Scottie (2014)
Beam me up
I wrote this up about a year ago on discord, and I wanted to bring it here as an example and reminder to myself of what I should be doing. The only things I've changed are some formatting issues and a few statements that weren't meant to be part of the main text. After this, a new journey begins.
--
1 It's so simple that it's complicated
You think about mistakes that's when you made em
2 The water's runnin, baby I ain't chasin
Cuz only in still water we can see our faces
Real shit
--
Probably my favorite song intro of all time. For my money, no one else in the game has come anywhere near this close to articulating a fundamental truth of reality. Maybe I heard the song at just the right time in my life, but Bar 1 was an eye-opener for me in terms of dealing with indecision and anxiety.
Bar 2 is definitely less simple. It feels like he's speaking through multiple levels of abstraction, and the idea of water takes on 3 or 4 different potential meanings. Running water could symbolize having money for utilities, or it could represent something like the general flow of reality, or the flow of the mainstream, and he chooses to go at his own pace instead of following anyone or anything. When the waters of your mind are still, you can know who you are.
--
I told my nigga:
1 Boy you better watch them hoes when you sleepin
Nigga, them dog ass hoes be creepin
2 I got a few Ms put up for safe-keepin
Long hair, don't care like I was raised in a teepee
3 Nigga gun hurt
Nina say she bout to go streakin
4 Niggas bout to go to Missin
Niggas bout to go to deacons
5 Niggas bout to get high as Airmen from Tuskegee
Niggas blind to the fact, cuz they don't wan' see me
6 Niggas don't want talk
Niggas don't want reason
7 Niggas don't want peace
Niggas don't know the meanin
8 Nigga said you're a bitch
Nigga bitch European
9 Nigga weed Herculean
Nigga skate surf or skiin
10 Nigga really overseein
Y'all niggas sightseein
11 Tomorrow
Is what a nigga ain't guaranteein
12 New Orleans had a sheriff by the name of Harry Lee
And when he died niggas shouted out "thank-thank you Jesus!"
--
There's a version of this song that doesn't have this first verse (Parts 2 and 3). I assumed it was because he was saying something worth censoring, but to me it always seemed strange that anyone would bother to censor any of Wayne's work at all. It just ends up seeming completely arbitrary. Which of these bars is it ok to play at work or at school? I say all of them, but I guess some might disagree. Anyway, there's a lot here.
Bar 1 - Just some good advice.
Bar 2 - A bit of classic flaunting, with an interesting choice of reference for his personal image.
Bar 3 - "streaking" is kind of like a fulcrum between two images here; on the one hand Nina is a lady about to run around naked, and on the other she's a gun about to send some bullets at you in straight lines. It's also somewhat difficult to parse out where he's starting and ending a sentence here, so it's entirely possible the actual wording is a little different than what I have up there.
Bars 4-10 - He seems to be alternating subjects here. Some lines are talking about his enemies and how they'll end up on missing posters or in church, while others seem to be talking about himself and his crew. One of my favorite lines here is in bar 9, comparing the strength of his weed to that of Hercules, basically saying there's none stronger. Bar 10 brings the back-and-forth to an end with one final comparison - his people are on top, while everyone else is just watching. Also, if you don't know the history, a little research on the Tuskegee Airmen will help you appreciate the line that much more.
Bar 11 - Pretty straight forward, there's no guarantee you'll make it past today. Live every day like it's the short one and all that.
Bar 12 - A bit of a non-sequitur, but still a powerful shoutout to New Orleans. Even if you're not from there, it feels like you're getting a history lesson about real people.
--
1 Cruisin down the street, and it ain't Caribbean
Ain't terrified, and I ain't never been
2 Sippin H-Town lookin like Jeremy Lin
I'm movin slower than a fuckin Maryland Terrapin
3 I ain't got time, patience very thin
I will fuck a nigga bride on the day she marry him
4 I'm a bad Samaritan, I'm a Black American
Got white like a fuckin Aryan, and
5 I don't need no pot to piss in
I just need a pot to whip it
6 I don't need no fuckin help
I don't need no Scottie Pippen
7 I don't need a lotta niggas
I just need the choppa nigga
8 Graveyard or penitentiary
I keep runnin outta niggas
9 I ain't runnin out on niggas
Nope
--
Bars 5 through 9 end up repeating later so I'll talk about them then. For now let's focus on 1 through 4.
