Mansa Musa:[]
Wallah, by the holy Quran I lay my hand upon,
("Wallah" is an Arabic expression meaning "I swear by God" used to make a promise or express great credibility. It also refers to a person involved with a particular work or someone who performs a specific duty or service. Though Musa starts this by using it as the expression, he may also be stating that he has a specific service due to his famous trip to Mecca. Since he was a devout Muslim, he also brings up the Quran, the holy book that is the central religious text of Islam. For Musa to lay his hand on the Quran, he swears an oath for what he says as many important figures often use a holy book to swear promises to validate their claims.)
I blaze Bezos, inflict inflammatory damage on
(Musa claims to blaze his opponent Jeff Bezos, which will cause him to get burned due to his disses. When damage is inflammatory, it can be caused by being set on fire as Musa aims to do.)
Amazon, burn it down like when they put the cattle on
(Bezos' company, Amazon, is named after the rainforest in South America, which suffered a series of devastating fires in the late 2010s and into 2020, believed to have been caused or exacerbated by local cattle farming. Musa says his raps will burn down the company as if it was the forest it gets its name from. It may also refer to the cattle the Mali empire had that was used to eat by burning it to cook. It could also be a pun on the phrase "putting the kettle on," as in boiling water to make tea.)
The hottest on the map since the Atlas of Catalan!
(Continuing with his lines indicating how hot his raps are, Musa claims he is the hottest person on the Catalan Atlas, a medieval world map made in 1375 showing the different trade routes throughout Eurasia and Africa. He is famously depicted on the map as an African ruler who had a surplus of wealth and is dressed in European-style royal regalia (though as a devout Muslim man, Musa would not have worn such). When Musa says this, the scene transitions from the Sahara to ERB's rendition of Mansa Musa's page on the Catalan Atlas (which differs from the original mainly due to the fact that in the original, Musa is seated and wearing European-style regalia, whereas in ERB's rendition, Musa is standing up and not wearing such because, as stated earlier, Musa probably did not wear gold jewelry as such is prohibited for Islamic men to wear). )
The King of Mali, with gold bars you can't escape from!
(Mansa Musa was the king of the Mali Empire and had incalculable wealth due to having controlled the trade in gold from the mines of West Africa, which he compares to his rhymes, or "bars" since gold comes in that form. Bars can also refer to those in a prison cell, so Musa says that Bezos will be unable to get away from his rap skills.)
Lyrically, I pack heat! You pack a tape gun!
("Packing heat" refers to carrying a weapon, and Musa brags that his raps act like a handgun for him to blast Bezos. On the contrary, Bezos would only be carrying a tape gun like the ones used by Amazon workers to seal their packages; thus, Musa believes Bezos to be weaker as a rapper. This may also add to Musa's earlier mentions that his raps have heat, meaning they have burns for his opponent, or they're considered hot and incredible when he spits.)
I'm landing blows you can't dodge; this ain't sales tax!
(Musa continues to taunt Bezos, saying that the blows he lands with his raps cannot be dodged. As an Internet company, Amazon has been accused of "dodging"—i.e. completely avoiding—charging and paying taxes on sales of goods and services in states where the tax is required. In truth, many states have had to rewrite their fiscal codes to allow Internet goods to be taxed and thus collect on them. As the laws themselves are a patchwork effort, there is no uniform means of taxation across different states and territories via the Internet. This is exploited by billionaires like Bezos in order to allow them to accumulate vast amounts of wealth.)
I left footprints in the Sahara; I know hot tracks!
(Musa's hajj went through the Sahara, which is among the hottest environments in the world, so Musa's footprints were left in the sand of the Sahara. As a result, this means Musa is capable of making a track, or rap, that is as hot as the Sahara.)
I bust dorks like dot-com bubbles when I hit 'em!
(The dot-com bubble was a stock market bubble caused by excessive speculation of Internet-related companies in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Amazon took advantage of this period when it initially started and has grown exponentially since then. Musa calls Bezos a dork due to his geeky nature that was seen when Amazon was created, and he says he would bust him like a dot-com bubble since bubbles are known to burst easily upon contact.)
Nah, you can't spit! You got that Al Gore rhythm! (Ha ha!)
