Rum Nitty is a battle rapper who hails from Phoenix, AZ. He is an absolute genius when it comes to creating double entendres.
In his recent battle versus Iron Solomon, he had numerous absolutely stunning verses. We begin with Round 1.
Pull something out the boot and cap little Iron... this is Monopoly pieces 14:26
Literally this means: "I will pull out a weapon and shoot (cap) Iron Solomon". But then he says "this is Monopoly pieces" making a reference to the boot used in the board game of Monopoly.
I told him this (battle) is the wrong move... gas chamber. They going to be saying I smoked you in a small room. 14:35
Literally this means: I convincingly beat you in this battle in the small room we held it in. However, a gas chamber is also a small room with smoke. And this line hits particulary hard because Iron Solomon is Jewish.
I ain't for play don't try em. Strings go flying. I clap shit. Pull out a black smith and let it bang on Iron. 15:07
Literally this means: I pull out a black Smith and Wesson Gun and let it shoot Iron Solomon but figuratively we know that a blacksmith bangs on iron to shape it... double entendre!
While your people be penny-pinching, mine nickel squeezing. I kill em easy 15:56
Here he plays off the stereotype that Jews will do anything to save a penny. "Nickel squeezing" is slang for pulling the trigger on a gun (if I'm not mistaken). But of course we have the secondary level of poetry here.. pennies versus nickels, two forms of currency.
If I dont have a gun, I'll grab the 5th from my son, like Jupiter. 16:39
Literally: I will obtain a weapon from my friend if I don't have one but since Jupiter is the 5th planet from the Sun, we have planetary analogy. He continues with references to the planets Mars and Mercury.
Ain't nothing changed up. Drum on a big weapon, Chris Webber. I'll pull this time out and fuck the game up. 17:20
Chris Webber was a basketball player who stood almost 7 feet tall. Therefore he could be considered a "big weapon". In a college basketball championship, he made the mistake of calling a time out that his team did not have and therefore lost a college basketball championship.
Figuratively, however, Rum Nitty is saying he will pull out a weapon and mess up his opponent's life.
You mad I'm in your face stylin. It gets much worse. I pull a thing out and let it buck first, Ray Allen. 18:16
Literally, he's saying: "I will pull out a weapon and fire it" but also he is making a reference to Ray Allen, a professional basketball player. Ray Allen started his career with the Milwaukee Bucks, therefore he was a "Buck first" so to speak.
In Round 2, Rum Nitty continues his verbal assualt:
It's simple. If I draw, you lose Iron. We're donating plasma. 23:57
Literally: if I draw a weapon, you will lose your life but we also understand that when you draw blood, you lose iron in your body and need a plasma donation to replenish it..
If this drum claps at your high hat and through your temple, it will be instrumental to your death. 24:11
This one should be obvious, but let's go through it. A drum set can have "claps" and "high hats" as instruments, but here a drum is really a gun and when it fires it 'claps' and if it is aimed at his head (high hat), it would kill him. Again, Nitty intertwines two types of meaning with his bars.
Thought I was just going to die? They gassed you and to be frank, this bitch better hide. 24:44
To understand the brilliance here, you must know that Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis in Germany during World War II. Once you understand that, you can take his verse and see:
- when he said "and to be frank" he also saying "Anne Frank".
- when he said: "this bitch better hide" he was simultaneously referring to his opponent and the little girl who hid from the Nazis.
Cool, let's move on.
Every bar is going wig. Nasty how you dying on the card --- that's a garbage pail kid. 26:14
As you know, a "card" is a lineup of people scheduled to compete. So on one level, Nitty is saying it's shame how his opponent is going to lose to him. But a child that dies on a cardboard box is known as a garbage pail kid. So this is again two meanings for the same statement of "dying on the card".
Let's move on to the final round in Rum Nitty's poetical Tour de Force.
Those subpar bars won't make it. You need extra. You're going to have to try angles together like the Star of David. 33:51
When someone "tries another angle" they are trying to approach a problem from a new perspective for a better solution, Rum Nitty is saying to his opponent that in this case, he would need to try angles but we also understand that 2 triangles form the Star of David.
There's a good chance he's going to die ... and what I got for Iron in the jeans increases it. 34:14
Wow. One one level, Nitty is saying that the weapon he has in his pants increases the chance that he will shoot and kill his foe. But of course he is also saying that his "genes" (genetic material) gives him a racial advantage over his Jewish opponent. Ouch! With bars that hard, it's a good thing they ended the battle with a sportsmanlike hug.
I fire the iron on Iron like I'm welding something 34:33
Literally "firing the iron on Iron" means he's shooting a gun at Iron Solomon. But we also know that welding involves taking fired iron and connecting it to more iron. Brilliant double-talk from a confirmed master.
You can rap about how you lift the piece. It's not enough Iron. They'll find your body with the fish in sea. 35:07
Literally, this is pretty straightforward. But as you know, not having enough iron is a nutritional deficiency. So when he says "the fish in sea" you can also hear him say "deficiency"
You're watching Iron getting smoked against an animal... cattle branding. 35:52
Let's do this logically:
- This battle pits Iron Solomon vs Rum Nitty
- This battle pits Iron versus an animal (Rum Nitty)
- Cattle branding is placing hot Iron on an animal
Two meanings in one line. Wow.
Hot...
If this woman's face does not sum up how crazy this battle was, nothing will.
Thanks for reading.