Rap Attack!

by Richard Poe
Wednesday, July 2, 2003
7:03 am Eastern Time

A rapper calling himself “Jay-Z” appears to have mentioned me in a rap song! He says:

“It’s not about rich and po’, nigga, it’s about Richard Poe
Understand I’m here to get this dough”

And just in case anyone doubts that I am the Richard Poe mentioned herein, a rap fan calling himself Quez quotes the same lyric on the sohh.com forum, complete with a link to my bio. See here (sorry, no permlinks):

“It’s not about rich and po’, nigga, it’s about Richard Poe”
Understand I’m here to get this dough”

As with so many rap lyrics, the challenge now is to figure out what Jay-Z is talking about — a question I will be pondering over the next few days. I will also be pondering whether or not the “Jay-Z” quoted above is the same — apparently famous — “Jay-Z” whose bio appears here on MTV.com.

In the meantime, don’t forget to buy your copy of the reggae hit Black Spark White Fire by Amadi! It is based upon my book of the same title: Black Spark, White Fire: Did African Explorers Civilize Ancient Europe?

UPDATE (Friday, July 4, 2003): Jason Malloy at GnXp.com offers his comments in a post provocatively titled, “Richard Poe – Honorary Nigga?!!” Hmmm.

UPDATE (Friday, July 4, 2003): Now Sasha Castel-Dodge has named me “The Hip-Hop Blogger.” This raises an intriguing question. Am I the first blogger to be mentioned in a rap song?

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Comments

14 Responses to “Rap Attack!”

H Bey says:

March 11, 2014 at 1:28 am

He’s talking about an argument over his disrespecting Richard Porter…. Former Harlem drug kingpin. Idiots.

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Texas Tom says:

July 2, 2003 at 3:32 pm

Those lyrics are as incomprehensible as a Rightminded post.
Jason Malloy says:

July 3, 2003 at 1:25 am

This is the funniest thing I’ve read all day. I wonder how many rap songs have referenced Black Spark, White Fire. I’ll bet the answer would be surprising.
Jason Malloy says:

July 3, 2003 at 1:35 am

And it is certainly the big famous Jay-Z. See the song “My Mind Right” with Memphis Bleek, on this album.

And this one.

Click on Jay-Z next to the song title. It takes you to a list of his albums.
Andrew Ian Castel-Dodge says:

July 3, 2003 at 4:42 pm

Neat. I have only managed being mentioned in liner notes. Pretty neat, even if I never listen to (c)rap.
Hoser says:

July 3, 2003 at 5:09 pm

I just have to chuckle at that! I’d like to see Righminded compose a little rap ditty for us!
Rightminded says:

July 4, 2003 at 5:09 am

Hoser, thank God, where in the world have you been?

I swear, I was going to write a post entitled, “Hoser, Hoser wherefore art thou Hoser, when the forum needs a Hoserism?”

I got to tell you, “The Great Race Debate” is being waged by some brilliant people, with great points, but it could use some jocularity.

P.S. No T.T., jocularity has nothing to do with the frequency with which one changes his underwear.
Rightminded says:

July 4, 2003 at 6:09 am

Be careful what you wish for, because now you got it:

Autochthonous ain’t no one’s MaMa’s onus.

Before chillin’ on omphaloskepis, best dig out the lint first, to keep it real.

Pervicacious, privation of ratiocination, leads to oblivious — I just grabbed my genitialia and pointed to my temple.

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn, wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care.

Peace out, Rightminded.

Ok, where the hell is my million dollars?
Unadorned says:

July 4, 2003 at 11:20 am

Rightminded, I’m SO GLAD Hoser suggested that! What hidden talent! That rap was GREAT! I mean, WHO KNEW YOU HAD SUCH POTENTIAL?

All it needs now is for you to perfect a “street look,” get some authentic dance moves down, and hire a couple of black guys to dance onstage with you for authenticity, and you’ll be the next VANILLA ICE! You’ll make MILLIONS!

What’ll your name be — “Vanilla Rightminded”? I’ll be sure and look for the CD!

My teenagers will be just THRILLED to learn I ACTUALLY KNOW the next big artist to sweep the rap scene! For ONCE they’ll respect me! (For about five minutes, that is… then it’ll be back to, “Dad, you were born in the sixteen hundreds! This is the nineties! [or ‘two-thousands,’ or whatever they say since the millenium turned …] ).
Rightminded says:

July 4, 2003 at 5:18 pm

Just keeping it real, and on the good foot, Exegete.

I looked into a career in rap, but was told it would be cost prohibitive.

By the time they paid for the butt and peck implants, and the belly “suckupuncture,” I would need 5 platinum albums from the get-go, just to crack my nut.

