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Thrillist MiamiHearing his hometown called out in a hip-hop song universally bestows the listener with a swelled sense of pride and massive amounts of street cred, until they realize they're being bienvenido'd to Miami by a guy from Philly. Plotting out your exaggerated feelings of bad-assness, RapMap.
An addendum to its mothersite RapGenius.com, RM's an interactive map with handgun icons marking SoFla locations dropped in hip-hop tracks, from Ft. Pierce (where Biggie moved his mom) to Doral (where Rick Ross worked), delivering the lyric plus a pithy explanation of what's up with the place, either in the context of the rapper's life or as a larger observation, which makes one wonder why there aren't more Fat Joe songs. Highlights:
"Used to bag work in VA at the Econo Lo'/Now I'm laying out at the Delano though", from "Popular Demand (Popeyes)" by Clipse
"The Clipse favor this Miami hotel, especially when dealing with butt-naked white girls" -- funny, if your experience there is with girls who are anything but naked.
"Uh, then take a female to the Island", from "Single" by Lil Wayne
"Lil Wayne has been renting this $14 million waterfront mansion on private, gated La Gorce Island for a couple years now...[it] features 20,000 square feet on 3 floors, 9 Bedrooms, 9 Bathrooms, a 2-story master suite, an elevator, and a giant swimming pool. This place rivals MC Hammer's old spread." Oh, really? Then where are the race horses?!?!?
"Down in Miami and I throw like Marino", from "Back to the Topic Freestyle" by J. Cole
"In the last 15 years it's also been known as Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, and, most recently, Land Shark Stadium (seriously). Rappers rarely make Marlins references - the team's fanbase seems to skew toward the World War II Veteran demographic" -- and to them, rapping is something you do with your cane, so they really wouldn't get this whole website.
Rap also maps other cities (Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, etc), and whenever you click on lyrics, it links you back to RapGenius for a full analysis of the song, so you can finally break down complex wordplay like "Yo I heard the rainstorms ain't nothin to mess with/But I can't feel a drip on the strip, it's a trip" until you've had your Philly.
Check out all the mad rhymes that SoFla has inspired at Map.RapGenius.com
In between gearing up for his stand-up gig at Ricochet Dec 26th and being the most feared roaster this side of Kenny Rogers, ex-AFLAC-duck-voicer... more
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