Rap music fuses street slang with a heavy hip-hop beat, but the lyrical nuances are often too nuanced for our painfully Caucasian brain to decode. We grew up in the era of Biggie, Snoop, and Puff Daddy -- is he going by
a different name now? -- and you'd think we could decipher the tones our
home boys have put out there. Thank goodness for UnderstandRap.com, and its accompanying tome, which professes to offer "Explanations of Confusing Rap Lyrics You & Your Grandma Can Understand."
So, does she need the Understanding Rap book as bad as we do? We tested her on seven perplexing lyrics from Drizzy, Weezy and more.
because he checked the ring finger. He found out the car she was driving was a Beamer and loved that. Saw her and thought she was quite classy with the
champagne range and her parents had a triple white Caddy which means she's
really rich."
most girls are sick and he wouldn't really know sicker because he doesn't know
who they're talking about."
tie them up. Hefty is a trashbag."
Real definition: "She is going to exchange insults with her enemies, then murder them and stuff their bodies into trash bags. Hefty is a brand of trash bag."
6. Rap lyric: "I'm an uptown boy with Soho flava." - from Charles Hamilton's "Brooklyn Girls"
doesn't mind slumming it."
Assessment: Actually, Grandma provides more context than the definition, but it's based upon Billy Joel-era New York City.
7. Rap lyric: "I get head, I need tail." - from Chiddy Bang's "Fresh Like Us"
me to get a BJ but I can't find anyone to do it the old fashion way."
Assessment: Bravo!