Street Chains (2015)

The heart and the beat

Street Chains (2015)
At least two chains
audio-thumbnail
Street Chains
0:00
/0:29

Lord, please - kilos, OZs
Cuz my bitch high class she like Pinot and cheese
I dropped out of class ho I'm zero degrees
I can out-think a shrink she can deepthroat a tree
I can hijack a Brinks ooh my sweet soda pink

I'm a freakshow to freaks
I'm spittin these bars hope my bar tab is cheap
I'm a hard man to reach
I'm newborn and deceased
I'm too hard for this beat
I'm the heart and the beat

The Chong and the Cheech, my blunt long as a speech
Roach look like a leech, I'm too long for the brief
I'm too wrong for the priest with this chrome on your teeth
It get blown out your cheek!


There's so much going on here that it's hard to pick highlights. In fact, there are other sections of the song that hit just as hard, but this particular bit is where Wayne snaps and stays snapped. Thematically, he touches on just about every idea in his usual repertoire; his passion for drugs, his experience with females, his money and the ways he acquires it, his rap ability, and his penchant for sin. He then wraps it all up in some of his best imagery and wordplay.

Having said that, I think the most powerful line is the one with the fewest words. In my mind the first line is him praying for the means to sustain his girl's expensive tastes, and even the Lord knows exactly what he's asking for, so there's no need to specify anything other than an amount. It's something like praying for the opportunity to hustle rather than an immediate result. Real.

I separated the middle section from the rest simply because it stands out as a series of self-aggrandizing ideas. What stands out to me though is him saying that he's a freak-show even for the freaks. He's not actually saying he's the best among his peers, but more so that his Martian status is undoubtedly worthy of acknowledgement. "Newborn and deceased" is another good mind-bender, and the way the beat drops on the word "beat" is 🔥

I was gonna cut it off there but that would be disrespectful to the energy he brings to the rest of these bars. The weed lines are pretty standard, though I'm wondering if I can consider "too long" as a new synonym for too high. Someone please confirm. The real big one here though is his explanation for why even the priests can't help him. The imagery, wordplay, and delivery are all perfect, especially with how "chrome" fluctuates between gun and grill. The crazy thing is it feels like he says this shit without even really planning it. Genius is an inadequate description.