In honor of this, here's an excellent verse/written analysis from Jay detailing the role Hip Hop has had in shifting American society/as a tool for revolution:
(Jay's verse is last, just skip to 2:30 if that's all you want to hear)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uilDT8yCk0
"As long as there's, drugs to be sold
I ain't waitin' for the system to plug up these holes
I ain't slippin' through the cracks
So I'm at Portland, Oregon tryin' to slip you these raps
The first black in the suburbs
You'd think I had ecstasy, percocet, and plus syrup
The way the cops converged, they fucked up my swerve
The first young buck that I served
I thought back to the block
I never seen a cop when I was out there
They never came out there
And out there, I was slingin' crack to live
I'm only slingin' raps to your kids
I'm only trying to show you how black niggas live
But you don't want your little ones actin' like this
Lil' Amy told Becky, Becky told Jenny
And now they all know the skinny
Lil' Joey got his doo rag on
Driving down the street blastin' 2Pac's song,
But Billy like Snoop, got his blue rag on,
Now before you know it, you back in 'Nam
Now the police, got me in the middle of the street
Trying to beat me blue, black and orange
I'm like hold up, who you smacking on
I'm only trying to eat what you snacking on"
-Jay's saying two things with his first four lines on this verse:
1) He's saying that as long as the system still creates the systematic issues that allows for selling drugs to be an option, Jay and by proxy other black youth won't wait for the government to fix these issues before they take advantage of the bad cards given to them despite how destructive they are, which fits into the narrative set up in the two verses prior to Jay's, of black people taking up destructive activities such as robbing pizza men as revolutionary acts against the system.
2)He's saying that by taking advantage of these holes he and by proxy other black individuals won't be slipping through the cracks, which is also sort of a contradiction because by needing to turn towards selling drugs you are, but the double meaning for this verse is that Jay is actually telling you that he WON'T be selling drugs, that he's not going to fall through the unplugged holes from the first line, he "ain't slipping through the "cracks", he's really trying to slip rap through the cracks to middle/upper class white society such as in Portland/Oregon which he's using to represent stereotypically white areas.
3)This means that in the first line when Jay say's he's not waiting for the system that failed him to plug up these holes, that he's not going to sell drugs, but that and he's going to take matters into his own hands and create music to educate people on the position that those in low income communities are in, and that by making music he's going to gain wealth for himself and not fall victim to the system set up to trap him.
4)Also shows good repetition with slip.
5)In this next section Jay continues the concept he set up in the first four lines, by creating an extended metaphor comparing the act of actually going into white/middle/upper class neighborhoods with the simple spread of rap music, as both have been seen as corrupting forces and used to fear monger against blacks throughout history, and as cops are theoretically the gatekeepers against the corrupting influence of drugs Jay puts them up as the fighters against the corrupting influence against rap music as they show similar fervor towards Jay to the fervor shown against drug dealers, which "fucks up his swerve", swerve as in cops converging in their car to swerve Jay off the road as if he had drugs in the back or as if he was in a car chase, and swerve as in someone's swerve typically meaning someone's moves, describing how cops converge to fuck up people perfectly legitimate moves to improve in life.
6) Then in the next line where Jay thinks about how the police didn't show the same care they showed for him back in the hood as they showed when he was trying to cross societal lines, Jay set's up cops not just as people opposed to these "corrupting influences" but as gate keepers for white supremacy intent on keeping the status quo, which as the next line shows means keeping rap music away from the non-black/minority youth so they won't know the real ills of society from their positon of privilege, and they don't want their kids acting like those "thugs", or more that they don't want their kids empathizing with them.
7)In the next section Jay uses stereotypical white names to describe the spread of rap music/information through white society, saying that they all "know the skinny", skinny being a slang term for people knowing what's going on/what's up, and the skinny also double's as a descriptor for the 'Lil Joey' (he uses lil as a replacement for little because it shows the spread of rap terminology) blasting Tupac as the 'skinny' conflicts with the tough/Tupac image, and then Billy likes Snoop who's a Crip so by putting the blue on and by wanting to identify with them Billy's "throwing his lot"/allegiance in with that side of society, and this "takeover" triggers a rash of negative emotions/feelings in white society and since Vietnam's a war specifically associated with PTSD and terrible warfare he uses Nam as the descriptor for it (also it fits the rhyme scheme and people always say "back in Nam" to describe their experiences in Vietnam).
6)This whole verse was an analogy for rap/music as a tool for societal/social change/revolution which fits into the theme of the whole song, so by bringing 'Nam' in he set's up society as being in some sort of war that he's a soldier in that's encroaching on the lives of the people who are afraid of him/minorities and want to keep them down, and the police are the soldiers on the front line so he brings the verse full circle by placing himself as a victim of police brutality to prevent him from simply speaking to whites and for simply practicing social mobility by trying to eat what they're (as in upper society) is snacking on.
8)I got this one from the Rap Genius analysis, they're beating Jay blue and black which is a typical description for being beat, but he adds orange to describe the severity and as a descriptor for being beaten into an orange jump suit as in jail which describes the pipeline minorities in this country are put into.
Thanks for the explanation.