‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder’ – Jay-Z , 2003
From time to time I take a breather from listening to my usual bands and create a random playlist of songs from the archives. These songs are generally from artists I don’t normally listen to, haven’t listened to for a long time or just a recommended song given to me by a friend. The end result of the most recent playlist comes this song by rapper/artist Jay-Z. I don’t know too much about him apart from the controversy caused by the organiser’s of Glastonbury when they choose him as a headline act at this years festival.
Most of the time I find it very difficult to interpret what exactly the hip-hop guys are rapping about but for the most part, based on the songs I’ve listened to (and its very limited), they generally rap about one of three things:
Ladies
Where They Grew Up
Money
Dirt of Your Shoulder probably falls under or between the second and third categories where he raps about coming from nowhere and is now playing in large cities like London. Also he talks about the cheese (money). One thing I’ll say about rappers is that they are never shy in their lyrics and never seem to lack any confidence about themselves either so ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder’ is probably a response to the begrudgers and the naysayers that doubt him so do what the man says ‘You gotta get, that, dirt off your shoulder ‘ and check the song out here.