Bar 1 - It took me a while to figure out the Caribbean connection, but in the end I realized it relates to the "cruising" part of the line. As in it's not a Caribbean cruise. Though maybe I'm still missing something. The second line is subtle and doesn't stand out with any real wordplay, but I think it becomes more powerful the more you consider it. It's always of paramount importance for any rapper to let you know that he's not afraid of anything, but with Wayne it's almost like a throwaway reminder, just in case you forgot.
Bar 2 - This is one of those bars that would just fly right over a casual listener's head. What is H-Town? Who is Jeremy Lin and what does he look like? Why is Wayne moving slow and who are the Maryland Terrapins? Maybe I'm underestimating the casual listener, but if you don't know that H-Town is referring to lean because it originated in Houston, and that it makes you squint your eyes and move slower than normal, then this whole mess of imagery might be lost on you.
Bar 3 - If you listen to a lot of Wayne's work, you'll notice a theme in some of his lyrics where he sleeps with other dudes' wives (or girlfriends). The second line here serves as an example of the impatience mentioned in the first line, and I think the message is he'll get her as soon as humanly possible. Also a reference to a real thing that rich people used to do.
Bar 4 - This is where he pulls off some perfect imagery and wordplay. First, he lets you know that he's not a good guy (which I think relates to the previous bar), and then he manages to juxtapose the image of a Black American with that of an Aryan (as white as it gets) by way of a simile that gives you an idea of how much product he's holding, which is what makes him a bad Samaritan. In simpler terms, he's black, but he's got so much powder that he's basically white.
--
Now beam me up Scottie!
1 You go find your mommy chopped up in the tub
With "Stop Snitching" written on a note by her body
2 I picked up your ho and she wore something tiny
I wore something simple, she like that about me
3 My dough from the 90s
My dope ain't consignment
4 My coke ain't that Diet
I hope you a client
5 These hoes be relyin
These niggas be lyin
6 These niggas who snitchin
We throw to the lions
7 Ain't no testifyin
You know deserts quiet
8 So scream until you give your throat laryngitis
We so terrorizin
9 You cuddle too much
You choose hoes to confide in
10 I know where you hidin
That ho verified it
--
This is where it gets real. I didn't number the first line because it feels like an intro or almost like a final warning letting you know he's about to snap.
That first bar had me spinning for a looong time. The rhyme scheme feels like it's all over the place, but it works. I feel like the image he's presenting needs no explanation, but the delivery requires absolute precision in terms of syllable count and where you place the actual rhyme. A masterful combination of gruesome imagery and technical genius.
Bar 2 is an immediate tonal shift, basically describing how he'll get along with your girl after brutalizing your mom. Almost like he's brushing aside the crazy shit he just said.
Actually, after thinking about it for a while, I guess "mommy" could be more like "mami", talking more about a love interest than anyone's mom. In that case, Bar 2 would be like a prequel for Bar 1. Might be too deep though.
Bar 3 - His money is old but his product is fresh🙏
I feel like the first line on Bar 4 might get missed, so I'll add a note. Diet Coke is a drink. The coke he's referring to is not that.
Bar 5 - I assume the hoes are relying on him for his money. Classic.
Bars 6 through 8 all follow the same theme, and it's all about dealing with the talkers. My favorite part is the screaming in the desert. Very visual.
Bars 9 and 10 are another example of where too much talking can get you. The consequences are laid out in more detail in the next section.
--
1 I told my homie "I know where to find him"
He said "You late, we already got him -
2 And by the way, it was an honor!"
That made my day
3 Made me so proud I bought my bitch some shit from her favorite designer
And a Chihuahua
4 "What's the occasion?"
"Don't worry about it"
5 I don't fuck with snakes
Except Kobe The Mamba
6 Might cut off my hair cuz these hoes is Delilahs
Let me check my wallet, my pulse, and my vitals
--
So, technically the story starts around Bar 9 from Part 4, but the bulk of the action is here, in Bars 1 - 4. I find it can be difficult to follow Wayne's overarching storylines if you're not used to his delivery, so I threw up quotation marks where appropriate. My thinking here is that the way the bars are split up can make it difficult to tell if, for example, Bar 4 is continuing the ideas in 3, or starting some new adventure with Bar 5. It's also entirely possible this isn't an issue for anyone at all and the whole thing is clear from the beginning.
One thing I want to say about Bar 3 is that the way he says "proud I" sounds a lot like "Prada". Maybe this is completely unintentional, but it's like he's dropping a hint as to what that favorite designer actually is. Even if it's just a weird coincidence, it's an example of how his lyrics are like multi-sided puzzle pieces that can connect on multiple levels.