Alas, I was so looking forward to that career, kick-start night at the Apollo,” when Steve Harvey would start the show by saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, show some love for, ‘Crazy Old White Bastard,'” and then, all those hot — and not so hot — Black women would charge the stage…

I have to stop now. Mrs. Rightminded is screaming, “you forgot to take out the garbage, you crazy old…”
Hoser says:

July 8, 2003 at 5:51 pm

Rightminded, I’m just a runner in the Great White Rat race…

Well, I’m impressed. As I suspected I would be. That was truly Grammy-Award-winning material, Rightminded. I never had any doubt.

As far as my absence, I’ve been hanging in the rafters all along. “The Great Race Debate” has caused me to reflect seriously on just who and what I am. I think I now have a complex, from which I am trying to free myself — sort of like a rat in a maze. A rat, I had always assumed, to be white.

You see, through 42 years of my life, I THOUGHT I was White… you know — Caucasian, cracker, honkey, Ruthless Exploiter of Third-World Types, etc. I certainly look White. I always thought I acted White. I married White, and my progeny looks Whiter than I do, if anything! My father was German, my Mother Italian. I had never harbored the slightest doubt that I was a bona fide, card-carrying White person!

Now, after trying my best to follow The Debate, it appears I have mitochondrial DNA and lord knows what other stain-test-type organelles and such with and so forth hanging all out of my hereditary drawers. The uncertainty of knowing these extensions of myself may have been stepped all over by DNA footprints from peoples with God-only-knows-what on the bottom of their genetic sneakers has shaken me to my presupposed lily-white core.

So far, the only conclusion I have come to is this: no matter how hard I try, I STILL can’t dance, and never will be worth a crap at basketball.

Next test: a walk through Harlem at night, just to see if anyone notices. Since I have no Race, it should be a breeze.

My inner research continues…
Rightminded says:

July 10, 2003 at 1:19 am

Like Batman he tethers himself, first, to the rafters he has just been hangin’.

He then swoops down, and springs into action, answering Rightminded’s plea for a “HOSERISM.”

A “Dynamic Duo” is this ability to perceive and express in an ingeniously humorous manner, and to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting.

The “Dynamic Duo,” wit and wisdom, is in short, a HOSERISM.

GO HOSER! GO HOSER! GO HOSER!
OC says:

October 17, 2003 at 11:32 pm

In the song you reference, Jay-Z says:

“It’s not about Rich and Po nigga, It’s about rich and poor
Understand me, I’m here to get that dough.”

The reason he said that is because another rapper from Harlem was upset that someone from Brooklyn was making a documentary about you and Poe and dissed him.

This should clear it up a little for you.
Richard Poe says:

October 18, 2003 at 12:21 pm

Dear OC:

Well, you seem to know the inside story. And the lyrics do make a little more sense that way.

But on that LyricsStyle.com page which I linked, the words definitely said “Richard Poe” rather than “Rich and Poor.” Did they just get it wrong?

Here are the exact words as they appeared (and still appear) on that page:

Memphis Bleek feat. Beanie Sigel, Jay-Z, H Money
My Mind Right (Remix)

[Jay-Z]
Remix
I’m sorry I ain’t
I ain’t get right back at’cha niggas
I’ve been a little busy with this dynasy shit
But uh got my mind right, money been right
I’m ready for war
Young Hovah, holla yeah

I got the fifth niggas
You have to pick niggas off of the ground
When I pick niggas off with tha pound
Go get your click nigga
This nigga running with clowns
I’m a rich nigga
I get you clipped at cost right now
Niggas forget niggas as soon as your coffen off in the ground
Family man, look at your kids orphans now
Used to just smack rappers
I’m extorting them now
Taking all that’s important to them now down to your bitch
Nigga you sick fronting like you tougher than what you are
Till the gun is coming thru the drivers side of your car
Using my name in vein like I won’t damage the boy
You think niggas was shooting you out of canons before (I’m that nigga)
Niggas is pompous, first they in Evil Kanevil jumpers
Than they turning over Rovers like they want it with Hovah
It’s not about rich and po’, nigga, it’s about Richard Poe
Understand I’m here to get this dough
It ain’t about Brooklyn or Harlem
No more them it’s about fame or stardom
It’s about me being on blocks you borrowed from
I’m setting myself apart from rappers who use other peoples names
So other motherfuckers can watch ’em
It’s as sample as this – y’all niggas get off my dick
I’ll let you eat after I get off my bricks
The world’s most dangerous clique; R.O.C. – mind right bitch

Etc., etc., etc.

Can you tell me a little more about this rapper from Harlem and why he was upset that someone from Brooklyn was making a documentary? I’m not sure I followed all the ins and outs of that story.