(Musa makes a pun on the word "algorithm," which is a set of instructions used by a computer in order to perform a specific task. Being an online-focused company, Amazon makes use of algorithms throughout its business, such as tracking a customer's order history and determining what they might want to buy next. Musa also compares Bezos' rapping prowess to former Vice President Al Gore, who was mocked for his slow manner of speaking and became misquoted as claiming credit for the invention of the Internet from his statement, "I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Being another older white man associated with the Internet, he claims that both are incapable of rapping well.)
Here's a nugget of advice to get your union problems handled:
(Musa uses the phrase "nugget of advice" to refer to how he frequently gave away gold nuggets. Instead of a literal gold nugget, he will offer some advice to Bezos about how to get his company's troubles with unions under control. Workers in some states where Amazon has a significant footprint have voted to form unions with the goal of possibly gaining bargaining leverage against the company to improve working conditions and wages. Amazon has been accused of "union-busting", as it has not supported unionization efforts and is believed to have influenced union votes in its favor, i.e. with the votes failing to establish unions.)
Want workers that don't piss? Hire some camels!
(Amazon has been criticized for what is seen as unsuitable working conditions, with one of the more well-known complaints suggesting that employees are compelled to pee in bottles rather than take a break from work. Musa says Bezos should instead use camels, which Musa himself used during his travels. Being from the desert, they have evolved to conserve fluids for long periods of time, thus urinating infrequently. To "piss" about something can also mean to complain, and since they're animals, camels don't complain about things like having a heavy workload.)
I expanded horizons with libraries and mosques
(Musa expanded the borders of the Mali Empire, incorporating the cities of Gao and Timbuktu into its territory. During his reign, he brought many Arabic scholars and architects to assist with numerous construction projects and serve as teachers in his libraries and universities; he also reportedly built a mosque every Friday. The Sankoré Madrasah, or University of Sankoré, became a significant learning center in the Muslim world under Mansa Musa, who funded it and restaffed it with jurists, astronomers, and mathematicians. By the end of his reign, it became capable of housing 25,000 students and had one of the largest libraries in the world with roughly 1,000,000 manuscripts.)
While you chopped off the top of all the mom and pop shops!
(Amazon's success in the online shopping market is a prominent factor in many "mom and pop shops," or small businesses, ceasing operations due to their disadvantage of competing with them. In response to Musa's last line boasting his major accomplishments and helping others, he says Bezos only worsens the competition by leading to the elimination of the smaller companies, which leads to economic disadvantages.)
All you widened was the gap between the haves and have-nots!
(Billionaires like Bezos are criticized for increasing the economic inequality between the wealthiest and poorest in society as well as decreasing social mobility, and this trend has kept on going for generations. The "haves and have-nots" thus refers to the lack of equal distribution of wealth between the people who have accumulated a vast amount of money in their lives and the people who do not have enough to live adequately continuing to increase.)
Now they ordering or living in your cardboard box!
(Musa says most people who aren't wealthy are either ordering from Amazon to get their necessities or living in a box like how people frequently stereotype the homeless. Cardboard boxes are used by Amazon to protecting items that are being shipped, so Musa criticizes Bezos' business methods and claims that they are both causing people to become dependent on him for buying stuff from Amazon to satisfy their needs and pushing more people into poverty and homelessness (and thus life in boxes) since billionaires like Bezos are often denounced for contributing to economic inequality.)
Jeff Bezos:[]
At Amazon, our product research is phenomenal,
(Bezos starts his verse like an advertisement that shows the CEO talking about what great services or products the company provides. Here, he shows that Amazon has one of the greatest research teams to improve their products.)
But I've never heard your story—and I own Audible! (Hahahahahahahahahaha!)
(Mansa Musa is often only known as the wealthiest man in history, but many people only have a vague idea of who he was and what he did, and he is not considered a famous figure to be studied by historians, largely due to African history often being sidelined by scholarship until fairly recently. Bezos also brings this back to his last line since even if his research team tried to look into Musa, they wouldn't find much of his importance. Audible is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides audiobooks and is often promoted as a service that helps you learn new information from the audiobooks they have in their library. Bezos says that despite this, he wouldn't be familiar with what Musa did because his story isn't well-known. Bezos also laughs throughout his verses, referencing his laugh which is frequently derided online for sounding like a supervillain's.)
So go dig some more gold there, Kanye West Africa! (Hahahahahahahaha!)