Bar 5 is one of those standalone bars that don't need any context, and seems to exist where it does mostly for the sake of the rhyme scheme. That said, however, it's still fully loaded with classic Wayne imagery and wordplay, shouting out Kobe, who is worthy of respect even though he's presented as a kind of snake (The Mamba)
Bar 6 might require some Bible knowledge to fully appreciate. In short, Wayne is comparing himself to Samson, a man who had great power born of a vow that his hair would remain uncut. Delilah was the one who betrayed him and cut his hair while he slept. Wayne's message here is that he'd rather bring about his own downfall than let these hoes get to him first.
--
1 Call me the greatest or call me retired
It's up in the air, like carbon monoxide
2 Bitch, we in the buildin
We started from outside
3 My dick is my third eye
And she call it cock eye
4 My bathtub lift up
My walls do a 360
5 She get so wet
It can be seasickenin
6 Niggas expect
Some sort of leniency
7 I'm in high def
But why are you screenin me?
8 I'm Weezy F - you
With a sick dick
9 Hop on my skateboard
Do a quick trick
10 Playin my role
Even with a thick script
11 Waitin on a revolution
Hope I get a big tip
12 Smokin on CeeLo Green
Lightin up a Big Gipp
13 Every bud get nipped
Life a soap opera and the sons just Tripp
14 Anything can happen, put the whats with the ifs
But what's with the ifs?
15 Just pass that weed like flyin colors
Like green, teal, turquoise, purple
16 When I'm in the room, if these walls could talk
I'm sure they'd prefer to be non-verbal
--
This part's a beast, but I'll do what I can. The intimidating thing is that all the bars in this section can more or less stand apart from each other, so I have to approach them one by one.
Bar 1 - The first line seems pretty simple - if he's not the greatest at what he's doing, it's because he's no longer doing it. The carbon monoxide part can run pretty deep though. If "it's up in the air" can be read as "it's up for debate", then the carbon monoxide could be interpreted as "there's danger in debating it". Hopefully that makes sense to someone else other than me.
Bar 2 - Pretty simple, as far as I can tell. Something like "we went from rags to riches" but in Wayne's own parlance.
Bar 3 - The whole bar seems to originate from the word cockeyed, where he took the word apart to play with it and came out with his dick being a third eye. Very meta. I don't even really know what else to say about it except it reminds me of Popeye (the Sailor Man). Is there another Wayne line out there about Popeye? I feel like there must be.
Bar 4 - Probably just drugs.
Bar 5 - More great wordplay. In describing how wet she is he goes for a metaphor that should evoke images of an oceanic amount of water.
Bar 6 - Possibly the most straightforward bar of the song. The implication is that no one will get any leniency.
Bar 7 - A bit of a twister. I assume screening refers to a form of filtering, like screening calls. The high def part though is what allows screening to mean watching, as in "screening a movie". So basically he knows he's worth screening like a movie, because he's in high def, but instead some are screening him out like an annoying caller.
Bar 8 - Quick change of rhyme scheme here, the last one ends with Weezy F, the new one begins with you. Maybe it's something deep like you can carry the torch after Weezy. Given the second line though, probably not that deep.
Bar 9 - A happy-go-lucky bar that doesn't need much explanation.
Bar 10-11 - I want to put these two together because they're both on some next shit. First, a thick script implies a substantial or difficult role, and he's more than willing to play it. The answer to what that role actually is, may or may not be in Bar 11. The "big tip" line implies that there's more than one meaning to "waitin on a revolution". One is something like "I'm killin time until the revolution comes", and the other is "There's a revolution going on and I'm serving people what they want". I think it's that second meaning, implied by the last line, which tells you what role he's talking about in the previous bar. It all loops back on itself. Everything is connected.
Bar 12 - CeeLo Green and Big Gipp are both long time veterans of the rap game. In both cases, Wayne is using their names as euphemisms for his drug use, likely as a sign of respect more than anything else.
Bar 13 - You can probably translate the first line as "every problem gets solved" with a bit of a menacing undertone. Tripp is likely a reference to the character Tripp Dalton on the soap opera Days of our Lives. The big problem with this is that, according to my research, that character didn't actually exist until 2017, so either Wayne is a time traveller, or he had something else in mind with the lyric. I have no idea what else it could be though.
