Masta Ace -
Acknowledge from Disposable Arts
Masta Ace hails from Brooooooooooooklyn and has been killing
it for decades. His 2001 album
Disposable Arts is a concept album, which chronicles Ace’s flight from the hood
to the Institute of Disposable Arts in Up-State New York and the "regular" developments back home. It is one of my favorite albums of all time
because of the nearly seamless narrative about life in the hood while satirizing higher education in America. The album is packed with JamAndAHalfs and
radical verses from Jane Doe, Jean Grae, Punch, and Strck. There is not a
weak verse on the entire album.
The song Acknowledge, is a classic battle rap that, oddly, is the
only song on the album that does not flow perfectly in the narrative of Ace’s
flight from the hood. That said, the
song is straight fire. Ace’s bars are
accompanied by a weeping violin, which conjures up images of the other rappers’
funerals. A Gangstarr sample is used as
the hook and seems to add authenticity to Ace’s status as a true BIG FISH in the
rap game.
The victims, The High and The Mighty, must have really pissed Ace off to make him stray from the running theme. The High and The Mighty provoked Ace by
stepping “up at CMJ and mentioning” his name. Throughout the song, Ace slashes up the group’s
members and their producer.
Ace finishes by
saying
“You that cat in the club that gets hit with a bottle
Fucking with me, you’re better off trying to hit lotto
And don’t answer back, cuz this is hard shit to follow
And you can’t spit nigga so you obviously must swallow!
Mother Fucker!”
And then Ace asks the proverbial question,
“Don’t you know that
the student can’t fuck with the teacher?”
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