I recently added Nas’ Made You Look to my hip-hop iTunes playlist. For whatever reason, this track gets me really pumped up on when it comes. Nas does a real tour de force of rhyme flow, mixing couplets, cadences, and verbal gymnastics, all the while clearly enunciating and not coming off too serious. The backing beat is rugged and the intermittent gun shots creatively break things up.
Put your hand up that you shoot with, count your loot wit’
Push the pool stick in your new crib, same hand that you hoop with
Swing around like you stu-pid, king’a the town, yeah I been that
You know I click-clack where you and yor men’s at
Do the Smurf, do the Wop, Baseball Bat
Rooftop like we bringing ‘88 back
[Gunfire]
They shootin’! — Aw made you look
You a slave to a page in my rhyme book