Shawn Carter is many things—rapper, entrepreneur, husband, father—but at his core he's a poet and certified word nerd. It was apparent from his first album, which included the wit-filled "22 Two's," that Hov loves to play with language more than your average MC. His lyrical gift is detailed in the 300-plus-page book Decoded, among others. One thing he is not, however, is an English professor.
On Drake's song "Light Up," Jay-Z boasts of his lyrical prowess, bragging about dropping a "triple entendre." The line in question—("Oww/Hoes turn their heads like owls/I'm the man of the hour/Triple entendre don't even ask me how")—may be a clever play on words, but it's not a triple entendre, or even double entendre. It's a hot line with a cool play on the homophones "owl" and "hour."
With that said, are you really going to berate Jay-Z about figures of speech? If the man says something is a double entendre, it will be remembered in culture as such, and we're okay with giving him that pass. Every line Hov's mistakenly labeled a "double entendre" is still an example of high-level wordplay that's worth knowing about, no matter what umbrella it technically falls under.
We combed through some of our favorite examples of Jay-Z's witty wordplay and asked Adam Bradley, University of Colorado Boulder English professor and author of The Anthology of Rap, to weigh in on the different types of wordplay Jay-Z employs in these various examples.
As Mr Bradley observes: "True double entendres rely upon more than just dual references; they require two parallel levels of meaning, one explicit and one coded. Traditionally, that coded meaning was usually of a sexual nature.
"Regardless, double entendres always insinuate—they thrive on ambiguity. Something like, “Truthfully, I wanna rhyme like Common Sense/But I did five mil', I ain’t been rhyming like Common since” would not apply. In fact, the success of that lines relies upon Jay not insinuating at all, but making his meaning singular and explicit. It’s a great bit of wordplay (eliding the difference between "sense" and "since"), but it lacks any coded meaning.
"Jay-Z uses a lot of puns—where the humor derives from a similar sounding words and/or that word’s multiple meanings. Jay-Z also uses a lot of similes, and metaphors. Excellent lines like "I was moving birds like an Oriole fitted" and "I'm on the block like I'm 8 feet tall" do convey the sense of two distinct images, but as mentioned before, the meaning is clear, not coded."
No matter what you call it, Jigga's wordplay is so nice you've got to hear it twice.
Written by Drew Millard (@drewmillard)
RELATED: The 100 Best Jay-Z Songs
RELATED: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Jay-Z's The Blueprint
RELATED: All 67 References to Brooklyn in Jay-Z's Catalog of Songs
50. "Y'all gotta pay a little mo' now/It's platinum nowadays, we put the gold down"
49. "When you Earnhardt as me, eventually you hit a big wall"
48. "I got a chemical romance, two left feet/So now I dance with the devil, please G-O-D/Save me from the black parade, release me"
47. "Right now I want you to give the drummer some/No ma, really, give the drummer some"
46. "Many chicks wanna put Jigga's fists in cuffs"
45. "Mike Jordan of rap, outside J working/Now watch how quickly I drop 50"
44. "Got the bomb place/Fireplace John Blaze"
43. "Get your own dog, ya heard? That's my bitch."
42. "Remember Newton/Mutual friend, well me and him feuding"
41. "Niggas make the same shit/Me, I make the blueprint"
40. "I buy out the bar, spit Cris' through the mic"
39. "You draw, better be Picasso, you know, the best"
38. "She call me professor, say daddy come and test her/So she can fail on purpose and repeat the semester"
37. "I don't half-step on the 'caine"
36. "Changing the game, my game could nail Madonna"
35. "Survive the drought, I wish you well"
34. "I got this ho that after 12 million sold/Mami's a narcoleptic, always sleeping on Hov"
33. "Even if they won't let me in Heaven, I raise Hell, 'til it's Heaven"
32. "Scheme on the ice, I got to hot your crew"
31. "I got shooters on my team/No, really, I got shooters on my team"
30. "4 scores and 7 years ago prepared the flow, prepared for war, I should fear no man"
29. "I damn near beat Jordan in around-the-world"
28. "I got that uncut raw to make a fiend's body jerk"
27. "Coke is still my sponsor, the cola/Yeah, Hova still getting it in with soda/Diet, no sir, I ain't lose no weight"
26. "Young niggas that blast for me, no religion"
25. "I'm like U-Haul, every bitch moving I fuck"
24. "This is food for thought, you do the dishes"
23. "I'm not a businessman/I'm a business, man"
22. "I run the block, pull up in a drop, push up on my money, I'm in great shape dunny"
21. "Niggas don't want to get shot/Then y'all niggas better squat"
20. "I walk with a cane, ain't no half-steppin'"
19. "One shot Dillinger/One shot killin' ya"
18. "I'm about a dollar, what the fuck is 50 Cents?"
17. "Truthfully, I wanna rhyme like Common Sense/But I did five mil, I ain't been rhymin' like Common since"
16. "If you pan left at the ice/It be the man that write checks with the hand that don't write"
15. "My shit is butter, for the bread, they wanna toast me"
14. "I can run it back, nigga, cause I'm straight with the Roc"
13. "I move keys/You can call me the piano man"
12. "Like short sleeves, I bear arms"
11. "But I'm platinum a million times nigga, check the credits"
10. "I've seen pies, let the thing between my eyes analyze life's ills/Then I put it down type Braille"
9. "Naw, I don't fuck around, stay on my J.O."
8. "What you eat don't make me shit"
7. "When I come back like Jordan wearing the 4-5, it ain't to play games with you"
6. "Got the US open, advantage: Jigga"
5. "Appetite for destruction, but I scrape the plate"
4. "I jack, I rob, I sin/Ah, man, I'm Jackie Robinson/'Cept when I run base, I dodge the pen"
3. "My pops knew exactly what he did when he made me/Tried to get a nut and he got a nut and what"
2. "Niggas don't get the picture 'til the weapons is drawn"
1. "I kept feedin' her money 'til her shit started to make sense"
