Despite the harshness of his living situation JAY-Z reiterates a certain pride he has in his roots while also calling attention to what is wrong with the neighborhood.
In the video JAY-Z describes the area that he grew up in by explaining everything that comes with living there. Many times JAY-Z starts lines of the song with “I’m from the”. He’ll say things like
“I’m from where the hammers rung, news cameras never come You and your mans hung in every verse in your rhyme Where the grams was slung.”
Here he is saying that in the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, NY camera crews would never show up because it is too dangerous. At the end of the line when he begins to talk about grams being slung, he is referring to selling massive amounts of Crack Cocaine. At one point in his career JAY-Z once was one of the most prominent crack dealers in New York. In his music he has famously talks about his old career of selling drugs and he does not shy away from it, as he is proud of how far he has come. Further along in the song JAY-Z states:
“I’m from the other side where the other guys don’t walk too much”
He means that in his neighborhood people often don’t walk through the area where his building is because it has lots of crime and is very dangerous.
As you can see above in the period between 1990-1997 Brooklyn experienced 400-800 murders per year. As JAY-Z shows in the video, the area where is from is very dangerous and that is why people do not hang around there. Further along in the song JAY-Z says
“I’m from where the beef is inevitable”
JAY-Z is saying that where he is from that is almost inevitable to get into a confrontation with a member of a rival gang. By “beef” he means conflict.
Throughout the video JAY-Z continuously outlines how being where he is from is very different from the norms of society. This narrative and execution of this music video would eventually help inspire other artists such as Kendrick Lamar to discuss the toughness of their upbringings, while also paying homage to their cities such as Compton, CA
