Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted - One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

Yo! His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready
To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting
What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud
He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out
He's chokin', how everybody's jokin' now
The clock's run out, time's up over, blah!
Snap back to reality, Oh there goes gravity
Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked
He's so mad, but he won't give up that
Is he? No
He won't have it , he knows his whole back's to these ropes
It don't matter, he's dope
He knows that, but he's broke
He's so stacked that he knows
When he goes back to his mobile home, that's when it's
Back to the lab again yo
This whole rap shit
He better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him

shot chance

slip get away from you

Yo! used to get attention (or in later instances in this song, fill the beat)


drop bombs make great rhymes
goes so loud makes so much noise

chokin' losing his courage


choked did badly because he couldn't take the pressure


he knows his whole back's to these ropes he's like a boxer in the ring dope good
broke without money
stacked non-traditional use of the word to mean possibly "depressed." Normally this word is used to describe a woman with big breasts.

Back to the lab back to work on his skills
shit field
it don't It doesn't

shot chance to blow probably from to blow up (become famous in a short time) usually blow means fail, but in this context it is more like the jazz slang meaning play
l



T


post mortem after death

hoes prostitutes/easy women





cuz because
cold product no longer exciting
schmoe fool flows raps well
nose dove crashed (like a plane) nada nothing (Spanish)
potna partner

I'ma I'm going to
Tear this mothafuckin roof off Perform really well: the roof of the concert hall will be torn off by the skill and/or noise (also "blow the roof off")
cipher This has several meanings - it can be a rap about his life, a kind of group rap event where performers show off, or in Standard English, a secret code

9 to 5 regular job

my seed my child/children
prima donna a performer (usually female) who is egotistical and badly behaved (similar to diva) Baby mama drama's screamin My child's mother is making a theatrical scene
jam problem



mothafuckin used for emphasis. (from mother fucker - very offensive)

mobile homecheap prefabricated home, stereotypically owned by poor whites in the US

soap opera daily afternoon television series, focusing on family problems, romance and intrigue. Similar to Spanish telanovelas.

but the beat goes on reference to 1967 Sonny and Cher hit

Best believe somebody's payin the pied piper Reference to traditional German story "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." The piper was hired to help the village with their rat problem. When they didn't pay, he left with the town's children.

food stamps US government issued vouchers, given to poor citizens, which can be used as currency only to buy food.

Mekhi Phifer African American actor who appeared in Eminem's semi-autobiograhpical movie, 8-mile

Salem's lot Stephen King book about a town with vampire problems

Feet fail me not A runner's slogan ("Feet don't fail me now") popularized by track and field star Bruce Jenner in the 1976 Olympics. Jenner wore the message on a sweat shirt and went on to win the Decathlon. The phrase later appeared in George Clinton's One Nation Under a Groove (1978), a positive song that also included the line "Nothin' can stop us now!" In 1997, Ice Cube incorporated this influential song in his rap Bop Gun. The expression was originally the catchphrase of Birmingham Brown (played by Manton Moreland), the manservant of Charlie Chan in 1930s detectives movies. Like the character of Chan himself, Brown was a racial stereotype. He always uttered this phrase in exaggerated fear when preparing to run from danger. This reference was also used by Kanye West in Jesus Walks. (Thanks to astute reader Jim P. for the Moreland reference!)