My mom used to always say when I was ask for too much, she’d say, “Too bad, so sad.” That’s a common saying. I feel like we’ve all heard too bad, so sad before. And I think like I said, I wrote this song in pieces. I would say the first two parts were the closest in time, but they were both very much so on the side of trying to figure it out, trying to get to a certain point that was right. Then, when I got to this part of the end of the song, it was like it is too bad, and it’s so sad. It’s too bad because shit, I need my family together, and it’s so sad because it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out the way that it was supposed to.

If they took teenage angst at banks, man, I would be a super rich man, because I felt it, but also I think it’s also like on a certain level about your output. So, separate from my own personal life that I put out on the record all the time, a lot of people connect it with Acid Rap on a certain level because it was such a lost and rebellious project. There’s so many questions being asked. There’s so much uncertainty. The difference between that and Coloring Book and The Big Day is that it’s a lot of exclamations. It’s a lot of, “This is what I’m on. This is what I believe. This is what I’m going to do.” And that teenage angst kind of got removed a little bit over time with me getting more and more things as I needed them to be, getting them all in place. So, I think that part was me telling myself, “You can’t just keep writing about what’s wrong all the time or what you’re trying to find or what you’re trying to search.” That shit is not accepted at no banks, yo. That shit is in the air. And try some new hues like Langston going to paint. Oh my God. Who is this dude writing this stuff? Try some new hues like Langston trying to paint? I can’t even break it down for you. If you don’t know about the Harlem renaissance, do your research.

I think like the shooting at me point blank with those blanks and trying to rock the boat, those are all references to that change, like when I felt the real difference in the relationship when my wife took sex out of the relationship. Not to mention I’m still out here doing whatever. I was in a position where I felt like my security was getting messed with, like my feeling to be able to do whatever I want and feeling proud and boastful about what was going on was getting changed. I feel like shooting at me point blank with those blanks on one level is just me still being mad at DeVon Franklin, but it’s also me kind of expressing that shit wasn’t working right, you know what I mean? I couldn’t have a kid when she was celibate or even before that, because I don’t think we was ready for it. Wasn’t living right. I wasn’t living right, sorry.

I’ve known my wife since I was nine, yo. So, my wife is not impressed by a lot of the things that other people can be impressed by. I have all these things, all these accolades, and it was like that’s not what was keeping her there, you know? My faithfulness, my attention, my dedication are the things that she was looking for. With those absent, fuck is she staying around for? And “Dropped the bomb, I couldn’t find a Tom Hanks,” that’s based on a great nostalgic movie for a lot of people called ‘Forest Gump’ where Tom Hanks tells a story of his whole life and how he impacted all these different things through just being himself and not even fully knowing how impactful he was. There’s a scene where he goes to war and there’s a big bombing, and he goes and he picks up everybody on his back and he takes them out of the jungle. So, he picks up lieutenant Dan, but he’s looking for Bubba. Bubba’s his best friend, and he’s trying to protect Bubba while all these bombs are dropping. So, he goes and he grabs lieutenant Dan. And he goes back out into the jungle to find Bubba, but there’s another dude’s leg got blown off that he needs to help. Then, he comes back to find Buba, and there’s another dude. He keeps making all these trips on his way to Bubba, but helping everybody else. Then, finally when he gets to Bubba it’s too late, and he’s dying. I thought that was a great explanation of how I have put so many things ahead of it trying to save everybody except for my best friend.

So DBZ reference real quick, you know what I’m saying, for my manga fans. Yeah, so Gotenks is Goten and Trunks when they would do the dance, and they become one. It was just another me trying to say how dope I am. I don’t know. I’m more than one. I don’t know. Everybody else wants to be the G.O.A.T. that’s the thing is like, “Oh, he’s a G.O.A.T. he’s one of the G.O.A.T.S. I don’t know. I always hated that term, G.O.A.T.S.

My grandma always put pressure on me. I’ve always been in her prayers, and she’s always wanted me to be successful and to talk about God in my music. So, she could see me talking about God in my music, but I wasn’t having these hard conversations with my grandmother about how I was acting towards my wife or why we were breaking up. Obviously, she’s getting at, “You got it, baby. Go ahead. Blah, blah, blah.” You know, like I knew because of how real our relationship was growing up that I wasn’t doing exactly what she wanted me to do.
There’s so many different areas in our lives that we have to do things for ourselves, you know what I mean? The Grammy’s were great, and that was great for myself, for the music, for independence, for all these things, but what does it mean for my household if my wife’s not there, or what does it mean for my child if she’s waking up and she doesn’t know where her dad is yet until I get on the phone with her? It wasn’t the best thing for me, but people were giving me that, “No pressure, you got this. You’re doing everything right.”

So, my wife, and I’m sure a lot of people’s wife, she wasn’t my wife at the time, but a lot of people’s women if you have kids, they hold down the fort for you. They not only provide you with the ease and the comfort and the solace or place to come and grieve or get whatever support you need, but also they do that for your children. Like I was just saying, the single dad, mingle dads, that shit is hard, yo. So, having my wife be available in the capacity that she was for myself and for my kid, it was like she was like the nanny, but it’s like that’s why the Fran Drescher line is kind of cool, because eventually he marries the nanny. We know how that story goes.

This hook feels like it’s like an inception. It’s so funny. So many articles that wrote about this song, first of all, because this video wasn’t made they don’t understand all the references in the lyrics, but the thing that stands out to everybody is when they go low, we go high. But when I wrote the song I wasn’t thinking about the first lady, Michele Obama. Shout out to them, though. You guys did a great job. I wasn’t thinking about that line. I think the we go high was just how I came out of the verse. It just felt right, and I didn’t really put it in context of today’s politics or understanding the gravity of Michele Obama being a black woman who was successful in her own right running a law firm and everything. Then, she came together with Barack and made him what he is. I didn’t have all that understanding and context back then. Then, when people heard it back and they’re like, “He got that from Michele Obama.” I’m like, “Damn, I did. That’s crazy.”