Decoded (39 page)

14.
This series—about seeing the signs, seeing the scheming jackers, seeing inside the minds of the cops so you know when they’re coming—is meant to show how impossible it is for anyone to have the level of vision you’d need to make the dream of the hustler really come true. There are too many threats, too many hazards; even the smartest, most discerning hustler can’t anticipate it all. This song is like the blues; it’s about the inevitable tragedy of the hustler’s life, the inevitable piercing of the hustler’s dream. It’s about a wish that can’t come true. Can it?

EARLY THIS MORNING

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1.
The shoe box tells us from the first line that this is a low-level hustler.

2.
This song is about the true nature of the work. You get up early. You wear the same clothes.

3.
You obsess over making money. The work doesn’t have a social value. It’s not like you can motivate yourself by thinking about all the good you’re doing for the world. You start off doing it for all kinds of dumb reasons—because it’s cool, because you get to hang out with your friends all day—but the only thing you get out of it is money. And the money becomes your obsession.

4.
They came to us suffering for more of that shit. We relieved them and then cleaned up whatever money they had. This line is meant somewhat ironically in the song, but the truth is that drug addicts have a disease. It only takes a short time in the streets to realize that out-of-control addiction is a medical problem, not a form of recreational or criminal behavior. And the more society treats drug addiction as a crime, the more money drug dealers will make “relieving” the suffering of the addicts.

5.
“Hundred dollars a week” is not a lot of money for a cat waking up early in the morning, working all day dealing drugs to “fiends.” The narrator here is still dreaming of big money, not making it. This is the reality of the low rungs of the drug game. But the ambition is still clear, not just in the scheming but in the work he’s doing to get what he wants, waking up early, throwing on yesterday’s clothes, and hitting the block hard.

6.
This is
the best of times and worst of times,
but it’s also the best and worst of who we are and what we can be. The narrator is caught up in a crazy system, one that treats addicts like criminals and forces the young and ambitious into a life that might end with him shot up or locked up. To me, there’s something moving about the kid who goes to sleep dreaming about plans to make money, wakes up early with a Colgate smile, buries his work in the dirt, and fills his small pocket with crack rocks (
pockets full of hope,
I call them in “Renegade”). When he’s swarmed by fiends, lost souls driven by addiction, it’s hard to know if we should be happy for him because he’s unloading his work, getting closer to his dream, or if we should feel fucked up because we know the shit is so hopeless. I like leaving the listener without an easy answer.

COMING OF AGE / FEATURING MEMPHIS BLEEK

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1.
Rocks here refer to jewelry, diamonds specifically; shorties can refer to girls or to any kid, which is how I’m using it here.

2.
“In reality, we from the same building. He was the guy coming through with the fine women, fly cars … I was always the young guy looking up.” —Memphis Bleek,
Making of Reasonable Doubt
documentary.

3.
The “hunger pains” refer to being hungry with ambition or literally hungry, because he’s broke. Feeding someone makes him loyal, at least in the short term.

4.
He’s making just enough money to get more supply—“re-up”—and get a little gear, but he’s still in the minor leagues, looking for a promotion.

5.
This refers to the old “be like Mike” commercials. The guys who didn’t have the stomach for this life bounced from it.

6.
Slingin
is slang for selling drugs. I like the way it makes you think of reckless Old West outlaws, gunslingers, which makes it work well with “bringin the drama.”

7.
Servin
is also slang for selling drugs. While “slingin” feels cocky and aggressive, “servin” feels more workmanlike and submissive, which works with the lyrics here—“life could be better.”

8.
This is the glamorous life of the young hustler. It wasn’t always a simple transaction—you might find yourself doing crazy things to get paid, holding people’s welfare cards hostage, literally chasing people down the streets, staying up all night and watching the sun come up on the corner. But you do it for the possibility that one day someone will pick you as the one to step up to the next level.

9.
A little play on words that’s meant to keep the listener’s mind on how deep this conversation really is: If Bleek gets “the word” and gets deeper in the game, he’s not just going to get the Vettes and diamonds, he’s also going to have more serious consequences to pay if he fucks up—his life, in fact.

10.
This conversation starts casually then turns into an interview and then a test.

11.
These are the key lines in the song. It’s about loyalty, but it’s also a little heartbreaking how much this little nigga wants to get down. In our live shows around this time, I used to literally hand Bleek a stack of bills when we hit this line, and he would toss it out to the crowd. Dramatic shit.

12.
This is a classic piece of OG advice. It’s amazing how few people actually stick to it.

13.
“All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don’t break them for no one.” —Tony Montana,
Scarface

14.
The word “résumé” makes it sound like the end of any other job interview, but then Bleek ends with a blood vow, “until death do us part,” which reminds us that the stakes are higher than a nine to five.

COMING OF AGE (DA SEQUEL) / FEATURING MEMPHIS BLEEK

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1.
Keenan Ivory Wayans hosted a late-night talk show that ran at the same time as
Vibe
’s late-night talk show, a rare moment when two late-night shows hosted by black people ran at the same time. They competed against each other, which is why Keenan was trying to “pick up on the vibe.”

2.
These details are meant to show that I’m no longer living in the same neighborhood. Instead I’m driving in from the suburbs, wearing a polo shirt, looking like the good life has made me softer than my new neighbors, who are themselves wealthy professionals, not gangsters.

3.
All of these lyrics are internal, unspoken thoughts as the two men walk toward each other. The only lines spoken aloud are the last lines in the first two verses.

4.
It’s always the one who knows the least who is the first to start trying to tell someone what to do. The farther outside the circle someone is, it seems, the more they want to stir up resentment, mostly because they don’t know better, or they’re bored and have nothing better to do.

5.
While in the first “Coming of Age” Bleek’s character was almost casual about “until death do us part,” now he realizes how serious it is to have real responsibility and actually put your life on the line.

6.
Tools
is obviously slang for a gun. I like that word here because it lets you know how at the end of the day I’m a professional, and even something as personal as this can be handled as coldly and impersonally as taking a hammer to a piece of defective machinery. At the same time the rhyme here—
breaking my heart/break him apart
—lets you know it’s still more complicated than that for me.

7.
The shift in slang—from talking about guns as tools that break things to talking about shooting as
blazing
—matches the shift in tone, from cold and professional to hot and emotional. In the streets we had as many words for guns and shooting as Eskimos had for snow. A single act had a million variations in emotion and intent.

8.
All of this back and forth is happening with no actual words exchanged, but perceptive observers can see it all. The only spoken words occur at the end of each verse.

9.
I wasn’t trying to make some kind of anti-weed public service announcement, but the truth is even a minor slip can expose you. No matter how comfortable you feel, it’s best to keep your mind clear.

10.
This is a reference to the first “Coming of Age” and is the beginning of a change in tone in the song. He goes from bold to scared to humbled.

11.
This is the key line in this verse. The bond they share isn’t just that they “wilded out” in Vegas together, it’s that they’re both, ultimately, outcasts—unloved—who can depend only on each other. It’s more than the money, it’s a sense of brotherhood that bonds them.

12.
Another reference to the original “Coming of Age,” but this time it’s my character repeating Bleek’s vow from the first song:
until death.

13.
This third verse, which is spoken aloud, is about loyalty that goes deep—not just two guys who came together to make money and move on, but a relationship that’s closer to kinship. You don’t make these kinds of declarations of loyalty to just anyone you happen to hustle with.