ちなみに上記1つ目のフリースタイルは，JAY-Zの名曲「Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator’99)」からですね。1998年にリリースされた曲ですが，いまだに「聴ける」という素晴らしさ。この曲の名物ぶりはさて置いて，ティエラ・ワックが同曲で上記フリースタイルをカマシてるっつうのは，まさに将来有望でしょう。
リリースから1年後の今，アルバム『Ye』を振り返って，カニエがアルバム冒頭の楽曲「I Thought About Killing You」でラップしている歌詞の一部について，注目しておきたいと思います。
カニエはこういう歌詞で曲を始めております。
[Verse: Kanye West]
I called up my loved ones, I called up my cousins
I called up the Muslims, said I’m ’bout to go dumb
Get so bright, it’s no sun, get so loud, I hear none
Screamed so loud, got no lungs, hurt so bad, I go numb
Time to bring in the drums, that prrt-pu-pu-pum
Set the NewTone on ’em, set the nuke off on ’em
I need coke with no rum, I taste coke on her tongue
I don’t joke with no one, they’ll say he die so young
I done had a bad case of too many bad days
Got too many bad traits, used the floor for ashtrays
I don’t do shit halfway, I’ma clear the cache
モス・デフは2011年9月に自身の名前を法的に「Yasiin Bey（ヤシーン・ベイ）」に改名し，2016年1月19日，カニエ・ウェストのホームページでヒップホップ業界からの引退宣言をしました。モス・デフ改めヤシーン・ベイは，母親シェロン・スミスと父親アブドゥル・ラフマーンの子です。父親アブドゥル・ラフマーンはネーション・オヴ・イスラーム（Nation of Islam（略してNOI））の信者で，ワリス・ディーン・ムハンマドというスンニ派（イスラム教徒の宗派）に信徒として仕えました。モス・デフは２０代の頃，ア・トライブ・コールド・クエスト（A Tribe Called Quest）という偉大なるヒップホップ・グループのメンバーでありイスラム教徒であるアリ・シャヒード・ムハンマドやＱティップ（Q-Tip）とよくつるんでいました。
Big bills like a platypus
A caterpillar’s comin’ to get the cannabis
I’m lookin’ for the smoke but you motherfuckers are scatterin’ Batterin’ everything and I’ve had it with the inadequate Man, I can see my dick is standin’ stiff as a mannequin
And I’m bringin’ the bandana back, and the fuckin’ headband again
A handkerchief and I’m thinkin’ of bringin’ the fuckin’ fingerless gloves back
And not giving a singular fuck, like fuck rap
[Verse]
Gentrify your own hood, before these people do it
Claim eminent domain and have your people movin’
That’s a small glimpse into what Nipsey was doing
For anybody that’s still confused as to what he was doing
The neighborhood is designed to keep us trapped
They red line us, so property declines if you live by blacks
They depress the asset and take the property back
It’s a ruthless but a genius plan in fact
So now we fighting over scraps
Crabs in a barrel, but crabs don’t belong in the barrel and they ain’t never tell us that
So in the barrel, we gonna act like we act
We can easily get out the barrel if we stand on each other’s back
Whoever gets on top, as long as they stay attached
They gonna pull everybody out
I was doing just that
I told Neighborhood Nipsey stay close
There’s a 100 million dollars on your schedule, lay low
Tell your team to be on point in the places that they go
I never dreamed that he get killed in the place that he called home
How we gonna get in power if we kill the source?
Y’all like to run off on the plug, so of course
That ain’t lit, that’s a means to an end
Me and my team was playing the plug ahead of plan
Sometimes we was only making a $1000 a joint
That ain’t no money, but that ain’t main point
So those 92 bricks was only 92 thou
So y’all can close your mouth, it ain’t nothing for y’all to wild (wow)
But it is something to study
We was chasing our goals, not chasing money
Niggas chasing hoes, we find that funny
I pull up in the Rolls, that hoe gon’ want me
But I don’t want no hoe, I want a wife
Somebody to bounce these ideas off at night
I be going to sleep hoping Nip visit me
That young king had a lot of jewels to split with me
And we ain’t gotta leave the hood physically
But we gotta leave that shit mentally
これはファレルもさることながら，カニエ・ウェストが全世界に広めたことでも有名なKAWS先生のキャラクターです。本件ミュージック・フェス“Something In The Water”のコンセプトは，何かの物体（Something）が海に浮かんでいる（in the water）。それが浜辺に乗り上げて，ポツンとこのビーチに座っているわけです。それがこのデッカいキャラクターなのです。これは浜辺に乗り上げた姿なのです。そこから，この物体（＝KAWSのHolidayキャラクター）がライヴステージを鑑賞している，という考え方なのです。ですから，この“Something In The Water”ミュージックフェスの主役は，ライヴで演奏するアーティストたちでもはなく，主宰者のファレル・ウィリアムスでもなく，コイツ＝KAWSのキャラクターなのです。彼（彼女？無性？）のためにライヴをやり，彼（彼女？無性？）のためにフェスを開催している，というコンセプトであります。
Meek Mill feat. Rick Ross & JAY-Z – “What’s Free”（ヴァース３及びサビ部分対訳）
[Verse 3: JAY-Z]
In the land of the free, where the blacks enslaved
Three-fifths of a man, I believe’s the phrase
I’m 50% of D’USSÉ and it’s debt free (Yeah)
100% of Ace of Spades, worth half a B (Uh)
Roc Nation, half of that, that’s my piece
Hunnid percent of TIDAL to bust it up with my Gs, uh
Since most of my niggas won’t ever work together
You run a check up but they never give you leverage
No red hat, don’t Michael and Prince me and ‘Ye
They separate you when you got Michael and Prince’s DNA, uh
I ain’t one of these house niggas you bought
My house like a resort, my house bigger than yours
My spou- (Come on, man)
My route better, of course
We started without food in our mouth
They gave us pork and pig intestines
Shit you discarded that we ingested, we made the project a wave
You came back, reinvested and gentrified it
Took niggas’ sense of pride, now how that’s free?
