller clone of Eazy. We have the humor we can.

But when Eazy died of the consequences of AIDS at the age of 30, after years of quarreling with the friends who had contributed to his success, including Ice Cube and Dre, they all regretted their stupidity. These artists have ruined, because of their adherence to a totally stupid virile ideology, a beautiful, politically strong artistic collaboration. They spoiled it with that kind of verse, worthy of kids.

(Damn, E, they tried to fade you on Dre Day)
So it’s about Dre and Snoop Dogg’s diss-songFUCK WITH DRE DAY, made to get Eazy’s reputation down.

But Dre Day only meant Eazy’s payday

New allusion to the fact that Eazy was getting royalties on Dre’s productions, because of contractual muddles.

All of a sudden Dr. Dre is the G Thang

Allusion to Dre’s song NOTHIN’ BUT A G-THANG on his first album THE CHRONIC.

But on his old album cover he was a she-thang

Allusion to the cover of Dre’s first band World Class Wreckin’ Cru‘s album, on which he wears very feminine disco style clothes, and makeup.

So this is a new way to de-virilize Dre, pointing to his feminine side. Fortunately this kind of bullshit today is called homophobia, and is forbidden (even if we can not ban human stupidity). We see that in 30 years of career, Dre has changed appearance, he became very manly, over-muscular. By a free choice, or precisely because of this kind of macho pressures all along his life?

So, nigga please, nigga please

Do not step to these muthaphuckkin ‘real G’s

“I defend my territory”…

 

Chorus

Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless

Stop him in his tracks, that means stop him, block him, but in his tracks obviously alludes to the music tracks, the audio tracks of a sound mixing in production, so that tells Dre, stop your productions. Dre did not listen to him at all, besides, he continued!!

Show him that I am Ruthlessdouble meaning by allusion to Ruthless Records, Eazy-E’s rap label, which was joined by Dre and Ice Cube to found NWA. But a big guy named Suge Knight forced Eazy to terminate the contract between Dr. Dre and Ruthless Records, which allowed Dre to found his own label, Death Row, on which he produced his successful album THE CHRONIC. With this chorus, Eazy says he is faithful to his label.

Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)

Eazy sampled Dre’s voice on another record to make his own song sound more true. It is a small theft of copyright, added to the rest of the delicts and crimes in progress.

Boy, you should’ve known by now

Boy: another de-virilization, by the age this time. It’s also a common racist way for white men to adress black men as if they were children, unworthy as adult citizens.

You should’ve known by now: of course Dre knows that Eazy is Ruthless, he has known it for years. What Eric really means is that he assumes that Dre is listening to his record, raging, knowing that he is defamed, knowing that Eazy is ruthless.

 

Verse 2 – Dresta

Every day it’s a new rapper claimin’ to be dapper than the Dresta

New character, Dresta, who starts to attack the other rappers. The value at stake is who is “dapper” – previously Eazy reproached Dre for claiming to “dapper“.

Softer than a bitch but portray the role of gangsta

Again the same themes of the gay rapper and the fake gangsta.

Ain’t broke a law in your life

Fake gangsta.

Yet every time you rap you yap about the guns and knife

you rap / you yap: nice play on words.

Just take a good look at the nigga and you’ll capture

As if it was enough to see someone to understand who he is. Judging others so negatively and so superficially… looks like integrated racism. Is it really a good idea to use the same methods as a common, more dangerous enemy?

The fact that the bastard is simply just an actor

So, another reproach, Dre would just be an actor. Except that at the time of the release of this song, his colleague Eazy has already become a media star himself, and his music videos where he is an actor pass on MTV. So this verse, in the end, sounds a bit hollow…

Who mastered the bang and the slang and the mental

Unfortunately, the addition of this verse worsens the absurdity of criticism, because Dresta actually recognizes that Dre, who was indeed not a gangster and never belonged to a gang, masters the codes of gangsta rap, from his own point of view he sends Dre a compliment when he is supposed to criticize him, it is inconsistent, it turns ridiculous.

Of niggas in Compton, Watts, and South Central

Precisely the identity zones where they are now in competition with the rap public, all enjoying great credibility.

This self-destruction of talent among them is quite typical of these poor capitalist worlds, submitted to highly competitive ethics… Instead of getting united to fight against the system, they fight against each other. They are the dunces of revolutionary politics.

