John Kahn (June 13, 1947 - May 30, 1996) was an American rock and roll bass guitarist. From 1970 to 1995, Kahn was Jerry Garcia's principal musical collaborator outside of the Grateful Dead.
John Kahn was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Adopted at birth by the Kahn family, he grew up in Beverly Hills, California. At Beverly Hills High School, he earned a reputation as a precocious musician playing jazz guitar and composing a symphonic piece, "Western Impressions", the first orchestral work by a student to be publicly performed by the school's orchestra under the direction of Robert Holmes.
In his junior year, Kahn switched to double bass and formed a jazz duo with a pianist, Peter Isackson, who encouraged him to study with Monty Budwig, a member of the house rhythm section at Shelly's Manne-hole. He moved to Sausalito, California in 1965, where he began to gravitate toward the incipient rock culture of the Haight-Ashbury district in nearby San Francisco. In 1967, he began working as a session musician with a litany of notable blues, folk, and rock performers, including Mike Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites, Mississippi Fred McDowell, John Lee Hooker, Brewer & Shipley (a longstanding collaboration that encompassed their 1971 Top Ten hit "One Toke Over the Line"), Tom Fogerty, Maria Muldaur, Al Kooper, Jackie DeShannon, and Otis Rush.
[Jay-z]
Turn my music high, high, high, high-er
"you don't know... what you're doing, doing, doing, doing..."
Sure I do...
I'm from the streets where the
Hood could swallow a man, bullets'll follow a man
There's so much coke that you could run the slalom
And cops comb the shit top to bottom
They say that we are prone to violence, but it's home sweet home
Where personalities crash and chrome meets chrome
The coke prices up and down like it's wall street homes
But this is worse than the dow jones your brains are now blown
All over that brown brougham, one slip you are now gone
Welcome to hell where you are welcome to sell
But when them shells come you better return 'em
All scars we earn 'em, all cars we learn 'em like the back of our hand
We watch for cops hoppin out the back of van
Wear a g on my chest, I don't need that for damn
This ain't a sewn outfit homes, homes is about it
Was clappin them flamers before I became famous
For playin me y'all shall forever remain nameless
I am hov'
Sure I do, I tell you the difference between me and them
They tryin to get they ones, I'm tryin to get them m's
One million, two million, three million, four
In just five years, forty million more
You are now lookin at the forty million boy
I'm rapin def jam 'til I'm the hundred million man
R., o., c.
"you don't know... what you're doing, doing, doing, doing..."
That's where you're wrong
I came into this motherfucker a hundred grand strong
Nine to be exact, from grindin g-packs
Put this shit in motion ain't no rewindin me back
Could make 40 off a brick but one rhyme could beat that
And if somebody woulda told 'em that hov' would sell clothin
Heh, not in this lifetime, wasn't in my right mind
That's another difference that's between me and them
Heh, I'm smarten up, open the market up
One million, two million, three million, four
In eighteen months, eighty million more
Now add that number up with the one I said before
You are now lookin at one smart black boy
Momma ain't raised no fool
Put me anywhere on god's green earth, I'll triple my worth
Motherfucker - I, will, not, lose
"you don't know... what you're doing, doing, doing, doing..."
Put somethin on it
I sell ice in the winter, I sell fire in hell
I am a hustler baby, I'll sell water to a well
I was born to get cake, move on and switch states
Cop the coupe with the roof gone and switch plates
Was born to dictate, never follow orders
Dickface, get your shit straight, fucka this is big jay
I... hahahaha...
"you don't know... what you're doing, doing, doing, doing..."