Influencer: Songs that Reference Other Songs

After a week-long break, I'm back and better than ever y'all. This week is all about artists that mention other songs (or artists or albums, w/e, I make the rules as I go). Everyone loves when an artist calls out another artist on a diss track, but I much prefer when artists tell a story and mention another artist's song in a positive way. It's a sly nod to acknowledge those who came before.

Also, shoutout to all the people on reddit that helped me crowdsource the songs for this week's list. Couldn't have done it without my fellow hiphopheads. I couldn't keep all the songs they mentioned, but the thread is definitely worth a read.

"The Documentary" by The Game

The Game really lays it all out there. It's like when someone is accepting a Grammy and they mention everyone and their mother; that's what The Game is doing here.

After suffering a severe gunshot wound, when The Game was recovering in the hospital, he told his brother to go out and buy all the classic hip-hop records. He studied like a maniac, so the hook. of "The Documentary" is The Game shouting out his "mentors" in one sentence: "I'm Ready to Die without a Reasonable Doubt smoke Chronic and hit it Doggystyle before I go out. Before I sign my Death Certificate All Eyez On Me. I'm still at it, Illmatic, and that's The Documentary."

Here's all the mentions The Game makes:

-The Notorious B.I.G. – "Ready To Die"

-Jay-Z – Reasonable Doubt

-Dr. Dre – The Chronic

-Snoop Dogg – Doggy Style

-Ice Cube – Death Certificate

-2Pac – "All Eyez On Me"

-Nas – "Illmatic"

"Big Brother" by Kanye West

Wouldn't be an Influenca playlist without a Kanye song!! For real though, Kanye loves telling a story with his music, and "Big Brother"is the prime example. "Big Brother" refers to Jay-Z, and Kanye raps about their problematic dynamic.

The hook describes their connection through hip-hop legends: "My big brother was B.I.G.'s brother/Used to be Dame and Biggs' brother/Who was Hip Hop brother, who was No I.D. friend/No I.D. my mentor, now let the story begin."

Kanye makes a couple of noteworthy mentions throughout the songs:

-Jay-Z's 1999 Hard Knock Life tour

-Jay-Z's Black Album

-"Jesus Walks" by Kanye West

-"Diamonds From Sierra Leone" by Kanye West

-"Homecoming" by Kanye West

Small mention of my favorite Kanye s/o of another song, "We Don't Care." He mentions 50 Cent's "21 Questions" when he raps, "You know the kids gon' act a fool/When you stop the programs for after school/And they DCFS, some of 'em dyslexic/They favorite 50 Cent song '12 Questions.'" Lol.

"Under Ground Kings" by Drake

Drake is a cultural king. He loves mentioning TV (obviously Degrassi), movies, artists, songs, you name it, he loves it all. The name of the song references UGK (short for Underground Kingz) formed by Pimp C and Bun B. Drake even calls the duo his uncles.

So the song is even a shoutout, but Drake makes other references while he's at it"

-"Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel (kind of a stretch but w/e)

-"Neck of the Woods" by Birdman ft. Lil Wayne

"Let Nas Down" by J. Cole

"Long live your idols, may they never be your rivals."

It's no secret that J. Cole really admires his mentors. Jay-Z is a big influence, but Nas is arguably the most influential in J.'s life. J. Cole explained to a NY audience that, after Cole released "Work Out," No I.D. (Cole's mentor and also Kanye's mentor) called Cole to say that Nas was disappointed by the single. Nas thought Cole was going to be "the one" but he messed it up with a song pandering to a radio audience. Nas utilized the exact same strategy for his song "You Owe Me," so J. Cole thought he would understand, but Nas expected Cole to learn from his mistakes. Hence the song on his sophomore album, "Let Nas Down."

J. Cole mentions:

-"Big Brother" by Kanye West (see above)

-"You Owe Me" by Nas

"Black Friday Remix" by Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick never shies away from shouting out other songs, including his own. Like J. Cole and Kanye, Kendrick acknowledges those that came before him and learns from the classics to make his own sound.

Here's Kendrick's mentions:

-"Rolling in the Deep" by Adele

-"King Kunta" by Kendrick Lamar

-College Dropout by Kanye West