Never ever once have you ran with the turf

The metaphor is borrowed from the world of horse races.

But yet in every verse claim you used to do the dirt

Reproach: you did not work in the street, but you claim that you “used to do the dirt“, which probably means do the dirty work, as coal, or kill maybe.

There’s a kind of subtle joke between the turf and the dirt, horses riding raise dirt behind them.

But tell me, who’s a witness to your fuckin’ work?

So you never had no bid’ness, so save the drama, jerk!

Always the same accusation, you did not work in the street like us, like Eazy who was a drug dealer for example.

Niggas straight kill me, knowin’ that they pranksters

There is a nice style effect here, to use the expression “kill me”, which seems to be that of a victim, of a man killed so dominated, but in this context it is an antiphrase, “that kills me” means “I’m laughing”, so it does not kill me at all. It is a way to discredit in advance any threat of death against him.

This is goin’ out to you studio gangstas

Studio gangstas: This refers to Dre and Snoop Dogg. At that time, gangsta rap already sells millions of records. The studios gangstas are multiplying to infinity, the industry photocopies them.

See, I did dirt, put in work, and many niggas can vouch that

We continue to debate passionately about who is really gangster.

So since I got stripes, I got the right to rap about that

Stripes, which rhymes internally with right to rap, sounds military, legal, in short it takes the words of the dominant, military and judicial powers.

But niggas like you, I gotta hate ya

Ben Dresta, the anti-solidarity-negroes in your genre it’s not much better. If you fired on the Nazis rather than the other Jews on your side?

‘Cause I’m just tired of suburbia niggas

‘Cause, nothing!

Talkin’ about they come from projects

Knowin’ you ain’t seen the parts of the streets, G

There are probably two intertextual allusions here.

Dresta accuses Dre of not knowing the streets: it discredits the mythical introduction of Dre on STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON about street knowledge: he would be uneducated.

And “G” is sent here with a good dose of irony, alluding to the already quoted song of Dre, NOTHIN’ BUT A G THANG.

Think you started tryna bang around the time of the peace treaty

To bang around is literally to bang, so either shoot or make a sound that bangs. It would almost sound postive, if it were not associated with this time of the peace treaty, without knowing which that means. For people knowing little history, this may refer to 1945 or the end of the Civil War in 1865… or more recently, the general truce of the gangs after the LA riots of 1992!

Wearin’ khakis and mob while you rhyme

Probable allusion to Dre’s clip for FUCK WITH DRE DAY.

Little fag tried to sag, but you’re floodin’ at the same time

Basically, he describes him as an early ejaculator. De-masculinization.

And your set don’t accept ya; scared to kick it with your homies

Reproach: you do not rap with people from your neighbourhood, but with Snoop Dogg from Long Beach. Well, who cares?

‘Cause you know they don’t respect ya

Ah, for once, the causal relationship makes sense… Like everything happens ?

So, nigga please, check nuts

Before you step to these muthaphuckkin’ real G’s

“I defend my territory”…

In this verse, Eazy-E organised a wide conflict of values between his own character and his ex-colleagues.

 

Verse 3 – BG Knocc Out

Well, it’s the Knocc Out, definition “Original baby gangsta”

Another new character in our rappers gallery. So his name is KO, with a joyful, wild misspelling on Knock – just to help teachers hate the lyrics. In real life, he’s the younger brother of Dresta.

He takes the same tick as MC Ren in STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, to teach definitions

Approach me like you hard, motherfucker, I’ma bank ya

Virile threats.

Bank ya retakes the sarcasm of Eazy who receives royalties on the works of Dre.

Shank ya, with my fuckin’ shank, if I have to

shank is an improvised, homemade weapon that is used in prison to kill someone when there is no better weapon available. So it is typically a weapon of wild criminal violence, so it is particularly threatening and it sticks with the affirmation of “real gangster“.

Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg are fuckin’ actors

This verse is slightly repetitive, those insults turn in a loop, don’t they?

Pranksters, studio gangstas, busters

Two insults out of three have already been said…

But this time you’re dealin’ with some real motherfuckers

That too has already been said twice in stronger positions, at the end of the verse.

G’s, nigga please, don’t try to step

That too, already said.

