Today, I’m rocking Nas’ “I Can.” I analyzed this record pretty extensively in the book. Listen to the way he differentiates between black populations. Why do people succeed? Why do people fail? Although on the one hand it’s easy enough to name check people from the neighborhood who didn’t make it because of something they did or perhaps failed to do. But when these names and behaviors start adding up you’ve got one of two routes…you can either blame it on the culture, or blame it on the structure. There is no in between here, not when we’re talking aggregate populations. Dope video though, from a helluva wordsmith.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL4zz-Rey_Y[/youtube]