("Gold Digger" is a song by hip-hop artist Kanye West, and Bezos uses this to say Musa should go back to digging and mining more gold in his country. He also uses Kanye's last name for West Africa, the region that the Mali Empire is from.)
I'm hotter than the soundtrack to Battlestar Galactica!
(Bezos claims he is also hot like Musa said he was, comparing himself to the acclaimed Battlestar Galactica soundtrack, which is from a series that can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video. Bezos is also a big science-fiction fan, so he would likely be interested in such a series.)
Never trade blows with Jazzy Jeff Bezos!
(Bezos starts this line emerging from a wall of boxes wearing the spacesuit he wore when he flew on Blue Origin's New Shepard Rocket. He says no one should try fighting him and uses the stage name of DJ Jazzy Jeff for his own. Jazzy Jeff is a known collaborator of Will Smith in his early days as a rapper known as the Fresh Prince, so Bezos references this to show how he has strong raps. This could also refer to the current Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, as his last name sounds like "jazzy.")
Egghead with a huge set of huevos! (Hahahahahahahaha!)
(Bezos has a bald head resembling an egg, and an egghead is also used to mean intellectual, which can apply to Bezos who is a high school valedictorian who has graduated with an engineering degree, and has business expertise. He also says that like the egg resemblance, he also has huge "huevos," which is Spanish for "eggs" and also slang for someone's testicles. Bezos saying a Spanish word, may also refer to the fact that his stepfather, Miguel Bezos, was an immigrant from Cuba, which is a Spanish-speaking country.)
I serve more people on the web than Spider-Man!
(The Internet houses the information system known as the World Wide Web, along with web browsers and websites. Bezos brags about how more people purchase from his Amazon website than are helped and saved by Spider-Man using his spider web-based powers.)
You rap like a soccer mom; that's why you roll with Caravans!
(Bezos insults Musa's skills by saying he raps like a soccer mom, who are frequently stereotyped as uncool and obnoxious. They are also known for driving minivans like the Dodge Caravan, and caravans also refers group of travelers on a journey or a line of camels carrying passengers and goods, both of which accompanied Musa on his hajj to Mecca.)
You're overrated, like you leave economies inflated!
(Bezos calls Musa overrated since, in contrast to Bezos who worked his way to wealth, Musa's wealth was only inherited and he became known for his title of possibly being the wealthiest person in history despite not working for it, making his legend less impressive. Also, since Musa's real wealth is often considered incalculable (due to the fact that historically, no distinction was made between the personal wealth of a ruler and the wealth of the polity he/she ruled over), it is unclear if he really was the richest person in history, and Bezos considers him overrated for such a title. Since overrated also means something being valued more than it deserves, he also compares Musa himself being overrated with how him (Musa) giving his wealth away caused African economies to have massive inflation because it lowered the value of gold to the point that it became insufficient for purchasing.)
You're about to taste some of that salt that you traded!
(To make someone salty means that they are angry in reaction to losing, so Bezos says Musa will be upset in a similar manner. Musa traded with many neighboring countries on his trip, most notably salt, which was an expensive commodity that had as much value as gold in his era because it was hard to obtain and helped to season food and prevented dehydration in the hot climate.)
What's the long-term play in giving your wealth away, eh?
(Bezos wonders what plan Musa would have for giving his wealth due to the current state of Mali being underdeveloped, unstable, and poverty-stricken like many African countries, meaning Musa's excessive generosity during his pilgrimage to Mecca did not benefit them in the long term. Bezos contrasts this with how he and other billionaires emphasize long-term thinking when it comes to how they uses their wealth, using it to create new business ventures to earn more money rather than allocating some funds to help the poor.)
'Cause now I feed your whole country for the price of a cup of coffee per day! (Ha ha!)
(It is often said that the large amount of wealth concentrated in the hands the few billionaires that exist in the world, including Bezos is enough to lift the population of entire African countries out of poverty, meaning that it is very likely that Bezos would be able to do so with Mali just from the amount of money he gets in a single day. The amount of aid the United States annually sends Mali is worth just under $150 million, while Bezos makes over $200 million. Mali's GDP is also low, so Bezos may also imply that the amount of money it takes to feed the country is a few dollars like the price of a cup of coffee. He phrases this line like a donation request, which often says enough people could help an impoverished country in Africa by donating what they would pay for a cup of coffee.)
So bow to me like you did to the king of Cairo!