In short, all this passage is hollow and badly written. This gentleman Knocc Out has not left his indelible imprint on the world of rap, even in a role of hater. If this is the level of a real gangsta, the class average should sink below the bottom of the ocean.

‘Cause if you do, then a pealed cap is all that would be left

The author is finally back to the requirements of creativity. Whew, he had been thought lost to art. He innovates with a banal metaphor which turns a little short.

See, young niggas like me will break you off somethin’

At this point in my comment, I’m not really ready to believe you anymore. Even Dre will not learn anything from your annoying stuttering.

Claimin’ my city — but Dre, you ain’t from Compton

Ok, so he’s from Compton. Who else? There were 80,000 people there, not to mention the zombies and a few cops trying to creep. It’s not 80,000 extraordinary rappers either. In short, there are talentless sweepers and super-cool Nike executives living in Compton, that proves nothing, it’s the argument of a boxer who has taken too many intellectual defeats in full face.

Niggas like y’all is what I call wannabes

In the meantime, you will notice, Dresta, that those niggas have made 30 years of career and a few tens of millions of discs more than you… So, you should just shut up because you have just one line before getting forgotten.

And ain’t shit compared to real muthaphuckkin’ G’s

Forgotten.

 

Chorus

Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless

Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)

Boy, you should’ve known by now

 

Verse 4 – Eazy-E

I never met a O.G. who never did shit wrong

We thus find Eazy as singer of the final verse, so he will have sung half of the song, and his two new homies, a quarter each. This shows at the same time that Eazy embarked on a solo career where the other rappers are stooges that he frames and dominates, and that the song is mostly a settling of accounts between Eazy and Dre, while Dresta, Knocc Out, and Snoop Dogg, are actually not directly involved.

OG: still coded language, which just means Original Gangster, in the fashion of brands that justify their prestige by their seniority. This is one more term in the fight to death between the real and the fake gangsters.

You tried to diss the Eazy-E, so now, nigga, it’s on

You tried to diss: you tried to defame me, so that implies he did not succeed.

So it’s on: it’s the beginning of a double meaningit’s on, all by itself means it works, it’s on, but with what comes, it’s on / You and your Doggy Dogg, it means that the fact of defaming is on them now, as if Eazy had sent the ball back. So he says at the same time “ok, well received” and “well, I send you your shit back, in worse”.

You and your Doggy Dogg think that y’all hoggin’ shit

You and your Doggy Dogg think that…: this expression sounds great, because of the triple repetition of sounds in you / your, doggy / dogg, think / that.

Doggy Dogg: This of course parodies Snoop Dogg’s scene name, substituting Doggy for Snoop. Doggy means “of the dog” or, in the sexual field, leads to “doggy style”. So Doggy Dogg means something like doggie doggie, and so it’s supposed to feel doubly humiliating.

Play on meaning too: you and your doggie, you “hoggin’ shit”, it seems to be a metaphor that says “you think you are powerful“, where shit means “things, business“, but in association with the dog idea, obviously it sounds funny, we think of a dog poop.

Both of you bitches can come and suck my Doggy dick

Bitches: homophobic de-virilization.

Doggy dick: resumption and continuation of the parody of the name of Snoop Dogg, here this expression means dog’s dick, so he pretends to imitate his opponent… to better “fuck” him symbolically.

Still… this provocation sounds ridiculously paradoxical… since, he’s gay too if he gets sucked…

Beatin’ up a bitch don’t make you shit, but then again

Allusion to a painful anecdote for Dr. Dre: aggressive with women, especially in his youth (it seems that gentrification has calmed him down a bit), he beat up a TV reporter who had let Ice Cube defame him (yes, Ice Cube was in the same trip, making defamatory songs against his former NWA partners, showing how much the solidarity displayed in their mythical songs was actually fake.)

Some niggas think it makes a man

It’s ambiguous to play on this from Eazy, after his ultra-sexist and homophobic remarks, would it be credible to try Dre as an incorrect man with women? Eazy said on TV after Dre’s assault on the reporter that she deserved it and he did not care. This little joke shows that Eazy has pro-feminist convictions only when it can upset his ex-friend, that’s all!

Damn, it’s a trip how a nigga could switch so quick

We do not make you say it.

From wearin’ lipstick to smokin’ on chronic at picnics

A series of connoisseur allusions, to the album cover where Dre has a feminine style, and to Dre’s first solo albumTHE CHRONIC, a quality album that remains a founder in the history of rap.

