In this VladTV Flashback from 2014, Calvin “Klein” Bacote opened up about his relationship with Jay Z, explaining that the rapper idolized in his younger years. He then explains Jay’s line, “I never felt more alive, riding shotgun in Klein’s green five,” from The Black Album. Klein says that the lyric is about a case they both caught in 1989 after a big fight broke out in Maryland.
Calvin says he and Jay went back and forth about who was going to take the charges after Bacote worked things out with the guy who was pressing charges, paying him $50,000. The victim said he would drop charges for one person, and Calvin saw potential in Jay’s career and decided to do the time.