Bar 14 - Putting the whats with the ifs literally gives you "what if" as a counterpart to "anything can happen". The "what's with the ifs" is a twisting of the previous line, from endless possibilities to something like questioning doubt. All things considered, a very abstract bar that could be saying just about anything.
Bar 15 - A relatively common bit of wordplay for Wayne, where "pass" takes on the meaning of both passing an object (the weed, in this case) and passing a test. The listed colors themselves are another potential mystery though. My best guess is they're all shades you can find in your bud if you look close enough, though turquoise might be a bit of a stretch.
Bar 16 - In my opinion, a very imaginative anti-snitching bar.
--
1 Papa was a rollin stone
Worthless
2 Mama said I wasn't on
Purpose
3 That's why I got an icebox where my heart used to be
In this cold world I'm a monster
4 A cold-blooded monster
I'm colder than fuckin Moscow
5 Kilos, Ounces
Grammies, Oscars
6 Knock you off your fuckin high horse
Like a cold-blooded jouster
7 Fightin for my life
Prayin to the ring-side announcer
8 It's so simple that it's complicated
You think about mistakes that's when you made em
9 The water's runnin baby, I ain't chasin
Cuz only in still water's when we see our faces
Real shit
--
The bars in this part are a lot more interconnected than in the previous one, so it should be a bit easier to keep track of where Wayne's mind might be going.
Bars 1 to 4 all come from an introspective Wayne, giving a brief explanation of who he is and why he might be like that. The first two bars are a bit of personal history wrapped in two fairly negative examples of his parentage. The reason a rolling stone might be worthless in Wayne's eye has to do with a bit of beef that he had with the Rolling Stones a while back. Another example of history adding context to wordplay. Whether or not his mom ever said that he wasn't "on purpose" is a bit more of a mystery, at least to me.
Bars 3 and 4 focus on emphasizing the result his upbringing had on him. All four lines build one big metaphor for how he became colder than cold because that's what the world demanded of him. Funnily enough the Moscow line reminds me of another track where he says he's hotter than Uganda. He's got the whole thermometer on lock.
Bar 5 has a strong rags-to-riches feel to it, and Wayne manages to paint two different worlds side by side with just four words.
Bars 6 and 7 are a bit abstract and harder to pin down. The cold-blooded jouster line ties together the idea that he stands above his competition, with a reminder of his previously established cold nature. The thing that's most curious to me here is the idea of him praying to the ringside announcer. The obvious image seems to be something like him saying "please stop the fight", but after the line "fightin for my life" it feels like it takes on a dark and desperate flavor that doesn't really fit with the rest of the lyrics.
Bars 8 and 9 are a repeat of the intro in Part 1. You can check the pin for my thoughts on it. In this specific case I think it serves to frame the entire song, and takes on the feeling of a chorus, and even though it only repeats the one time, it stands out enough to be memorable.
--
Tell em:
1 I don't need no pot to piss in
I just need a pot to whip it
2 I don't need no fuckin help
I don't need no Scottie Pippen
3 I don't need a lotta niggas
I just need that chopper with me
4 Graveyard or penitentiary
I keep runnin outta niggas
5 I ain't runnin out on niggas
Nope
6 I ain't runnin out on niggas
No
7 I don't need a lotta niggas
I just need this chopper with me
8 Graveyard or penitentiary
I keep runnin outta niggas
9 I ain't runnin out on niggas
No
Now beam me up, Scottie
--
There's a technique on display here, where Wayne makes a statement and then makes either an opposing, or reinforcing statement with just a small change in wording. In Bar 1 this is exemplified by him talking about a pot in both lines but meaning entirely different things in each one. The first line tells you he's not interested in getting by with the bare minimum (or in taking handouts), and the second line tells you he'll always keep grinding as long as there's work.
Bar 2 more or less says the same thing with both lines, but the second line in particular reinforces the idea that he's here to do all the work by himself, with no need for a Scottie Pippen type of partner that he can always rely on.
Bar 3 continues to feed into the same narrative, and he explains that he gets all the help he needs from his gun, rather than from other people. It's also an interesting way of displaying how one can be greater than many.
Bars 4 and 5 paint some of the most powerful imagery in the song, and again with just a few words. The message here is that he'll keep standing tall, even when the people around him get taken by the prisons and the cemeteries.
My favorite thing about this section is that the background synth makes me think of aliens and UFOs flying overhead. Some X-Files shit. They're coming down to take Weezy back to Mars.
