Take Three: Kool G Rap "4, 5, 6"

"It's a damn shame, what I gotta do just to make a dollar..."

Kool G Rap is a legend in our minds and his own right. The man knew how to tell a good street story, and balance that with a verbal acrobat ability regarding multisyllabics and diction. This album is very much a crowning achievement because Kool G took what he already knew from such classics he delivered as "Streets of New York," and pretty much put that into a changing rap world that was getting more of an organized crime sensibility. In turn, "4, 5, 6" (common winning combination in Cee-Lo or dice) provided some of the apex of Kool G's creativity, in an album that largely followed up his separation from DJ Polo. If nothing else, this is Kool G's mastery of street/mafioso rap.
As usual, let's break down three selections. Take three is a chance to take albums that are already familiar and regarded highly in rap, and deliver three tracks from one album to open a new listener's ears to that said classic. So without further adieu, let's get it started (absolutely no Black Eyed Peas).

1. 4, 5, 6
Listening to this track now, you'd swear you were in the midst of NY, watching Kool G play a dice game. Not many songs since Ice Cube's "What They Hittin' Foe?" elaborate it with such innate detail and visceral imagery as Kool G Rap does. Surely each and every roll equals victory for Kool G in this tune, taking out every person testing his winning streak. But as Kool G said, "One by one they losin' down the line, A fifty buck roll, a duck blows, old nigga pay me mine!" But the strongest statement lies in the fact when it's all said and done, "One more test, and niggaz quittin, that's zero, Broke, cryin broke, I'm doin' backstrokes in cee-notes!"
2. Executioner Style
"Executioner Style" could be taken as two-fold; its a very militaristic-styled attempt to talk about Kool G as the grim reaper in the rap world and in real assasin fashion. Every line is pretty much a climactic "Carlito's Way" gun battle, exploring styles rooted in old westerns, and how heads will roll when Kool G is delivering death. But the duality in this, is when you hear Kool G delivering each line in the song, even down to its short chorus, he's also delivering death to most emcees. Many can talk about how they shoot someone, but no one as descriptive as Kool G could keep us amazed for the song's 4 minute duration. It simply has to be heard to be believed.
3. Ghetto Knows
"Ghetto Knows," is too perfect, and a master of deception; Kool G spent the previous track ("Fast Life") talking about the joys of the cars, money, and females, but this track is a polar opposite in the sense that it's the grittiest lifestyle, and pretty much broken down in the first two verses of the many casualties. But it's the third verse that pretty much closes the song, and is the best case why Kool G's name should be mentioned along with Rakim, Big Daddy Kane and others in the legends category. You just have to read it to know, so I've taken the liberty of posting up the lyrics to the third verse (thanks OHHLA):

Strollin the concrete, packin my heat, walkin the backstreets

I seen niggaz pull up, peepin me out the side a black Jeep

Six feet deep, that's where I'm goin if I'm slippin

Steady cockin my shit cause I already got the clip in

Now who's the first nigga to run up, here they come up

the block hardrocks with glocks rollin holdin they guns up

I buck, I buck, and then I struck one in the chest

Nigga shoulda wore a vest but now his ass is put to rest

But now I got three mo' niggaz, pullin triggers

Strays are ricochetin off the bricks, zigga zigga

But who got the biggest strap? Who's bustin bigger caps?

My BOOM BOOM BOOMS against they PAP PAP PAPS

No haps, G. Rap ain't goin out like a sucker

I reloaded the shot and dropped another motherfucker

Quick, I duck and shit to dodge the bullets comin at me

Cause I won't be too happy with a slug inside my nappy

Two more niggaz left, they scared to death, but I'm leary

Shit gets kinda scary when I got bulletholes near me

I went between two cars, lettin off the quarter pound

I see another body fallin down to the ground

Quick I run up on him cause I don't think that he's dead

Standin over his ass I put two more inside his head

That's three niggaz down, only got one nigga to go

I gots to send his ass to the gravedigger so

I lay low in the cut and wait for moneygrip to slip up

Nearly shot my whole clip up, I got one more slug to rip up

Look over by the GS, see his ass stickin his head out

Boom, let the lead out, blew a piece of his brain dead out

the back of his head, now he's dead, because he fell face down

right on the motherfuckin streets that he dwelled