The Green on "green"

January 14, 2009 2:55 PM

JayZFilter: In the beginning of "Roc Boys," exactly what do the boys in blue put before the badge?

Here is the video. My ears and The Google say "greed," my poetic sensibility says "green." This has been bugging me forever, and may well be unanswerable, but give me your most persuasive interpretation.

posted by ecmendenhall to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

It's clearly "greed".

You got 99 problems but this ain't one.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:06 PM on January 14, 2009

Unless Mr. Carter has a Metafilter account, or he's spoken about this particular lyric in an interview or something, I'm thinking this is unanswerable--or, at best, it's a poll. It sounds like 'greed' to me, but, hey, it sounds like 'greed to you too. And Beese, for that matter.

And have you heard the 'Roc Boys'/'Paranoid Android' segment on Feed the Animals? I don't much like Jay-Z or Radiohead, but I like that.
posted by box at 3:10 PM on January 14, 2009

I'm pretty sure it's green (for cash).
posted by arimathea at 3:12 PM on January 14, 2009

I vote "greed", but I agree it's ambiguous.

And since we're voting: I love Jay-Z but not Radiohead. Though I agree with box about that mash-up. Holla.
posted by mullacc at 3:35 PM on January 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

I've always thought it was green, though it does also sound like greed. I'm still gonna go with green since using two colors in that verse is cooler than saying greed. Plus greed is not a metaphor, green definitely works better.
posted by bmalicoat at 3:52 PM on January 14, 2009

box is right, we can't know for sure, but I bet your poetic sensibilty is right. In the preceding lines he thanks his connect for "the duffel bag, the brown paper bag, the nike shoe box for holding all this cash." "Green" viz. money would follow. Later lyrics continue the theme; he thanks us customers, and tells us "you don't even got to bring your paper out" and "you don't even got to bring your purses out." It's about what he's got, not what he wants.
posted by generalist at 4:11 PM on January 14, 2009

Greed. Green would be too obvious and cutesy.
posted by muscat at 4:21 PM on January 14, 2009

The Original Hip Hop Lyric Archive says "greed."
posted by Rudy Gerner at 5:03 PM on January 14, 2009

I've always thought it was "green".
posted by ND¢ at 5:53 PM on January 14, 2009

I vote greed.
posted by carpyful at 6:05 PM on January 14, 2009

OHHLA is like the Wikipedia of hip-hop lyrics, except minus the peer editing and therefore even less accurate. It's better than nothing, but it's nowhere near authoritative. I count at least three pretty obvious errors in the OHHLA transcription's first verse.

And I'm pretty sure he's saying thanks to the duffel bag, nike shoebox, etc., rather than thanking his connect for these things. And the 'you don't even got to bring your paper out' is addressed to his peers at the club or the drug dealer award ceremony or whatever, not to his customers. You watch The Wire? A kingpin like Jay/the narrator barely even sees his customers.

(Also, first he says that his connect is most important, then he says the customer is. But what do you expect from a guy who doesn't write down his lyrics?)
posted by box at 6:50 PM on January 14, 2009

box, you may well be right, listening again he could easily be saying thanks "to" the bags and box. (Sadly no authoritative source on that, either.) And I should have said "he thanks his customers, then tells the listener..." instead of "he thanks us..." (fun to imagine not bringing my paper out.) I still think it's green, though. Works better enjambment-wise and he's comparing it to the badge (adidas logo/shield), so it's consonant: thing/thing instead of abstraction/thing. Someone should email and ask him.
posted by generalist at 7:22 PM on January 14, 2009

Best answer: 'Green' seems like the better line to me too, but it still sounds to my ears like he's saying 'greed.' That's one of my favorite things about art--it supports multiple interpretations.

(Finding an acappella version might help clarify things.)
posted by box at 8:01 PM on January 14, 2009

Finding an acappella version might cloud things too though. I got an acapella of a song just cause and I heard a completely wrong word that was probably fixed/overdubbed later. So the acappella version may be helpful, or it might not be the same thing you're hearing in the finished version.

Box is totally right about OHHLA though. There are reams of miswritten lyrics spewed all over the internet that are completely incorrect. Brutally so for some songs. Just obvious mistakes.
posted by cashman at 10:34 AM on January 15, 2009

Response by poster: box: yeah, Girl Talk is pretty much why this gets stuck in my head all the time.
generalist: I'll ask around for Mr. Carter's contact information.

Verdict: deliberate artistic ambiguity—he's a true poet. Thanks, everyone!
posted by ecmendenhall at 2:03 PM on January 15, 2009