fly suites

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Look for fly as an adjective in a slang dictionary.

Your "boojwazi" is actually bourgeoisie. You can find it in your dictionary.

I hope you're not trying to learn about English from song lyrics...
 
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jutfrank

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What kind and level of meaning analysis are you looking for? The relevant passage is talking about his personal financial situation.
 

Do228

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Yes Frank, I know it's about his financial situation but I had never heard of "fly" as an adjective before. However, it would certainly be interesting to hear a deeper analysis of the whole rap part starting at 2:30 from you as a music and language expert. To me personally, it's somehow enigmatic that a multi-millionaire is musing so much about his finances, given the fact that even if -for whatever reasons- he went bankrupt tomorrow, he just needed to make a new album or go on tour to be become a rich man again very fast. I mean that would be super-easy for him, wouldn't it? If I were in his position as a famous celebrity, money would probably be the very last thing I'd worry about. But maybe I just got the lyrics wrong and you can bring light to the mystery?
 

probus

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The use of fly as an adjective is confined to AAVE (African-American vernacular English). Anyone else who uses it will be deemed by all to be a wigger.
 
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jutfrank

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I had never heard of "fly" as an adjective before.

I'm confident you're going to start noticing this use of fly as an adjective from now on.

However, it would certainly be interesting to hear a deeper analysis of the whole rap part starting at 2:30 from you as a music and language expert. To me personally, it's somehow enigmatic that a multi-millionaire is musing so much about his finances, given the fact that even if -for whatever reasons- he went bankrupt tomorrow, he just needed to make a new album or go on tour to be become a rich man again very fast. I mean that would be super-easy for him, wouldn't it? If I were in his position as a famous celebrity, money would probably be the very last thing I'd worry about. But maybe I just got the lyrics wrong and you can bring light to the mystery?

Well, the first thing I'd remind you of is the fact that in any kind of writing, including rap, the 'voice' is not necessarily identical to the author. That is, there's no reason to automatically assume that Nas is singing as himself. However, it does seem to be the case here, and so I understand what you're saying. I'm not a fan of Nas's rhymes and I don't really know much about his personal life, so I can't really offer anything illuminating as to what he might be trying to say.

To be honest, apart from the obvious Like smoke, girls lean round a player, I can't see much of a link at all between Amy's part and Nas's additional verses. I'm not even sure how much Nas himself was thinking about any kind of link.

Apparently, Nas penned his verses after Amy was already dead, so she definitely had no part in what he's going on about. For a bit of context, see this link to Songfacts.com:

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/amy-winehouse/like-smoke
 

probus

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I'm confident you're going to start noticing this use of fly as an adjective from now on.

Geriatric as I am, I think you may be wrong about that. Fly as an adjective was used as far back as the days of Shaft. I think it is becoming dated. I very much doubt that Desus and Mero would use it unless they were doing a retro bit.

For those who don't know, Desus and Mero is the only cool American late night TV show.
 
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jutfrank

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Geriatric as I am, I think you may be wrong about that. Fly as an adjective was used as far back as the days of Shaft. I think it is becoming dated. I very much doubt that Desus and Mero would use it unless they were doing a retro bit.

Fair enough. That's useful to bear in mind. Thanks.

If it is becoming dated now, I still hear it fairly often. This particular use by Nas is from 2011.

Anyway, I think my point still remains because even if it were not used at all any more, I assume that Do228 listens to enough older music and films to notice it. I might well be wrong, though.
 
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