And now you think you’re bigger

Resumption of the allusion to the thinness of Dre and Snoop Dogg.

But to me you ain’t nothin’ but a bitch-ass nigga

This bitch-ass nigga will still come to see you on your death bed, and he will be sincerely sad to have lost in you a valuable friend.

That ain’t worth a food stamp

These food stamps are a form of public charity, assistantship, in the United States. Eazy cruelly makes fun of his poor brethren…

And at Death Row, I hear you gettin’ treated like boot camp

Another gossip that has a broad background of truth. Death Row’s co-founder, Suge Knight, was that giant sized bodyguard who was ready for anything, forcing Eazy to let Dre go from his Ruthless label. Suge Knight was not tender either with Dre or with anyone, and from that, Eazy had the echo and takes pleasure in telling it, again to humiliate Dre.

By the way: years later, Suge Knight will take 9 years of jail for homicide and homicide attempt, proving he really was dangerous.

Gotta follow your sergeant’s directions

Allusion to the authoritarian nature of Suge Knight.

Or get your ass pumped with the Smith & Wesson

In total we will have seen a whole catalog of weapons. Here we can not know what weapon it means because this brand sold revolver as rifles. But it’s a hallmark of California’s mythology, Wild West cowboys, a white form of male sexism in America.

Get your ass pumped: another homophobic-sounding threat.

Learn a lesson from the Eaze

Allusion to the concept of street knowledge – the street is full of autonomous teachers who teach the brutal lessons of street life – and a permanent claim to be the smartest.

Stay in your place and don’t step to real muthaphuckkin’ G’s

“This is my territory”.

 

Chorus

Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless

Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)

Boy, you should’ve known by now

Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless

Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)

Boy, you should’ve known by now

Stop him in his tracks, show him that I am Ruthless

Yo, Dre! (What’s up?)

Boy, you should’ve known by now: Eazy Duz It

This pirouette-like conclusion alludes to another track by Eazy, EAZY DUZ IT, produced by Dre, on which they discuss, and of which Eazy takes over some of the instrumentation of this song… So Eazy tells Dre, look, I’m doing very well without you, even against you…

 

SYNTHESIS

A verbal duel

We saw how the verses of STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON and FUCK THA POLICE worked, on the same model roughly: the rapper introduces himself at the beginning of the verse, develops by showing his force while making a few hostile jokes, and concludes on an insult or threat of death.

Except that, in STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, the NWA gathered their force against the whole world, and in FUCK THA POLICE they constituted themselves as a popular court to judge and execute the police.

Here, in REAL MUTHAPHUCKKIN ‘G’S, we see the same kind of “I’m stronger than you” verse, with a major modification: this time the enemy, the Antagonist of the song, is a former friend and colleague of NWA, a black brother, another artist. Still, it’s war!

This whole battle may seem futile, but it is based on solid cultural foundations. These rappers who kill each other by diss-songs are the continuation of a very old tradition of conflicts between men, if we go back in time we find

  • the culture of battles and clashes in street hip-hop – we put a sound and we fight verbally against someone in front of everyone
  • the mythical duels between cowboys or between outlaws and sheriffs, after hostile verbal exchanges (“your time has come, Billy!”)
  • duels between nobles in the European classical era and between knights in the Middle Ages
  • oratory contests between European poets in the Middle Ages
  • and the ancient Greco-Latin culture that organized rhetorical duels – whether in the courtroom, on the political forum, or between philosophers and thinkers, who regularly turned to the full-bodied dispute.

Defamation and reputation

Above all, we can notice that these songs made to kill the image of the other, affect the general public because they give an aesthetic form to universal feelings whose expression is usually less artistic, less funny, less pleasant to live: anger, hatred, jealousy… and they are a central value in the world of rap as elsewhere: the good reputation, a positive, winning, dominant image. When you have little, you have at least your body, and your reputation. But these brand new stars from the ghetto, forged at the fire of ultra-liberalism and competition to the extreme, just had their reputation for sale; ready to do anything to defend it, they also represent their individualistic era, where everyone has become a product that must be sold on a market, in competition with other products.

 

This was an abstract of Gangsta-rap songwriting. Wanna read more?

Gangsta-rap songwriting

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating / 5. Vote count:

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

Spread the love

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top