Sound play here, mostly. Sage has ventured into the realm of Extremely Vague Autobiography That Only He Understands, but he’s done so with in a euphonious, alliterative way, certainly an extension of his days as a slam poet.

A list of alcoholic drinks popular among the rappers Sage grew up listening to. With the first line, he sets himself up as the buzzkill. As discussed in several of his songs, Sage is not a drinker nor a drug taker.

The mention of “Brass Monkey” refers to the Beastie Boys song of the same name.

St. Ides and Olde English are both malt liquor brands.

Here he’s taking on a new weapon—his shoes, which are going to carry him away from the conflict (guns and war) and the problems those cause (depression, economic and otherwise).

First nontraditional place to put a gun in this song.

Double-fisted, as you might hold both guns, if you’re a true(ly insecure) badass.

Some weren’t happy with Millie’s efforts to sabotage the track “Blue Christmas” by providing unconventional backing vocals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pPiy3CA_ds

References within references!

The first of three De La Soul references in this song, the line references “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa”, track 15 on De La Soul Is Dead.

Mildred “Millie” Kirkham was an American singer who was part of the backing vocals for Elvis' “Blue Christmas”.

This also mimics the breeze lines just above as Millie uses the “heat” (gun) to “break the ice” (start to talk) with Santa Claus.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS8jYecEKjoHZrQfWJayeOFWSZIyyqhThJ51DPecZXu5XRrakdDhjIzk8qG9g

This is both a play on “lucid dreams” sounding like “LCDs” and a set-up to the next line, where he discusses pretentious conversations, which take place most often on computer screens.

Some lucid dreams are a lot like computer screen wallpapers.

A couple nice plays on words:

• “shoot the breeze” is a way to say “talk about whatever” but Sage is shooting the breeze by ending this pretentious conversation.
• “long-winded” links to breeze-shooting thematically. His gun does all the talking he needs to do, and says briefly what the pretentious conversations take ages to explain.