IANAHB (2013)

Hand me that

IANAHB (2013)
Getting paper
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IANAHB
0:00
/0:34

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Hand me that paper like I graduated
And I get head while it's decapitated

Think it's a game? Nigga come play
I'm with my killer Bs, fuck bugspray

Yeah, Young Money so gangsta
I personally know strangers
It's so strange

But this girl named Dana, like to go anal
Shoot him in his head, what's that? A no-brainer

Plain old nigga, but a break from the norm
I wear my heart on my sleeve so don't be breakin my arm
I rather wring your fuckin neck before I ring the alarm
I dream to meat a serial killer that'll bring me along
With him

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Sometimes I'm trying to showcase a whole track or even an album rather than specific bars, so the selection process gets a little complicated. Today, I wanted to shine a spotlight on Wayne's style and philosophy when it comes to the IANAHB series. The main thing to note is that there's significant creative effort behind almost every line, so you can jump to pretty much any moment of the song (except the piano intro) and land in fire. The other point of general interest is that the background piano is constantly changing, which means Wayne is constantly changing his flow to match, with zero negative effect on the quality of the lyrics.

I would even go so far as to say that the series is like a combination of album and mixtape Weezy. He's not really trying to tell a coherent overall story, but more just letting his imagination and creativity go wild on some potentially unorthodox beats. Because it's an album though, there's definitely a feeling that he went the extra mile to make sure that every line packed a punch.

Let's look at a few specifics.

The decapitated line would have made a great addition to the video for Monster.

The no-brainer line is all about how killing is both easy and an easy decision.

Wring/ring is some great wordplay, and sends a clear message that Wayne would rather handle his business himself than call for help.