Suicide, it's a suicide

The phrase "[...], it's a [...]" was first used by rapper KRS-One on the song "Moshitup" in 1987. It has since entered into hip hop music as a meme, and has been used by artists such as Ice-T, Gravediggaz, Redman, Jay-Z and Jedi Mind Tricks. It serves as a good example of the intertextual nature of the genre, where quoting older works serves as a form of homage to other artists.

Origin

The phrase was first used by Boogie Down Productions's KRS-One in 1987. KRS-One, known also as "the Teacher", was one of the most influential proponents of the early socially and politically concious East Coast rap. He co-produced Just-Ice's album Kool & Deadly, and contributed vocals on the track "Moshitup". KRS-One is vegetarian, and used the phrase to warn against the dangers of eating pork:

A simple explanation as to why this particular phrase has gained popularity is that it just "sounds cool and dangerous". In addition to this, the line serves as an inside reference to KRS-One, one of the legends of the genre, an effect that only accumulated as other highly respected performers repeated the phrase.

Dissemination

The line made its way across to West Coast rap in 1991, when Ice-T used it in the song "Ricochet" from the film by the same name. Two years later it was repeated on fellow West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg's track "Serial Killa" from the album Doggystyle by RBX. It has since been used by among others Scarface and Redman in different songs both titled "[...]", by the group Gravediggaz on the single "1-800 [...]", and by Nelly on Fat Joe's hit single "Get It Poppin'". In 2008 the phrase entered into mainstream pop music when it was used by Jay-Z on the remix of Coldplay's single "Lost!" (titled "Lost+").

See also

• Hip hop culture