(Musa met with the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in the capital of Cairo, though chronicles of this encounter state that he was reluctant to meet with him since he only wanted to pass through for his pilgrimage. He initially refused to kiss the sultan's feet, but he soon properly greeted him with a bow to show respect, though he is said to have claimed he was actually bowing to Allah rather than the Sultan when he did so. Bezos says the same will happen here with Musa being forced to bow to him out of respect of being beaten by Bezos as well as him being one of the most powerful people in the world like the Egyptian sultan.)
You're about as hack as Saudis tapping my iPhone!
(Bezos calls Musa a hack, or a person who can't do their job right, possibly being directed towards his action of giving away gold causing inflation. He also says this in relation to his cell phone being hacked, meaning digitally gaining unauthorized access to data on a device. Likewise, telephone tapping means the phone is being monitored, which was done by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, a Muslim leader like Musa.)
You'll be more ashamed than when you accidentally killed your mom
(Though the identity of Musa's mother is unclear, it is believed she was named Kanku. The Tarikh al-fattash, which is a West African chronicle detailing some of the history of the earlier Mali Empire, claims that Musa accidentally killed Kanku at some point prior to his hajj. This would have devastated Musa, but Bezos says losing this battle would be more hurtful.)
When I make you shit your pants worse than diapers.com!
(Amazon owned the domain diapers.com, which was an online retailer for baby products until it closed in 2017. Bezos says that like when Musa would shit himself like a baby would, implying he can act like a toddler despite his accidental action of killing his mom.)
Mansa Musa:[]
Ayo, Lex Loser, you look like a villain at Comic-Con!
(Bezos is often considered to be the real-life version of Lex Luthor, a villain in the Superman comics because of the fact that he is bald, is the founder and head of a large and wealthy corporation that is often compared to LexCorp, as well as the fact that his laugh is often compared to a supervillain's. Comic book characters are often cosplayed at Comic-Con, so Musa compares Bezos to someone wearing a cheap cosplay of Lex Luthor.)
You gettin' ate up; you should've battled me on Ramadan!
(Ramadan is a month-long holy rite in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. To "eat up" means to demolish, or to insult by roasts. Musa says that if Bezos didn't want to get eaten up by him, he should've battled at the time Musa couldn't eat. Since fighting is also not allowed on Ramadan, this gives another reason why Musa tells Bezos that he should have battled him on Ramadan. This may also refer to how fasting causes someone's body to start using nutrients it has stored, beginning with carbohydrates before consuming fats when those are depleted and then moving on to amino acids, thus "eating up" the body's energy reserves.)
A harem of women is what I had on my staff!
(During Musa's time, harems were common for Islamic leaders to have, which commonly included several wives or concubines for them to have sex with since Islamic law allowed men to practice polygamy, albeit with limits. Musa had the maximum of four wives, who he brought with him during his hajj.)
You married one woman, Jeff, and she cut you in half! (Shink!)
(Whereas Musa had four wives and other women to choose from, Bezos was only married once: to novelist MacKenzie Scott in 1993. Scott subsequently divorced Bezos in 2019 and as a result of their settlement, she gained $38 billion, which was a large percentage of Bezos' net worth at the time. This resulted in her becoming one of the wealthiest women in the world. Musa also imitates the sound of a sword or knife cutting something quickly in half to illustrate just how quickly Bezos lost his only wife and a substantial amount of his money.)
(Haha!) David Pecker picked a pack of your peter pics!
(In 2019, David Pecker, the publisher of the tabloid newspaper National Enquirer, was accused by Bezos of extortion and blackmail over images he had showing Bezos' genitals meant for his partner. Musa says this line as a parody of the tongue twister, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". While Musa says this, he shows a parody of the cover of the National Enquirer when the story was released.)
Now your new girl got them "Feed me, Seymour" lips!
(Musa insults Bezos' new partner Lauren Sánchez for having big lips, comparing them to the lips Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, who also sings "Feed me, Seymour" in one of its songs.)
And it turns out, her own brother was the snitch!
(Sánchez's brother Michael turned out to be the one who sent the texts to National Enquirer, and he also sued Bezos for defamation, causing a feud between them.)
He... woo! Fix your face! No wonder you bought Twitch! (Woooo!)
