F.U.T.W.

Album: Magna Carta Holy Grail (2013)

Songfacts®:

  • The song title stands for 'F--k Up This World.' It finds Jay spitting about rising from nothing referencing along the way such African-American icons as Martin Luther King, Spike Lee and Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali's "slave name").
  • Jay namechecks Damian Lewis' character Brody from the US drama Homeland when he raps: "Feel like a stranger in my own land. Got me feeling like Brody on Homeland..." Speaking to Esquire, Lewis said about Hova's reference: "It's one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me. My natural habitat is quite a long way from, you know, a gangster rapper. So the fact I've somehow straddled popular culture to find myself name checked... From the RSC... To the Jay Z."

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