There were a lot of great verses spit in 2009 but there were few that summed up the overall feeling of depression that has defined the end of this decade. On “Cold Outside” from Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 Ghostface pieces together a collage of pain and frustration with a string of graphic thumbnails that could have been pulled from the years headlines. Over weeping horns layered by The Beat Chefs Starks rhymes like a man who’s lost his 401K in the market, is paying $80 a bottle for his blood pressure pills because his health care sucks and his kids are bugging him for some damn Space Jam Jordans. You never see it coming down his eyes but he damn near makes the song cry.
They found a two year old, strangled to death
With a “Love Daddy” shirt on in a bag on the top of the steps
Police blowing niggaz, NARCs and judges
Me and son had beef, I had to murk him, we supposed to be brothers
Cause he came home fronting, feeling like that I owe him something
Cause I’m getting money, drive a little something something
Lanay got AIDS, with five kids smoked out
House is brick, bills haven’t been paid in days
A Brooklyn man’s a molestor, court case and the crime’s raising
Swastikas on the church, they Satan
Holiday season is here and I’m vexed
Who the fuck made Christmas up? I’m fucking broke, it ain’t making no sense
Newports are $7.50, a box of Huggies is off the meat rack
She’s back, thirty days, she relapsed
Our troops need to leave Iraq
And rap niggaz need to go on strike so we can get more cash
Cause…