It's foul what this money could do, cash corrupts the loyal.
NasRead
It's a thin line between paper and hate,_x000D_ _x000D_ Friends and snakes, nine millis and thirty-eights,_x000D_ _x000D_ Hell or the pearly gates...I was destined to come,_x000D_ _x000D_ Predicted, blame God, He blew breath in my lungs.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the fine balance between love and hate, as well as destiny and choices in life.
In this quote, Nas explores the dualities of life, emphasizing how easily one can slip from positivity to negativity, and how our circumstances are often dictated by fate and divine influence. He illustrates a personal narrative that intertwines companionship and betrayal, highlighting the complexities of relationships and the weight of existential choices that shape one’s path.
In practice
In a speech about making choices and dealing with betrayal.
It's foul what this money could do, cash corrupts the loyal.
I pledge allegiance to the fair and balanced truth._x000D_ _x000D_ Not the biased truth,_x000D_ _x000D_ Not the liest truth,_x000D_ _x000D_ But the highest truth.
Every time I get in the studio, I feel like I wanna have some fun. My fun is not doing the easy work. My fun is doing what's me.
If you scared to take chances, you'll never have the answers...
I don't respect killers, I respect O.G. knowledge,_x000D_ _x000D_ Codes of the streets got new rules, but no guidance._x000D_ _x000D_ Lessons, detrimental to a young disciple;_x000D_ _x000D_ Folks, take care of your brothers, niggas do as I do._x000D_ _x000D_ Keep your enemies close, where they can see you._x000D_ _x000D_ It's not your enemy who get you, it's always your own people.
I rap for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners
So go out and live real good and I promise you'll get beat up real bad. But, in a little while after you're dead, you'll be rotted away anyway. It's not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn't live.
When I say to the Moment flying; 'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!' Then bind me in thy bonds undying, And my final ruin I will bear!
Nobody’s going to save you. No one’s going to cut you down, cut the thorns thick around you. No one’s going to storm the castle walls nor kiss awake your birth, climb down your hair, nor mount you onto the white steed. There is no one who will feed the yearning. Face it. You will have to do, do it yourself.
Look, I don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive you've got to flap your arms and legs, you've got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you're not alive.
Life is a game like any other; we just don't take it as seriously.
There's something about knowing life is finite that makes it so precious.
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