Tonedeff makes an allusion to This Old Man which is a children’s nursery rhyme and counting song with stanzas that repeat like this:

This old man, he played one,
He played knick-knack on my thumb;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.

Tonedeff murders the beats he raps on like they were a child’s rhyme, it’s nothing for him.

NoCanDo drops a great double entente here.

1. Michael Phelps is a former Olympic swimmer who was the most successful Olympiad of all time, Phelps broke records for the most medals won by an athlete all time, and winning the most gold medals at a single Olympic Games in 2008, winning eight gold medals.

NoCanDo feels that he can dominate the rap game as effectively as Michael Phelps dominated Olympic swimming.

OR

2. In 2009 a media controversy was started around Phelps when a picture surfaced of Phelps smoking from a bong at a party.

NoCanDo is a noted battle rapper and knows that he can take down anyone he steps up to battle him, just like Phelps “smoked” not only his competition in Olympic swimming, but Marijuana as well.

Along with breaking through in Hip-Hop by himself, Casey’s rise to fame has also brought attention to his label Peas ‘n Carrots International as well as his partners in the label Anwar Carrots and Johnston Peas.

Casey was also a former member and close friend to the rap-collective Odd Future who has seen huge popularity over the past few years. It seems that everyone around Casey has been brought into fame.

Alluding to the famous speech made by Malcolm X in which the late X stated that to reach our desired goals we must resort to anything, including violence, to achieve our desired ends in life.

Many of Malcolm X’s speeches were fueled by his desire for racial equality, and it appears the Deacon is sharing in this desire to gain the racial equality that he desires for, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to reach his goal.

The last part of this verse brings us K'Naan literally screaming the verse out of the pain and sadness he has felt in life, it is a breathtaking display of emotion and one of the most unforgettable moments of the album.

Try to think from K'Naan’s perspective, if you had to experience the pain and toil he has endured throughout his life you would be driven to insanity as well, just as he feels he has.

At the time of this song’s release, African Americans comprised nearly 40% of the prison populous, this statistic has become so outrageous that there are now more black men in prison now than there were enslaved in the 1800s.

Natti finds irony in the fact that he has to slave all day to cut down trees that will only go to help build the prisons that hold many of his race enslaved like they were when they were slaves.

Before finding the joy and financial stability that Hip-Hop has brought him, Natti had lived a hard and troubled life, including a 2 year prison stint in the early 2000’s.

The overall theme of this song is brought to mind in this line, don’t become overly dedicated and put all that you are into a relationship, because it will never last, and the game of being in a relationship is just a big cycle that will never cease.

Serving as an introductory metaphor to the following lines in Natti’s verse, life’s struggles often come in abundance and it can feel impossible to cope with them all, yet we must always keep battling forward.