And them people stole the soul and hit niggas with 360s, huh
I ain’t got a billion streams, got a billion dollars
Inflating numbers like we ‘posed to be happy about this
We was praisin’ Billboard, but we were young
Now I look at Billboard like, “Is you dumb?”
To this day, Grandma ‘fraid what I might say
They gon’ have to kill me, Grandmama, I’m not they slave
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, check out the bizarre (Ah)
Rappin’ style used by me, the H-O-V
Look at my hair free, carefree, niggas ain’t near free
Enjoy your chains, what’s your employer name with the hairpiece?
I survived the hood, can’t no Shaytan rob me
My accountant’s so good, I’m practically livin’ tax free
Factory, that’s me
Sold drugs, got away scot-free
That’s a CC, E-copy
Guilt free, still me
And expect me to not feel a way to this day
You would say y’all killed me
Sucker free, no shuckin’ me, I don’t jive turkey
Say “Happy Thanksgiving,” shit sound like a murder to me
Smoke free, all of y’all callin’ out toll free
Label rob you for millions yet you wanna put a hole in me
Sugar free, seasoned but I’m salt free
You lay a hand on Hov, my shooter shoot for free
I promise World War Three
Send a order through a hands free
Kill you in 24 hours or shorter, you can’t ignore the hand speed
On god, it’s off the head, this improv but it’s no comedy
Sign I fail? Hell nah
(Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha) Hahahahahahahahaha
[Chorus: Meek Mill]
What’s free?
Free is when nobody else could tell us what to be
Free is when the TV ain’t controllin’ what we see
Told my niggas, “I need you”
Through all the fame, you know I stayed true
Pray my niggas stay free
Made a few mistakes but this ain’t where I wanna be
Before I’m judged by 12, put a 12 on my V
Told my niggas, “I need you”
Stay up, I know these times ain’t true
Real life, what’s free?
（写真は，下記歌詞の３行目で言及されている「Maybe it’s the Michael Rubins or the Robert Krafts（ビリオネアのマイケル・ルービンとロバート・クラフトのお蔭で）」の写真。写真左から，同郷フィラデルフィア出身のコメディアン＝ケヴィン・ハート，ロバート・クラフト，マイケル・ルービン，そしてミーク・ミル。歌詞では，彼ら（＝ルービンとクラフト）とマーシー・プロジェクツ出身のビリオネア＝ジェイＺが俺をサポートしてくれたお蔭で，刑務所から釈放され自由になれた，と言っている。ちなみに，ロバート・クラフトは，アメフトチームNew English Patriotsのオーナー。マイケル・ルービンは，NBAチームPhiladelphia 76ersのオーナー。）
Meek Mill feat. Rick Ross & JAY-Z – “What’s Free”（ヴァース２対訳）
[Verse 2: Meek Mill]
Fed investigations, heard they plottin’ like I trap
20 mill’ in cash, they know I got that off of rap
Maybe it’s the Michael Rubins or the Robert Krafts
Or the billionaire from Marcy, and the way they got my back, uh
See how I prevailed now they try to knock me back, uh
Locked me in a cell for all them nights and I won’t snap, uh
Two-fifty a show and they still think I’m sellin’ crack, uh
When you bring my name up to the judge, just tell him facts
Tell him how we fundin’ all these kids to go to college
Tell him how we ceasin’ all these wars, stoppin’ violence
Tryna fix the system and the way that they designed it
I think they want me silenced (Shush)
Oh, say you can see, I don’t feel like I’m free
Locked down in my cell, shackled from ankle to feet
Judge bangin’ that gavel, turned me to slave from a king
Another day in the bing, I gotta hang from a string
Just for poppin’ a wheelie, my people march through the city
From a cell to a chopper, view from the top of the city
You can tell how we rockin’, soon as I pop up we litty
Poppin’ like Bad Boy in ’94, Big Poppa and Diddy
And niggas counted me out like my accountant ain’t busy
That’s five milli’ in twenties, sit up and count ’til I’m dizzy
Phantom 500 thousand, hundred round in a stizzy
Is we beefin’ or rappin’? I might just pop up with Drizzy like
