In the last part of the first verse, Jay-Z says that these music gurus who blog about music from their air-conditioned rooms cannot relate to anything he has to say. Why does the truth seem to bother some critics?! We are only listening to it through his music. This is the unfiltered truth from the environment Jay-Z grew up in. Most times, these girls don’t even have money to get an abortion even if they wanted to and have to raise the child on child support money. However, the vicious cycle continues, and the guys responsible don’t stick around. Hov also talks about how teenage girls end up getting pregnant out of lack of attention and care for them from their parents. A lot of the time, these kids end up in jail or even worse.
A lot of the time, these robberies don’t even go smoothly. They just break-in and enter houses and grab the first things they can find. These robberies aren’t masterminded plans with precision equipment and foolproof. Hov says that these kids end up buying pretty expensive cars from the robberies they do. On the streets, everybody is poverty-stricken and is looking for any means to make money. This results in the kids taking to the streets.
These mothers are so busy working 3-4 jobs to make ends meet they don’t have time to look after their kids. The kids end up growing with their mothers until age. A common feature in these poverty-stricken communities is the lack of a father figure in most families. Hov is very specific about mentioning only the mother, and not the father. Most of the kids grow up with their mothers. Next, Jay-Z goes on to tell us some stories from the life he grew up in. What he sings about is his life with a “ghetto point of view.” It is not his fault that he was imprisoned to this life early on. The same dude you gave nothin’, I made somethin’ doin’ Somehow music spoke to him and he kept at it until it saved his life. The systematic racism had already hindered Jay’s chances of making something from his life. In the beginning, Jay had to sell drugs to make a living. Jay-Z came from poverty, growing up in a ghetto part of Brooklyn, New York. Jay says that he sings about what he knows about this world - the society he grew up in. This is a common dilemma in any form of communication - a lot of people don’t listen to hear what the other person has to say. So, Jay wonders if these critics really listen to his music or listen to what they want to hear. Although Jay-Z has touched on these topics in his discography, it is not solely built upon these themes. He lashes out at all the music pundits who claim that Jay-Z only sings about money, girls, diamonds, and drugs. Jay-Z starts off the verse aggressively setting the tone for what’s to come later. Jay-Z “Renegade” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review Verse 1: Jay-Z Eminemīuy ‘The Blueprint’ Album by Jay-Z on Apple Music / Amazon This song is their reply to all of these claims. So, in the eyes of society, both Jay and Eminem are renegades who defy the social and cultural conventions. Jay-Z, too, had his fair share of rebellious past during the come-up in the music game. This can allude to the fact that Eminem has grown to be a very controversial rapper by the time of the song’s release. In the context of the song, the word means an individual with unconventional or unlawful behavior. The word ‘renegade’ is used to refer to a deserter of a certain organization, culture, faith, or principles. I don’t think he had time to go in and do a whole new joint, so he called me and asked if I was cool with just giving Jay that one and we’ll just do something else.
Em didn’t want to miss Jay’s deadline because obviously he respects him. In an interview, Royce explained how Jay-Z ended up on the track instead of him “Jay-Z was at a deadline and he had been asking Em to get on something. Eminem produced the beat to the song and was originally supposed to be a collaboration with his Bad Meets Evil partner Royce Da 5’9”.