Yo, I haven't written about music in a while because of personal stuff and wanted to get all that other stuff out. I've been listening to this song on repeat after I listened to AZ's debut album "Doe or Die," and I wanna talk about it because it is a special song to me.
The song "Gimme yours" is by Anthony 'AZ' Cruz from his debut album "Doe or Die." AZ rose to prominence in the mid-90s, being the lone feature on Nas' debut classic album 'Illmatic' on the song 'Life's a bitch.' "Gimme yours" is the twin to "life's a bitch" in the sense that it is the sonic vocation of AZ's hopes of making it in rap but also a brief glimpse of his life prior to rap, whereas "life's a bitch" is more introspective about their journey thus far.
AZ set the tone on "gimme yours" in the first two lines, saying, "When money-gettin' niggas need my assistance to stack figures beyond non-existence, fuck keepin' my distance 'cause bein' poor produced persistence." Now, I'm not going to talk about the lyrics in crazy depth; that's what Rap Genius is for, but the most standout feature about AZ is his voice and the way he speaks. He has a soft voice with gruff as if he came out the womb already aware of the evil world he was born into. In essence, the innocence we associate with babies of being pure and unsullied, AZ didn't have that.
Now this track is produced by Pete Rock, (one of the 7 best producers of all time), the song samples Minnie Riperton's "Here we go," and yeah, perfect choice. The soft piano keys that come in give feelings of elation and hope, which makes sense; this is meant to be an aspirational song. But the woozy sticky sound produced by the mixture of the mandolin, ukulele, and guitar are juxtaposed with the aspirational piano to remind us or AZ that although you want status, money, and material possession, you are from where you're from, and you are what you are. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing; I think it's one of the better parts of the song. Like I say to my friends, "Chapter 1 and chapter 21 are still part of the same book," and I believe this beat encapsulates that. Although we all have big dreams, goals, and aspirations, we shouldn't forget nor neglect the previous hurdles or challenges that got us to the point where we are either beginning or in the process of our journey to accomplish these things we've set out to do.
Now I think my actual fave part of the song is the hook, not only because if FEATURES NAS SINGING but an important element that we don't really see in music/rap anymore, which is the rapper singing terribly but it still works. The way Nas does it is not unique by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something soothing in hearing him repeatedly utter "Gimme, just gimme." When I hear this hook, I remember being a small big-headed kid with my hand out, asking my mom to give me whatever it is she’s eating. While it does invoke childlike feelings, it also creates an image of a young person going into the world on their own for the first time, while equally excited and scared to take in everything Mother Nature and the Earth have in her bosom. Which I think is apt that it creates these two feelings, one of your first stages of dependent life and the other of your first stages of independent life.
So I know I said I wasn't going to go deep into the lyrics, but AZ, man, what a guy. He’s not super lyrical like Lupe; he's lyrical like Snoop. Where he says things in a matter-of-fact way, but he bends, twists, and makes new words to fit him in the sense that he’s a powerful gush of wind and the words are bamboo, able to bend in whatever direction the wind pushes them to, and that isn’t even a skill I think can be developed; it’s innate. And no better line encapsulates that than “So through the crest in my glow of fluorescence symbolises the essence, yet still in schweppervescence.” I think it's apt he ends this with a harken to the lines that gave him notoriety "'Cause although sometime we all gotta go, as long as we leavin' thieving’ we’ll be leavin’ with some kinda dough, so…".
So in finality, although you have these dreams, you're gonna die, but the way I see it is have your dreams and what you want to achieve, but don't forget the people and all their support and love that allowed you to achieve. So focus on your money, but also focus on the people, and I think that's the ultimate meaning of the song, which is why in the last line of the hook Nas says, “Why don't you gimme the world, Gimme what you can't get back.” The only things you can't get back in life are time and your life.
-B3ar Walken