(Musa was to continue his bars regarding Bezos' nudes leaking, with him about to tell how the National Enquirer obtained his nudes, but was distracted by Bezos' ugly face. To say "fix your face" can mean "go fuck yourself," though Musa may imply Bezos should fix his face since his notable droopy eyelid makes it appear like it twitched too much, meaning the muscles in his face moved uncontrollably out of discomfort or anger. Musa may also mean that Bezos must be twitching as a result of Michael Sánchez leaking his pictures and suing him. Amazon acquired Twitch, a live streaming service, in 2014. When Twitch was hacked in October 2021, the hackers replaced images with Jeff Bezos' face, adding another layer for his face being related to Twitch.)
Now let me really break it down because there's more to him!
(Musa will bring up more disses to Bezos in his next lines. Given his use of third person to refer to Bezos, he is presumably speaking to the audience in this and his following lines.)
He ain't a Bezos! His real name is Jorgensen! (Ha!)
(Bezos' birth name is Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen, but it was legally changed to Bezos when his stepfather Miguel Bezos adopted him as his own son after marrying his mother. Musa taunts Bezos' real name for sounding weaker. This is also a reference to the film 8 Mile, where Eminem's character uses the line "This guy's a gangster? His real name's Clarence!" to diss his final rap battle opponent. Musa may also be taking aim at Bezos saying "huevos" and accusing him of lying about his ancestry (according to Jeff Bezos' Wikipedia article, Jeff Bezos' biological father, Theodore Jorgensen had Danish ancestry). )
But Daddy loved unicycles more than him,
(Jorgensen was a unicyclist at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus and later became president of the Albuquerque Unicycle Club. Musa thus believes that Jorgensen left the family because he (Jorgensen) preferred unicycling over caring for with his son. It could also be contrast to a line in the referenced 8 Mile rap battle which reads "Clarence's parents have a real good marriage")
So he rolled out! Now that's a Blue Origin!
(Jorgensen had little to do with raising Bezos due to having struggled financially and having serious alcohol problems. After leaving the family, Jorgensen later went to open a bicycle shop and died having never met his son personally or known about his success. Musa theorizes that Jorgensen must have left the family riding on a unicycle and considers this to be a sad backstory, calling it a "Blue Origin" (with blue being used to describe a sad feeling), as well as making a play on the name of the aerospace manufacturing company "Blue Origin", which Bezos founded in 2000 and has recently made sub-orbital spaceflights for Bezos and other billionaires.)
Take one small step towards a different prophet
(Neil Armstrong's famous quote "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" is often used in relation to space travel, so Musa says Bezos should instead take "one small step" to profess his faith towards a religious prophet since Bezos is not shown to have strong religious beliefs. "Prophet" and "profit" are homophones, so Musa says Bezos should move towards faith and being closer to God instead of remaining driven to earn more money. Musa was dedicated to his Muslim faith, so he believes Bezos should do the same to help others like he did on his pilgrimage.)
'Cause these days, you're just as cocky as your rocket!
(The shape of the New Shepard Rocket of Blue Origin is intended to allow the rocket's capsule to have enough space to fit six passengers as well as make it more stable in flight. However, on the day when Bezos flew in it during his widely-publicized suborbital spaceflight, many netizens could not help but notice how the New Shepard Rocket suspiciously resembles an erect phallus, (often referred to colloquially as a "cock"). "Cocky" also can mean arrogant and selfish, and Musa says Bezos has a cocky attitude since Bezos comes off as extremely arrogant and uncaring to others on a personal level. By comparing his cocky attitude to how his rocket is shaped like a cock, Musa also calls Bezos a dick as a result of his lack of religiosity.)
I'm the cream of the crop! I'm on top! I'm ice cold!
("Cream of the crop" means the best at something, and Musa compliments this by saying he's on top. He also says he's ice cold, meaning he is notably cool and stylish.)
This Muslim just served you: Allah mode!
(Since Mansa Musa is a Muslim, he worships God as Allah ("the God" according to Islam). A dessert being à la mode means that there is a scoop of ice cream on top of it, so him being the "cream of the crop" refers to ice cream, which is on top and ice cold like à la mode, a pun with "Allah." The concept of getting served is when someone gets owned, typically by a diss and doubles as being served ice cream. Allah Mode can also be translated as "God Mode," which is a mode in video games where you cannot be defeated no matter what your opponents do, implying that Musa has become unbeatable for Bezos.)
