The Most Shady, an Eminem-Obie Trice- P-Diddy collaboration/ song review

Rating:4 stars
Eminem, Obie Trice and P Diddy united their talents to pay tribute to legend Notorious Big.
While calling Biggie out, the song introduces you into a cadenced beats that are underlined by violins, gunshots, hammering piano and keyboard sounds.
Welcome to an depressing and unholy context. Eminem is here to remind why hip hop beefs and rivalries often lead to bloody wars:
” It has been said that there has been known to be bloodshed over bread
Men who have led to death, dead
Strapped to beds, pipebombs, dynamite, lead
Money, power, respect, street cred – yeah, it’s scary, ain’t it?
Picture yourself going out as a hero
Picture mural pictures of us painted all over street corners
Fans meet to mourn us while we meet the coroners, Notorious tried to warn us
We watched so many piggyback off of Biggie’s back and Pac’s
Landmarks, history in rap
statistically in fact it’s so sad to see us reenact these tragic events…”
Flashback to the day Biggie’s life was cut short, March 9th, 1997:
« Which lead us back to where we left off on March 9th… »
The next lines dissect the environment and explain the context of the ghetto jungle, where the longest lasting gangsta is probably the strongest:
« They come from such hard knock lives and make it up out it from hit the spotlights
And once they’re on us this is our lives
Dust out for all eyes to cast upon us to see who can last the longest
And he who lasts the longest must be the strongest
In this concrete jungle where this dog-eat-dog mentality comes from
It’s origin which is usually originated from cats that’s starving
Or it could just be somebody’s aura that just horrifies
And applies to his persona or the sizes in his entourage
That intimidates the people to the point that you know he’s gangsta
He ain’t have to say shit – you just believe him… »
In the second verse, Obie recalls Biggie’s lyrical influence:
« Since Big taught us niggas to think Big
I been about my business since then, so anxious
It ain’t how we live, it’s what he said – he did it for Brooklyn
This I took in, sent chills through my skin
Visions of experience and the same sights as him
Is what excited Obie to write these poems
Rollin, going through the same shit he spoke and
Open up my eyes – it’s no limit in them skies
When “Ready To Die” was a sick part of my life
Palming that forty-five, plotting to pop my man
Then that crooked-eye Jamaican, I so many times rewind
Got me to walk a straight line and get up on my grind
Get up out the system, who could give him better signs?
No pop of mine could top Big Poppa’s rhymes
So possibly I’ll be popular, huh?
That’s the inspiration I got from my nigga B.I. »
P Diddy is probably one of the persons who has been the most affected by Notorious Big’s death. He was sitting in the same car as his friend when somebody decided to put an end to Biggie’s life who got coldly shot. Despite the fact P Diddy was sending his most fervent prayers to God, his friend died a few minutes later.
The third verse recalls both rappers’ close relationship, Biggie’s rise to stardom and his everlasting friendship:
« I took him from coal to diamond
I molded his mind into the most phenomenal artist of any and all times
I made a Frankenstein, my design impressed
Backpackers impressed who said my house was a mess
Critics laugh – said I made a fortune off of his passing
All I did was build a dynasty off of his passion
And I’m addressing the adolescents absent to who he is
The original King of New York – Christopher Wallace
This is a promise on Diddy’s honor, I’ma father T’yanna
And teach her that with all the drama don’t even bother
On repeat all of your albums play back-to-back
And I visit your grave cause our friendship’s intact
An immaculate concept, extravagant progress
Bullet wounds left in my heart, I’m yellin ‘God bless!’
Regardless to critics yellin that ‘East/West’
I seen the game losing, I’m just pressing the reset
And when the resurrection of you shines through an individual
Lyrical enough to wear the same crown of thorns literally
I’ma pay homage, Brooklyn’s finest
Whether it’s Queens or Harlem it’ll be instant stardom, nigga… »
The Most Shady is dark, deep and pays tribute to one of the greatest names in hip hop history. It reminds us how much the rap game is a venturous game. Ambitions, beefs, jealousy, label rivalries can get you killed in no time. Fallen soldiers who have marked hip hop history, your names will live on forever.