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Book Excerpt: Rap Year Book
Book Excerpt: Rap Year Book
2000
What This Song Is About
Impulsive living.
Big
Pimpin
137
The very first thing we see in the video for Big Pimpin is a very big yacht, and all
through the video the party that happens on it and away from it is a very big spectacle,
and the very last thing we see in the video for Big Pimpin is the very big yacht, and
that was all a deliberate move to relay the following:
Jay wrote Big Pimpin shortly after hed been charged with assault for stabbing
record producer Lance Rivera in the stomach during an altercation at a nightclub.1 Had
he been convicted, he might have seen upward of fifteen years in prison. That possible
reality served as the impetus for the world he built in Big Pimpin: The contrast between the million-dollar extravagance of the Big Pimpin video and the potential of being behind bars for years behind a mindless assault wasnt lost on me. Both were about
losing control. Jay Z wrote that in his 2010 book, Decoded. He further explained: Its a
song that seems to be about the purity of the hustlers thrillpleasure cooked down to
a crystal. And even further: If the price is life, then you better get what you paid for.
Theres an equal and opposite relationship between balling and falling. He anticipated
a catastrophic fall, so he balled stratospherically. His pimpin was the biggest it ever was,
and ever got, really.
When the actual trial date neared, though, Jay hedged his bet. Nervous hed catch the
violent reflex of a justice system thatd attempted and failed to lock up Puff Daddy the winter before for a shootout he was involved in at a separate New York nightclub, Jay settled
(No way was I going to allow myself to be a sideshow for the state). He pled guilty to the
charge and received three years probation,2 and that is 100 percent a fair trade.3
Its a weird thing to be thankful that someone was stabbed, but I am grateful to Rivera
for taking that L, as we all should be.4 Without that happening, (maybe) Jay isnt motivated to live through the most paranoid and hedonistic period of his life, and so we (maybe) dont get Big Pimpin. That wouldve been a real tragedy. He shouldve stabbed five
or six more people. He mightve written the most transcendent rap album of all.5
jay Z
featuring UGK
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138
139
5th: B.G.s Bling Bling, featuring Hot Boys and Big Tymers
(1999) I MISS THE BIG TYMERS SO MUCH.
6th: 2 Chainzs Im Different (2012) This boat never even
made it to the water. 2 Chainz just hung out in it while it
was being carted around on the streets. What royalty.
7th: The Fugees Ready or Not (1996) Lauryn Hill. . But
also .
8th: Pusha Ts Can I Live (2011) This was a total misplay. He
was just on a boat rapping, not doing anything else. Pusha
T is a drug-dealer rapper. His name is literally Pusha.
Give this man the yayo and lets make a proper drugtransporting video, please.
9th: Theophilus Londons I Stand Alone (2011) It was a
rowboat. Like, a real, for real, actual rowboat.
1. He did so because hed been told that Rivera was responsible for Vol. 3 . . . Life and Times of S. Carter leaking a month before the official
release date.
2. Jay was sentenced in December of 2001. Four months before that, hed released Izzo (H.O.V.A.), the first single on the album that followed
Vol. 3. On Izzo, which hed written after the charges came down but before the sentencing, he rapped, Cops wanna knock me, D.A. wanna box me in / But somehow, I beat them charges like Rocky. This was (highly likely) a miscalculation on his parthe (probably) thought he
actually was going to beat the charge. Or, I guess I suppose he could also have been talking about the first Rocky movie, where Rocky loses at
the end but really he wins.
3. This is an easy assertion to make when its not your abdomen being gouged into.
4. To be clear: I dont want anyone to be stabbed. But if we can detract the violence of the event from what came after it, then, yes, I am for real
thankful.
5. Please see footnote 4.
6. From Big Pimpin to 2014, hes had twenty-one singles that were gold or platinum.
7. The least successful was when Jay Z tried to co-opt Juveniles free-form flow on the Ha (Remix). Oh, man. That was a sad day.
8. Algernod. ALGERNOD. Thats not a rappers name. Thats the name of a mischievous elf in a Disney movie.
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9. That puts him somewhere near as tall as George Costanza, and fucking NOBODY wouldve been afraid of Black George Costanza.
10. In 1998, Jay extended an offer to UGK to be on a song called A Week Ago from Vol. 2 . . . Hard Knock Life. Pimp C opted against it and
they passed.
11. This quote comes from a book called Third Coast: OutKast, Timbaland & How Hip-Hop Became a Southern Thing.
12. This quote comes from a 2014 interview with BET.com.
Big Pimpin is not a bad song. Its a very, very good song.
So Fresh, So Clean is just superior, thats all.
To be great, Pimpin requires the aid of not only UGKs
Pimp C and Bun B but also a mutilated sample from an
Egyptian film whose makers are still suing for the way Jay Z
and his producers butchered it. Not saying overstacking is
always a damning quality (see Monster, page 198, which is
clearly the correct choice for 2010), but in this case, the muses
are clearly on the side of Clean, which careens into Classicsville with its slick, timeless, endlessly applicable simplicity.
Big Boi and Stacks float on a carefree wave of well-tailored
RAPYEARBOOK_4thPASS_0507.indd 140-141
greatness, and the fact that they did this much without featured artists or problematic samples (they use Joe Simons
Before the Night Is Over, and possibly an unconfirmed riff
from Funkadelics Ill Stay, neither of which has garnered a
lawsuit) speaks to Cleans exceptional nature.
I mean, I still have absolutely no idea how to process the
line I love who you are / I love who you aint / Youre so
Anne Frank, but considering the rest of the song, Im gonna
just maintain that comparing a lover to an optimistic Jewish
child hiding from and eventually caught and murdered by
Nazis is a singular compliment. Devon Maloney
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