Jeff Bezos:[]
Musa, I'm lyrically lethal! I'm relentless, African verse immune!
(Bezos counters Musa's last line by telling him he is lethal, or deadly, at rhyming, as well as relentless, or harshly unstoppable, possibly pointing to him being a hard worker. He also says he would be immune to Musa's verse like it was an African virus due to the amount of diseases that originate in Africa. If you take the first letter of each word in this line and put them together, you get "milliravi," an acronym coined by Bezos that stands for "Meaningful Innovation Leads, Launches, Inspires Relentless Amazon Visitor Improvements," which Bezos describes as meaning "a significant mathematical error of a million dollars or more.")
If I wanted to waste my life on desert spice, I'd watch Dune!
(Dune is a 1965 science fiction novel that was adapted twice to film, first in 1984 and again in 2021, both being cult classics and the latter being commercially successful. The story takes place on the fictional desert planet Arrakis, and the runtime for the movie is for two and a half hours, so Bezos thinks it'd be worth his time to watch the movie instead of taking a trip while trading spices for years like Musa did through the desert. In the story of Dune, Arrakis is known for its spice, which is a commodity that is highly valued throughout the universe.)
What did we give to MacKenzie? 40 billion, so what? (Haha!)
(As Musa pointed out, Bezos gave $38 billion to ex-wife Scott as a settlement after their divorce. However, Bezos shrugs it off, thinking that it wasn't worth bringing up because the settlement was trivial compared to what he makes.)
Earning every penny back only took me a month!
(On a regular basis, Bezos can make about $10 billion in a month, so he would be able to recover the losses from his divorce with enough financial support from his businesses within that timeframe and deems Musa's diss ineffective.)
I went from Hobbit dork to slick Orc physique!
(Bezos started in humble beginnings and acknowledges that he was dorky when he started Amazon, but he has since built a more muscular physique. He likens his earlier image to a Hobbit, a small and scrawny creature in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy series The Lord of the Rings, and compares his current image to an orc, a mythical creature with a strong fit body that is also in the same universe as the Hobbits.)
Now I'm Lord of the Rings… Take a peek! (Haha!)
(Hobbits and orcs are predominantly featured in The Lord of the Rings, and additionally, Amazon was producing the television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power at the time the rap battle was made and released. Bezos claims to have this title due to Amazon owning Ring, a home security company that sells smart doorbells to notify customers if someone is at the door and provides video footage to show who or what is at the doorstep. Since doorbells make ringing noises, he says he would rule over this product, inviting Musa to take a peek like one would when answering the door. The chime of a Ring device is also heard in this line.)
3 years to trek to Mecca; man, you must be tripping!
(For someone to be tripping means that they're being crazy, so Bezos thinks Musa wasting three years just to travel to Mecca is insane, but he may also be referring to the 'trip' that Musa took to Mecca. Since Musa brought thousands of people to walk with him on his pilgrimage, Bezos jokes that Musa took so long because they likely kept tripping, or falling over, along the way.)
One click, I'll get you there overnight, with free shipping! (Hahahahahahahaha!)
(Amazon has a patent on "1-Click Shopping," which is a system that virtually guarantees selected goods to be at the customer's door with overnight delivery and free shipping for Amazon Prime users. As a result, Bezos belittles Musa's long hajj by saying it would be much easier and faster to pack him up and ship him to Mecca instead.)
I'm hard-corporate, top tier in the Forbes list!
(Bezos makes a portmanteau of "hardcore" and "corporate," meaning he would be tough or extreme in his behavior with businesses. Bezos is one of the most successful businessmen in America, and his corporation became the most valuable in the world from his aggressive business tactics. He was often at the top tier, or among the world's richest, of Forbes magazine's annual lists of billionaire rankings.)
You couldn't even hit top tier in Civ VI!
(While Bezos is constantly on the top of Forbes lists, Mansa Musa, who is a playable character in the strategy game Civilization VI (commonly abbreviated as "Civ 6") as the leader of the Mali civilization, is not considered to be at the top of tier lists made for the game, which means players do not rank Mali, and by extension Mansa Musa, as especially powerful compared to the other civilizations in the game.)
I'm schooling you like Timbuktu, eating you like Whole Foods!
