Andre Adams, better known by his stage name Andre Nickatina, is an American… Read Full Bio ↴Andre Adams, better known by his stage name Andre Nickatina, is an American MC and producer from San Francisco, California. He previously performed under the stage name Dre Dog.

Adams released two albums under the stage name Dre Dog: The New Jim Jones in 1993 and I Hate You With a Passion in 1995. I Hate You With a Passion peaked at #79 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #3 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. In 1998, Adams changed his then current stage name to Andre Nickatina, and released the albums Cocaine Raps and Raven in My Eyes, which were released independently under Dogday Records. Unlike his albums released under the name Dre Dog, Cocaine Raps had deeper production values. Raven in My Eyes was noted for emphasizing "sequencers and keyboards that buzz and whine" over live instrumentation, as reviewed by Todd S. Inoue of the news magazine Metroactive. That year, he founded his own record label, Fillmoe Coleman. Nickatina explained in an interview with Strivin magazine that his name change was "for the better" and that he raps because he feels that he is talented enough to do so but not for the sake of popularity.

Soon afterwards, his following three albums, Tears of a Clown (1999), Daiquiri Factory: Cocaine Raps, Vol. 2 and These R the Tales (both 2000) made him more well-known in the West Coast underground rap scene. Mosi Reeves of the San Francisco Bay Guardian noted Nickatina's popularity at a CD release party for another underground Bay Area rapper, Smoov-E; Reeves called Nickatina "a quick-witted rapper who spits as hard as Kurupt does". A combo CD/movie project, Conversation with a Devil, followed in 2003. Charlie Amter, a music critic for SF Weekly, regarded the film as a knockoff of the classic gangster movie Scarface. Nate Denver for the SF Bay Guardian praised the album, though. Another album, The Gift followed in 2005, when the newspaper SF Weekly named Nickatina the "Best Local Hip Hop Legend" of that year. In 2008, he released A Tale of Two Andres with Mac Dre. Although they released only two songs together, they were close friends and the album was a tribute to his memory.

Mother
Andre Nickatina Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Driving down the concrete beams
Looking around and it now seems
Mama earth is nowhere
Gone from your eyes

Hidden in the crust
Of man's scientific dreams
She is gone

Natural man took her natural face
Made it a strange and alien place
You can't bear to look
'Cause she ain't there

Our mother has been raped

And left to die in disgrace
She is gone

Overall Meaning

In this song, Andre Nickatina is addressing the theme of environmental destruction and degradation. He uses the metaphor of "Mama earth" to represent nature and the environment, contrasting it with the imagery of "concrete beams" and "man's scientific dreams". He observes that the natural face of the earth has been taken away by human activities, leaving it as a strange and alien place, so much so that it becomes unbearable to look at.

Line by Line Meaning

Driving down the concrete beams
Traveling on the man-made roads of concrete

Looking around and it seems
Observing the surroundings

Mama earth is nowhere
The presence of nature is not felt

Gone from your eyes
It's not visible anymore

Hidden in the crust
Buried deep in the layers of soil

Of man's scientific dreams
As a result of human advancement

She is gone
The nature has been affected by human actions

Natural man took her natural face
Humans have changed the natural appearance of nature

Made it a strange and alien place
Turned it into an unfamiliar region

You can't bear to look
It's unbearable to see the damage

'Cause she ain't there
The nature is no longer recognizable