Let's start off with New York rapper Joell Ortiz.
He uhh, dropped an album on Koch then he was signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath.
I remember him! And he came up here?
Yup!
He's the one that was drinkin the 40 in the video.
Right, well he's not signed to Dr. Dre anymore.
Looks like he was released from uhh, Aftermath.
That was short.
He never even got a chance to put out a single.
That was very short-lived, what happened?
[Joell Ortiz]
I don't know, shit, you tell me
All I did was made it a title of my new LP (Free Agent!)
I still got the streets in a frenzy
Still got that 40, but it's underneath the seat in my Chevy
I hop on any beat and I empty
When I'm squeezin my pen be sendin shots, e'rywhere like Dikembe
Rappers that you praise go out their way to befriend me
The rest stay out my way and probably pray they can end me
But let me make this so clear
My career's on a treadmill, I'm runnin this shit and ain't goin nowhere
Rockin on the scene with my team, all with no fears (Slaughter!)
'Til my pockets green like what's in between my nose hairs (ew!)
Nothin but flow here (look)
Like Puerto Rico when it's snowin in New York (what) oh yeah I go there
I'm fueled by the energy my foes share
I won't tap out, y'all assed out like the old Cher
Between me and you, rap dudes is so scared
I'm still in the hood with cashews and a cold beer
So not an industry nigga
Add 20 years and a beard to my elementary picture (Ortiz)
Same kid, same hunger, same drive
And I tip my hat to those that tried
But {"It's not the same"} - ever felt like you gotta do it? (man)
Well multiply that by a trillion, that's the YAOWA movement (ay!)
The reason that I get stupid and dumb when the track is movin
In order for God to find me, guess I had to lose it
I'm gone, flow strong but I still add subtractors to it
Imagine the dude you hear now, with a vast improvement
I'm harder than a blind man tryin to reconfigure a plastic Rubik
smeared in the nuclear reactor fluid
I parallel park grind, put my back into it
Know some Heathcliffs with spliffs, bunch of cats that blew it (damn!)
Failure? No, not me
That ain't gon' cut it, on my three
Look at sunshine through your cloudy doubt
My whole life been in a ring, don't ever count me out