GENIUS
Sign Up
Them candy cars, I'm coming down, that paint drip, A$AP Rocky – Purple Swag
Genius Annotation 2 Contributors ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

High gloss finish on a car. Real popular in the Dirty South, especially Houston, where Rocky gets his musical inspiration. His candy cars are “dripped out,” as Houston players would put it, as the paint literally drips off the frame because it’s so freshly coated.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +11 Downvote
Copy Embed
Purple Swag A$AP Rocky – Purple Swag
Song Bio 5 Contributors ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

About recording the song, Rocky told Complex:

We definitely recorded that shit in some small ass closet. I was getting high. I was high as a kite. On some purple drink, purple weed, shouts to this weed. It just felt so natural. Holy shit. I was in a world where everything was purple. I was just high. Purple lights was everywhere. It was just like, dark room, purple lights. Music blasting. That type of shit. Everything is purple. Swag.

A prime example from the young Harlem spitter is this new video for his latest audible titled “Purple Swag”. It’s a song dedicated to the Houston rappers, always rapping about that purple drank (otherwise known as purple lean or codeine syrup).

This song samples:

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +42 Downvote
Copy Embed
Eeca8a0dd9c8af7b01ec4d3dc2b76d5c

178

5 years

is Rocky saying he likes SpaceGhostPurrp swag?

Upvote +2 Downvote
5543b73ee145673356ff444b44b57188

109

5 years

PURPLE SWAG ALL DAY!!!!

Upvote +0 Downvote
Show 1 more suggestion
I Don't Feel So Good Lupe Fiasco (Ft. Matthew Santos) – I Don't Feel So Good
Song Bio 2 Contributors ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Off of Lupe’s 3rd mixtape, “A Rhyming Ape” .

Lupe uses this song to explore the theme of emotional numbness in our communities- a theme he also explored on his album “The Cool”.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +0 Downvote
Copy Embed
First Roll Domo Genesis – First Roll
Song Bio 1 Contributor ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Intro track to Domo Genesis’s 2010 debut album, “Rolling Papers”

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +3 Downvote
Copy Embed
F152d02e8c24a29b7fcaeb47399d8928

174

7 years

I’ve always thought the album had a lizard or fish on it,but it’s a Blount

Upvote +1 Downvote
[Outro: Cucumber Slice] MF DOOM (Ft. Bobbito) – Rhymes Like Dimes
Genius Annotation 2 Contributors ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

AKA Bobbito Garcia, head of Fondle ‘Em Records and the dude responsible for bringing MF DOOM back into the rap scene.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +81 Downvote
Copy Embed
Tryna stay above water, that's why we shun the Navy Kendrick Lamar – HiiiPoWeR
Genius Annotation 7 Contributors ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

He’s trying to stay above water as in survive in a society that makes it easy to drown in the media as well as sets us up to fail. .

In the Navy, they perform many underwater operations. He refers to “above water” as surviving in today’s society. Being “under water” would be being in massive debt, being in jail, or even dead.

Also, the military is known to notoriously recruit in the ghettos as those lives have a lower value & are most probable to join since its youth are oppressed. Therefore, Kendrick is stating he & his peers shun (disapprove of) the navy since they are trying to remain sane. J. Cole always talks about this dynamic, so it is relevant that it is incorporated in this song.

This is a similar line to one in the beginning of Big Sean’s “Wait for Me” featuring Lupe Fiasco:

Trying to keep my head above water
So I stayed out the Navy

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +49 Downvote
Copy Embed
7e34c6eb76ac4a121fc27b47c334e2b5

1,022

3 years

Good annotation, poor wording. Don’t use the word “ghetto.” Lives in marginalized communities are NOT of “a lower value.”

Upvote +0 Downvote
Marked this as missing something?
7 years

Also in the 80’s was the Reagan era (War on drugs) which flooded the urban communities with drugs. And with Kdot being from the West coast PCP mixed with marijuana and embalming fluid is a thing. Which is called “getting wet” and “smoking water ”(Mc Eiht on “m.A.A.d city” also briefly talked about Shem stick and butt-nakeds.“) and that’s something that he’s trying to stay above.

