The Notorious B.I.G. – Who Shot Ya?

()
Gangsta-rap songwriting

Notorious B.I.G. ft Puff Daddy – Who Shot Ya? – Lyrics

Intro – Puffy

As we proceed to give you what you need
9-5, motherfuckers
Get live, motherfuckers
As we proceed to give you what you need
9-5, motherfuckers
Get live, motherfuckers
As we proceed to give you what you need
Now turn the mics up
East Coast, motherfuckers
Turn that mic up
Bad Boy, motherfuckers
Yeah, that beat is knocking to that microphone
Turn that shit the fuck up
Uh, what? Turn it up louder, yeah, uh
As we proceed to give you what you need
J.M. motherfuckers
J.M. motherfuckers
9-5, motherfuckers

Verse 1

Who shot ya? Separate the weak from the obsolete
Hard to creep them Brooklyn streets
It’s on nigga, fuck all that bickering beef
I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek
Your heartbeat sound like Sasquatch feet
Thundering, shaking the concrete
Then the shit stop when I foil the plot
Neighbors call the cops, said they heard mad shots
Saw me in the drop, three and a quarter
Slaughter, electrical tape around your daughter
Old school, new school need to learn though
I burn, baby, burn like “Disco Inferno”
Burn slow like blunts with yayo
Peel more skins than Idaho Potato
Niggas know: the lyrical molesting is taking place
Fucking with B.I.G. it ain’t safe
I make your skin chafe, rashes on them asses
Bumps and bruises, blunts and Land Cruisers
Big Poppa smash fools, bash fools
Niggas mad because I know that cash rules
Everything around me two Glock 9s
Any motherfucker whispering about mines
And I’m Crooklyn’s finest
You rewind this, Bad Boy’s behind this

Interlude

As we proceed to give you what you need
9-5, motherfuckers
Get live, motherfuckers
As we proceed to give you what you need
East Coast, motherfuckers
Bad Boy, motherfuckers
Get high, motherfuckers
Get high, motherfuckers
Smoke blunts, motherfuckers
Get high, motherfuckers
Ready to die, motherfuckers
9-5, motherfuckers

Verse 2

I seen the light excite all the freaks
Stack mad chips, spread love with my peeps
Niggas wanna creep, gotta watch my back
Think the Cognac and indo sack make me slack?
I switches all that, cocksucker G’s up
One false move, get Swiss cheesed up
Clip to TEC, respect I demand it
Slip and break the 11th Commandment
Thou shalt not fuck with nor see Poppa
Feel a thousand deaths when I drop ya
I feel for you, like Chaka Khan I’m the don
Pussy when I want, Rolex on the arm
You’ll die slow but calm
Recognize my face, so there won’t be no mistake
So you know where to tell Jake, lame nigga
Brave nigga, turned front page nigga
Puff Daddy flips daily
I smoke the blunts he sips on the Baileys
On the rocks, tote Glocks at christenings
Hammer cock, in the fire position and…

Outro

Come here, come here, (It ain’t gotta be like that, Big)
Open your fucking mouth, open your—didn’t I tell you?
Don’t fuck with me? (Come on, man)
Huh? Didn’t I tell you not to fuck with me? (Come on, man)
Look at you now, huh? (Come on, man)
Can’t talk with a gun in your mouth, huh?
Bitch-ass nigga, what? Who shot ya?

6 gunshots]​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Outro – Puffy

To give you what you need
9-5, motherfuckers
Get live, motherfuckers (who shot ya?)
Get high, motherfuckers
Ready to die, motherfuckers, hah!
As we proceed (who shot ya?)
To give you what you need
9-5, motherfuckers
East Coast, motherfucker (Who shot ya?)
West Coast, motherfuckers
West Coast, motherfuckers, hah!
As we proceed, to give you what you need
As we proceed to give you what you need
Get live, motherfuckers
9-5, motherfuckers
Get money, motherfuckers
As we proceed to give you what you need
Get live, motherfuckers
9-5, motherfuckers
J.M. motherfuckers
J.M. motherfuckers
As we proceeeeeeed to give you what you need… 9-5

 

Biggie Smalls – Who shot ya? – Lyrics analysis, explanation & meanings

Intro – Puffy

As we proceed to give you what you need

The text is said in a scary voice, because very ceremonious, perverse, sadistic.

The formula sounds like a religious ceremony text, where the priest says what he does, saying aloud, taking on a magical, almost performative character – he makes things sacred. With these connotations, this text will later suggest that this is a funeral ceremony, organized by those who will kill you, one, a sadistic half-mad, and the other, a giant to cold and brutal violence.

to give you what you need: we do not know who this “you” is, is it the audience, or someone else? And what does “what you need“ mean? Nothing will answer this question in a safe way, so that these words will simply continue to hover, heavy with potential threats. And, who defines what this “you“ needs? We know expressions like “you need a good correction“, where the need is forcibly attributed to the one who considers that the other needs it. The following will rather give reason to this last hypothesis. It is the executioner who defines what his victim needs.

9-5, motherfuckers

Violent contrast with the previous verse, so we must make a synthesis: ok, they are gangsters who play gore priests…

9-5 is simply the year of creation of this piece, it is a time signature and it also accompanies the “as we proceed“, the consciousness of the present time.

Get live, motherfuckers

This direct address sounds very aggressive and continues to stretch the song from the outset, to install a heavy, violent, tense atmosphere.

As we proceed to give you what you need

9-5, motherfuckers

Get live, motherfuckers

As we proceed to give you what you need

 

Intro – Notorious BIG

Now turn the mics up

A small intro shaped “heater”. These technical adjustments out loud are also part of the “raw” mood of the song, highlighting the live side of the performance.

East Coast, motherfuckers

Turn that mic up

Bad Boy, motherfuckers

Bad Boy Records is the name of Notorious BIG’s label

Yeah, that beat is knocking to that microphone

Turn that shit the fuck up

Uh, what? Turn it up louder, yeah, uh

As we proceed to give you what you need

JM motherfuckers

JM: Junior MAFIA, band with which Notorious BIG sang. The whole name means Junior Masters At Finding Intelligent Attitudes. That reminds the NWA, Niggaz Wit Attitude.

JM motherfuckers

9-5, motherfuckers

 

Verse 1 – Notorious BIG

Who shot ya? Separate the weak from the obsolete

Of course, the question “who shot ya?” takes the audience by surprise as a sudden aggression. The question sounds paradoxical: it speaks to the victim, though we know the person is dead thus unable to answer. Second thought: it is therefore a purely rhetorical question, said out of pure cynicism, of cruelty: the shooter knows that he speaks for himself, and claims the crime with irony. So, it starts strong, a killer who jokes about the death of his victim ???

Separate the weak from the obsolete: this half- quote takes up the structure of a well-known biblical sentence: “ separate the wheat from the chaff “, “Separate the wheat from the chaff”. Except that here Biggie replaced two terms that opposedpositive and negative, by two negative terms. Which amounts to nothing at all, and to reject both categories as equally bad, thus to shoot everybody unselectively. Very threatening.

It was only the first line, and you see, it’s already very strong, very twisted, very dense. This text will accumulate the effects, so hang in there!

Hard to creep them Brooklyn streets

Alone, this verse seems innocent, but located after the previous verse, it takes a double sense: in Brooklyn, the competition is so tough that it is even difficult to survive.

To mention Brooklyn up front is obviously also a way of signing, a great classic of rap, one represents and one says where one comes from.

You have 3800 words of this article left to read.

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