Hang in there, N.O.R.E.
I tend to want to give NORE credit for the dumb-ass ignorant shit he raps, feeling he’s playing a cannier role than his peers, laughing with us, at himself. Certainly, his lowbrow concerns make a good match for his heavy-handed, slightly-clumsy vocal style. ‘Drink Champ’ is that dumb shit, no doubt. It’s off his new Green Lantern mixtape, the eye-rollingly-titled Cocaine on Steroids, which marks a return to gully club-rap after a commercially unsuccessful flirtation with reggaeton. And why not? NORE was mixing aggression, drug talk, futuristic beats and straight-up foolishness years before it became the industry standard. Nothing in the past few years has topped, erm, ‘Nothin’ in that respect. This tape isn’t spectacular, but it’s decent fun. ‘Drink Champ’ isn’t the dumbest moment: that comes in ‘Shame On You’ when NORE rhymes “rich thug” with “keep it gutter – take a shit in the strip club”. But it’s pretty stupid.
Drink on an empty stomach I don’t need food
We could go shot for shot, it don’t matter kid
You can pick the liquor, n***a, shit don’t matter kid
But I don’t drink that hypnotic bullshit
That ain’t a man’s drink, the alize is bullshit
Ask my n***a Prodigy how I go out
He was drinking at my studio and nearly fell out
And E-40 man I had ill nights with
Gallons of carterazzi burning down light shit
Drink stop? Nope. Smoke stop? Nope.
I’m an ill n***a drink red wine with the Pope
Do the drunk-man dance, yeah I’m on that same shit
I been drinking Henny since
So we can drink up, take your mink up
Guaranteed throwing it up and hit your sink up
Ayo I drunk it up with Beans, now Siegel drink well
Sonar studios hard bodied the ????
Now BIG’s Hoffa, he’s the one to beat
Remember this a drinking game ain’t no way to cheat
And I can drink different kinds, whatever’s the shit
In the session with Lil’ Jon I think I made him quit
And Bishop Don Juan said “NORE, no more!”
In his LA apartment – Snoop was there – he can vouch for me
And I had the weed lady leave the house with me
Mariah Carey know: NORE go-go
In my studio bottles of Pinot Grigio
See my liver half-Spanish, the other half black
Drinking with Kevin Hart, he almost caught a heart attack
These
Drunk – I gots to battle with Shyne and Mike Zorn
So any night out, we can play the strike-out.
More fun:
NORE (feat. 3-6 Mafia) – ‘That Club Shit’
Cocaine Blunts has an offensively stupid NORE interview from back in the day.
Alan gets his ladyboy on.