If we were to have a conversation about mafioso rap (rap about the culture of American street gangs), we would have mentioned things like Reasonable Doubt from Jay-Z, The Infamous by Mobb Deep, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…by Raekwon, or Illmatic from Nas. Illmatic is not just the debut album from Nas; it also opened the door to one of the best albums of the nineties that is quite often forgotten, an album called Doe or Die by AZ.
Prelude
The rapper was born in 1972 in Brooklyn, started rapping when he was 12 years old, and still does so in his fifties. He went to the same high school as Jay-Z, but the one who got him into rap properly was Nas, his friend since he was young. A famous rapper from Queens invited AZ to the studio to help him with his debut album Illmatic, let him rap one verse (which is considered one of the best verses by the guest rapper ever) on the track Life’s a Bitch, and secured him a deal with EMI Records so he could start working on his own debut called Doe or Die.
Doe or Die was released on October 10, 1995, placed itself in the 15th position on the Billboard 200 chart, and collected an uncountable number of good reviews. Within his lyrics, AZ goes through his lifestyle, the lifestyle of his peers, and some fictional characters. Stories are capturing business with drugs, brutal violence, rise to power and fame, but also the consequences that come with a criminal life. The cover of the album shows the grave of the young AZ as a mob boss because this life path leads only to hell. Track Uncut Raw will lead us through hell and perfectly show the rapper’s perfect storytelling capacity.
Hell
Before we get to the lyrics of the song, we want to mention that the whole atmosphere of hell is being induced by the beat of the track. Beat was produced by Loose and AZ himself. The beat is simple with great rhythm and is accompanied by the sound of shots and reloads from automatic weapons. While listening to this track, you feel like music took over your body and drove you towards complete destruction. Another great aspect of the song is its structure. The track has a very simple intro: “No need for lactose, pure straight out Bolivia, Peru. Uncut baby, what? (Fuck you!),” mentioning cocaine that is clear and not mixed with anything. The listener is immediately drawn into the drug underworld and engulfed in a dark atmosphere. The first verse has 18 bars, the second one has just 12, and the third only has 7. The rhythm of the track is faster and faster, so you feel like you are being sucked into a world from which there is no escape more and more.
„Life is a struggle, that’s why ni**as I know stay on the juggle
Some hustle to double, others hug you, then mug you
Poverty-stricken, they even turn a church kid into stickin’
It seems sickenin’, but what! Whatever makes the pockets thicken.“
Right from the beginning, you can hear the issues AZ and his friends were going through. The vision of the money that is necessary to survive and run away from the ghettos will make most of the young people do absolutely anything. When you are drowning in poverty, you walk off the path, even when you were raised in the way of God. In between each verse is a short but hard-hitting refrain.
„What? For my hype ni**s (Uncut)
Trife ni**s (Raw), 25-to-life ni**as.“
AZ says that his music is dedicated to the people who spend time or will spend some time in prison. Life in the gang and in the criminal underground leads only to prison or, even worse, to death. There is no other way, and AZ is fully aware of this. A short refrain does not bring any hope and just sinks the listener even deeper into despair. The second verse talks about drugs and ends with:
So exhale, ’cause if I don’t live to tell
Then fuck it, farewell, I’ll see the rest of y’all niggas in Hell.“
The picture that the rapper paints here is really apocalyptic. If he dies, he will meet everybody in hell; he does not see any other way or any redemption.
„Have to survive, I done seen it all, Peter pay Paul
From the connivers to the livest, they crack for
It’s all war, the streets are filled up with guns galore
Training young for war, gettin’ their minds flung for sure.“
The third verse, the shortest one, ends with the rapper finding similarities between the war and life on the street: young people in ghettos must learn how to survive; otherwise, they will die and end up in hell.
Uncut Raw is just one of the 15 amazing tracks on this undying classic. AZ‘s debut is at the same time his best work, which belongs between the best classics of the genre. If you have not listened to it yet, you should definitely catch up.
Translated from Czech by Rado.