Upvote +4 Downvote
Show all improvement suggestions
product of the late '80s Kendrick Lamar – HiiiPoWeR
Genius Annotation 7 Contributors ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Kendrick is a product of the late 80s (aka The Ronald Reagan Era) because he was born in 1987, during the crack epidemic that hit the black communities in America. Tupac refers to this In the song “Changes.” .

Also, this line captures the overall meaning of Section.80.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +38 Downvote
Copy Embed
Yep, her president is Black, she Black too Kendrick Lamar – A.D.H.D
Genius Annotation 4 Contributors ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

An allusion to the Young Jeezy track, “My President.”

While clearly a reference to Barack Obama, Kendrick says this to pinpoint the disparity in the “black” generation. One of the most educated, powerful, and prominent figures in today’s society is black, while the others pretend to have ADHD. The line is a comment on the inequality and division present in American society.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +83 Downvote
Copy Embed
She say twenty-two, I say twenty-three, "Okay, then we are crack babies," damn
"Why you say that?" She said, "Where my drink at?" Kendrick Lamar – A.D.H.D
Genius Annotation 4 Contributors ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

The girl finds out that he’s 23 and says he’s a crack baby too, along with her. It stimulates Kendricks mind: he asks why but she changes the subject, presumably because she is wasted and the cops are being notified of the party. And, in true ADHD fashion, he seems to forget about it until she brings it up later.

“Crack babies” is a reference to being born in the 1980s, the beginning of the crack epidemic in America.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +117 Downvote
Copy Embed
Marked this as restating the line?
1 year

kendrick is telling the women they are crack babies and the women is confused. the women is not telling kendrick they are crack babies.

Upvote -5 Downvote
Show all improvement suggestions
Man, I swear my nigga trippin' off that shit again
Pick him up, then I set him in cold water
Then I order someone to bring him Vicodin
Hope that take the pain away
From the feelin' that he feel today Kendrick Lamar – A.D.H.D
Genius Annotation 9 Contributors ?

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

“I set him in” sounds very similar to “acetamin” which is short for acetaminophen (Tylenol), an over-the-counter painkiller. Kendrick juxtaposes this wordplay by referencing a prescription painkiller, Vicodin. This relates to the theme of tolerance; weak painkillers aren’t enough for his generation, they need stronger drugs to ease their pain.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

report abuse
Upvote +177 Downvote
Copy Embed
Marked this as restating the line?
6 months

“Cold water” could also refer to the fact that acetaminophen is dissolvable in cold water, this phenomenon sometimes being used to separate opioids in prescription medications from the acetaminophen also present in the pill.

Upvote +0 Downvote
Marked this as missing something?
1 year

Putting someone in a cold shower or throwing cold water on them is a street remedy for overdosing if you don’t have narcan and don’t want to get cops or EMS involved, unfortunately this is only a very brief way of shocking someone back to consciousness if they took a lot or the opioid is very strong like fentanyl or its analogues.

Upvote +0 Downvote
Blandeu
2 years

It’s a reference to Gregory House from House M.D, whoever wrote this isn’t wrong but c'mon it’s a pretty obvious thing to see if you have ever watched the show. Emotionless, narcissistic doctor who earlier in the show had other people describe Vicodin for him because he takes too much of it because of his leg, crippled walks with a stick. In a later season there are scenes where he takes cold showers and baths to relieve the pain.

Upvote +0 Downvote
ANON
Marked this as missing something?
2 years

He could also be referencing cold water extraction of opiates, where the acetaminophen is extracted from Vicodin using a cold water rinse.

Upvote +1 Downvote
8w5gj8sewus

8,549

3 years

Only kendrick (maybe eminem too) would get some insane stretch that he was doing some word play with set him in and acetaminophen. Genius wigs that wrote this tate prolly like 27 this year by now.

Upvote +3 Downvote
Marked this as missing something?
4 years

Vicodin is a combination of acetaminophen and the strong opioid hydrocodone. Acetaminophen is very harmful to the liver when taken in excessive doses, so if the user wishes to get especially high, they will need to perform a “cold water extraction”; this line probably references setting the acetaminophen in cold water in order to safely remove the hydrocodone without the user taking any acetaminophen.

Upvote +26 Downvote
Show all improvement suggestions