"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
It ain't hard to tell, I excel, then prevail
The mic is contacted, I attract clientele
My mic check is life or death, breathin' a sniper's breath
I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous steps
Deep like the Shining, sparkle like a diamond
Sneak a Uzi on the island in my army jacket linin'
Hit the Earth like a comet, invasion
Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazin'
'Cause in my physical I can express through song
Delete stress like Motrin, then extend strong
I drink Moët with Medusa, give her shotguns in Hell
From the spliff that I lift and inhale, it ain't hard to tell
The buddha monk's in your trunk, turn the bass up
Not stories by Aesop
Place your loot up, parties I shoot up
Nas, I analyze, drop a jewel, inhale from the L
School a fool well, you feel it like Braille
It ain't hard to tell, I kick a skill like Shaquille holds a pill
Vocabulary spills, I'm Ill plus Matic
I freak beats, slam it like Iron Sheik
Jam like a TEC with correct techniques
So analyze me, surprise me, but can't magmatize me
Scannin' while you're plannin' ways to sabotage me
I leave 'em froze like heroin in your nose
Nas'll rock well, it ain't hard to tell
This rhythmatic explosion
Is what your frame of mind has chosen
I'll leave your brain stimulated, niggas is frozen
Speak with criminal slang, begin like a violin
End like Leviathan, it's deep? Well, let me try again
Wisdom be leaking out my grapefruit, troop
I dominate break loops, givin' mics men-e-strual cycles
Street's disciple, I rock beats that's mega trifle
And groove even smoother than moves by Villanova
You're still a soldier, I'm like Sly Stone in Cobra
Packin' like a Rasta in the weed spot
Vocals'll squeeze Glocks
MCs eavesdrop, though they need not to sneak
My poetry's deep, I never fell
Nas' raps should be locked in a cell, it ain't hard to tell
The mic is contacted, I attract clientele
My mic check is life or death, breathin' a sniper's breath
I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous steps
Deep like the Shining, sparkle like a diamond
Sneak a Uzi on the island in my army jacket linin'
Hit the Earth like a comet, invasion
Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazin'
'Cause in my physical I can express through song
Delete stress like Motrin, then extend strong
I drink Moët with Medusa, give her shotguns in Hell
From the spliff that I lift and inhale, it ain't hard to tell
The buddha monk's in your trunk, turn the bass up
Not stories by Aesop
Place your loot up, parties I shoot up
Nas, I analyze, drop a jewel, inhale from the L
School a fool well, you feel it like Braille
It ain't hard to tell, I kick a skill like Shaquille holds a pill
Vocabulary spills, I'm Ill plus Matic
I freak beats, slam it like Iron Sheik
Jam like a TEC with correct techniques
So analyze me, surprise me, but can't magmatize me
Scannin' while you're plannin' ways to sabotage me
I leave 'em froze like heroin in your nose
Nas'll rock well, it ain't hard to tell
This rhythmatic explosion
Is what your frame of mind has chosen
I'll leave your brain stimulated, niggas is frozen
Speak with criminal slang, begin like a violin
End like Leviathan, it's deep? Well, let me try again
Wisdom be leaking out my grapefruit, troop
I dominate break loops, givin' mics men-e-strual cycles
Street's disciple, I rock beats that's mega trifle
And groove even smoother than moves by Villanova
You're still a soldier, I'm like Sly Stone in Cobra
Packin' like a Rasta in the weed spot
Vocals'll squeeze Glocks
MCs eavesdrop, though they need not to sneak
My poetry's deep, I never fell
Nas' raps should be locked in a cell, it ain't hard to tell
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
It Ain't Hard to Tell Lyrics as written by Gene Redd John Bettis
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
The most exciting song off Illmatic, with human wailing production that sends chills down my spine. Nas, the school dropout and drug seller, combines poetry and rap so well the lines are blurred. His weed smoking is fact, of course, and though he probably held weapons I'm pretty sure he didn't shoot up parties. "Breathin' the sniper's breath"...this is Nas showing off his warrior side: he is an officer, with fierce and combative rhymes, and a gentleman, with intellect (afrocentricism, Hobbes). Both sides of the coin are blurred together, as if it has been spun into a speheric motion to the urgent, dramtic beat. Classic, grimy hip-hop from Queensbridge NYC, the largest housing project in the United States.
The line about giving shotguns in hell is probably my favourite line in all of music history, and I never knew what it meant until someone broke it down for me on a youtube comment. It truly shows Nas' lyrical skill.
A shotgun is when you blow the blunt smoke from your mouth into someone else's mouth. Medusa was a fictional character that could turn you into stone if you looked at her. So what he is saying when he says "I drink moets with Medusa, give her shotguns in hell..." is that he is so sick that he can not only get high and drunk with Medusa without getting turned to stone, but also that he kind of flips the script and gets medusa stoned by giving her shotguns.
Only certain individuals will understand the meaning.
is there any other rapper, never mind gansta rapper, who would throw a hobbes reference? and the ill combination of wordz that no other rapper could ever possibly concieve...sneak an uzi on the island in my army jacket lining....this was the pinnacle of midern hip hop in my opinion, its all downhill compared 2 this
yeah me too. this is one of the greatest hip-hop songs in history and he did it without using profanity (not that swearing is a bad thing but that's pretty impressive). one question though: is the line about giving medusa shotguns in hell a reference to Dante's Inferno?
one of the best hip hop songs ever, in my opinion.
this is just braggadocio rapping 101. simple as that. you could write a million songs and never come off as dope as this. beautiful
I can rap every verse in this song by heart.
Good song.
What does it mean when he says "I kick a skill like Shaquille holds a pill"? Shaq O'Neal is an NBA player, but what does this mean?