(Musa established Timbuktu as a beacon of Islamic learning and paid gold to build the Djinguereber Mosque, a famous learning center in the city among many others. In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market, a supermarket chain known for selling organic food. Bezos says he would school, or badly defeat, Musa like his own learning center in Timbuktu and eat him up like the products at Whole Foods, also likely referring to how Amazon ate up Whole Foods by acquiring it.)
Your ship has sailed just like the dude who came before you!
(When someone's ship has sailed, it means their opportunity passed, so Bezos says this because Musa would no longer have a chance of a comeback against him. According to legend, Musa's predecessor, Muhammad ibn Qu, left Musa in his place to rule until he came back from his expeditions to explore the Atlantic Ocean. Since Muhammad ibn Qu never returned, Musa crowned himself as the new ruler, though some historians believe Musa deposed Muhammad ibn Qu and he made up the story of the voyage to justify his usurpation.)
'Cause you ain't Fire, can't hold a Kindle to me!
(Bezos refutes Musa's claims of being hot and says he wasn't fire in his raps. To say someone can't hold a candle to another means that the person is much inferior to even be comparable. Bezos makes a pun on it by using "Kindle" in place of "candle," referring to the Amazon Kindle brand of e-book devices. The name comes from "kindle," meaning to light a fire, but it was also used in the line of tablet devices for Amazon Fire, which was formerly called Kindle Fire.)
I got the flywheel flows! I revolutionized delivery!
(The Amazon flywheel is a strategy that Bezos uses to show the concepts the company uses to grow and boost its sales. He says his flows are smooth like the flywheel design that makes his business model flow well, and he boasts that he is one of the biggest innovators in home delivery, causing Amazon to expand to other territories.)
Your talent's oddly puny like my tax bills!
(Bezos and many billionaires infamously pay small tax rates and little to no federal income tax for their companies, which plays a role in how they can accumulate so much wealth. He says Musa's talent is like the amount of taxes he pays, which are a miniscule percentage in comparison to his overall wealth. He also says it is small in an odd way since many people were suspicious of why he didn't pay a lot despite his massive wealth.)
Alexa, what do we have that he lacks?
(Bezos asks his Amazon Alexa what he has that Musa doesn't. Amazon Alexa is a virtual assistant that comes in a smart speaker that can answer questions and perform digital tasks for customers.)
Alexa:[]
Skills.
(Alexa responds to Bezos' question, answering that he and Alexa have skills while Musa doesn't. To have skills in a rap battle means to have good lines, rhythm, and flow throughout. On an Amazon Echo smart speaker, one can add program modules called "Skills" to have Alexa perform more tasks like playing interactive games, controlling lights and thermostats, or drawing stories from local news services.)
Jeff Bezos:[]
(Hahahaha!)
(Bezos ends his verse with his notable laugh that he made throughout the battle.)
Scrapped lyrics[]
Jeff Bezos:[]
I went from pip-squeak geek to gym-freak physique!
(This developed into the lyric "I went from Hobbit dork to slick Orc physique!")
And now I'm here to flex my winning streak on 'Mr. T antique'!
(Bezos also flexes on his strength and success. He calls Musa an antique version of Mr. T, an African-American actor known for showing off gold chains and jewelry. This line was removed when it was decided that Mansa Musa should not be wearing lots of gold. The change was because a patron had pointed out that a devout Muslim like Musa would not have worn gold and silk even if he had a large amount to use for this because Islam considers men who wear these items effeminate.)
Never trade blows with Jazzy Jeff Bezos,
(That line was left unchanged in the actual battle, although Bezos's rhyme scheme was extended with the three following lines in an early demo, according to a reply by ERB's official account under a YouTube post.)
I’m money baby, you can call me Jeff Pesos.
("Money" is slang for "exceptional" or "notable", but Bezos also uses it to boast about the actual money he possesses. "Jeff Pesos" is a pun on Jeff Bezos's name, and pesos which are the national currency of eight countries including Cuba. It refers to all the pesos that Bezos's fortune represents, but also to the fact Jeff Bezos's stepfather, Miguel Bezos, was an immigrant from Cuba.)
Egg head with a huge set of huevos,
(That line was also left unchanged in the final version of the battle.)
Bald God, you can call me Jeff Kratos.
(Jeff mentions his baldness once again, and compares himself to a god. Thus he makes a reference to the main protagonist from God of War video games, Kratos, who is bald as well and ascended to godhood.)
