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All day, I dream, like I'm comatose Lupe Fiasco – BMF (Building Minds Faster)

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“All day I dream [about sneakers]” is a backronym for Adidas, which actually got its name from its founder, Adolf “Adi” Dassler in Herzogenaurach, Germany. He and Rudolf, his brother, got into a spat, split up, and Rudi formed Puma.

So, Lupe is so entranced with his Adidas that to the outsider, he’s gone comatose.

Lupe, snap out of it!

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I'm Reverend Run, with the laces out
Adidas, so adios Lupe Fiasco – BMF (Building Minds Faster)

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Rev Run, is one of the three members of Run-DMC, a landmark Hip Hop that began in the early 1980’s. They were the first Hip Hop group to have a gold album and the first to be nominated for a Grammy Award.

More recently, though, Rev Run has been known more for his reality show, Run’s House.

Run-DMC was so enamored with Adidas Superstars that they released a song entitled “My Adidas” from their third album, Raising Hell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA8DsUN6g_k

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I'm the cell phone, they the room keys
I'm some shelltoes, they some shoestrings
I turn 'em off, I take 'em out Lupe Fiasco – BMF (Building Minds Faster)

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Lupe lyrically outdoes his opponents, mediocre pop rappers. Cell phones (Lupe) deactivate hotel room keys (bullshit rappers), which are magnetized. Shell toes (Lupe) don’t need laces (pop rappers) to be good, as Run-DMC demonstrated. So, Lupe turns off wack rappers and takes them out, respectively.

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These niggas like the rooms, so suite
Priceline, so cheap Lupe Fiasco – BMF (Building Minds Faster)

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Lupe’s criticizing rappers who lack both positive content and lyrical skill. They’re like cheap hotel suites, meaning they can be easily bribed to rap about foolishness.

And Priceline is a website that specializes in finding cheap hotel rates; they’ve found that a number of rappers are the cheapest available.

Additionally, by calling them “suite,” or sweet (gay), Lupe could be insulting them by questioning their sexuality, but that would seem very out of character for Lupe. It’s probably just a part of the “Priceline” insult.

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293

7 years

I mean it could be saying sweet as your music is candy with no mental substance

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I'm ridin' with my flow, it take up four seats
So I'm gon' ghost-ride, but with no sheets
One man by myself, even then I'm four deep
Like hotel swimming pools, that's four feet Lupe Fiasco – BMF (Building Minds Faster)

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No one, who’s sensible, at least, would dispute that Lupe’s verses are some of the deepest, and most intricate, verses in all of Rap. Lupe’s raps are so good, it’s like he’s 4 people, so all of his seats are occupied, but they can’t start the car, so he ghost-rides, not like the KKK, though.. Hotel swimming pools are more than 4 feet on the deep end, so Lupe is saying he hasn’t even reached his peak, yet. We’ll continue to see his progression.

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2 years

Ghost-ride may also be heard as ghostwrite, which would mean the latter part of the line, “but with no sheets”, means that he’s ghostwriting for a person who claims to not write down their raps or that he ghostwrites verses without needing to write them down. In other words, he can rap from his head better than others can write stuff down.

This also changes the meaning of the next line “One man by myself, even then I’m four deep”, to again suggest that he ghostwrites for multiple people and can conjure their rapping styles as needed.

Also, see the songs “SLR 2” and “Switch” for examples of him rapping in multiple styles within a single song.

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I think I'm Malco;m X, Martin Luther
Add a King, add a Junior
Some Bible verses, couple Sunnahs
An AK-47, that's a revolution, nigga
Think I'm 2Pac, Bob Marley
Fela Kuti, Marcus Garvey Lupe Fiasco – BMF (Building Minds Faster)

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Lupe has immense respect for these people, all of whom were revolutionary either politically or musically, sometimes both, and their influence on Lupe can be seen in his raps.

Lupe’s shoutouts to great African-American leaders (though, some would debate Tupac, Fela, and Bob) is a counter against Rick Ross’s version in which he aspires to be “Freeway” Rick Ross, and Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory. Rather than applauding drug kingpins, he promotes men heavily involved in social advancement.

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554

10 years

Bob Marley and Fela aren’t African American so i think he’s just recognising all the Black leaders worldwide

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Jason

10 years

Rick Ross references Larry Hoover in his BMF, incarcerated organization founder from Chicago. I wasn’t around when the organization was actually founded, so I won’t be quick to say “gang” given the plight of the neighborhood and time in history it was founded.

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Beating cats with no glow, tryna play me like a ho
But this ain't rooks and pawns or tic tac toe
This planets, moons, quasars, and high-tech radars Jay Electronica – My World (Nas Salute)

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Haters try to play Jay for a fool, be the Rap game is not chess or tic tac toe, it’s some serious business.

This is also a tribute to a line from “Long Kiss Goodnight” by Biggie.

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111

9 years

“Beating cats with no glow” can also refer to obtaining the final level of martial arts mastery known as “The Glow” that Bruce Leroy and Shonuff wanted to achieve in “The Last Dragon”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWVhiIisH30

By using the line in this context, Jay Elect is likening himself to a master that can easily beat those that haven’t reached the level he is on yet.

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In one single bound went from M-Y-S
P-A-C-E man the mp-three man to mtv man Jay Electronica – Extra Extra

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A chronicle of Electronica’s rise to stardom; first it was Myspace, then people’s MP3 players, then MTV interviews.

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Crack kills offerings to the coroner
Kill my eldest brother? Nigga, I’ll be damned
Gator at my momma’s house, welcome to zombie land Pusha T – My God

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Pusha T has an older half-brother (not Malice) who has had struggles with alcohol and crack cocaine.

This brother of theirs is like Gator Purify, the older brother of Flipper Purify from Jungle Fever, the Spike Lee film, as they both have substance abuse problems. Gator was killed by his father as an act of mercy, hence “Kill my eldest brother? Nigga, I’ll be damned”. It’s all in the video below.