“Free at last” is a classic African American spiritual which was famously quoted by Martin Luther King Jr. in his “I Have a Dream” speech.

P thus compares murdering rival MCs (“black national leaders”) with the murder of MLK Jr.

Gorilla Grodd is a super-intelligent gorilla villain from DC Comics.

Given Sean Price’s penchant for comparing himself to an ape, it makes sense for him to conflate Gorilla Grodd with The Godfather and its eponymous characters (Vito and Michael Corleone), who represent a classic model of mobster refinement.

DOOM compares the movement of your head (“crown”) spinning around after he punches it to a Black Hawk helicopter spinning as it crashes, such as in the film Black Hawk Down (or the real Battle of Mogadishu which it was based on).

With this brutal line which gives the song its name, P compares the physical separation of ripping a head off a body to the socioeconomic separation of the races in apartheid-era South Africa.

Just as black people, white people, and other races (“coloreds”) were separated in South Africa, so too is P separating the “gods'” heads from their necks (god likely meaning lesser MCs)

This of course relates to the reference to Nelson Mandela in the previous line.

Pancake meaning crack cocaine – the process of cooking it with baking soda and water resembles making pancakes.

Referring to crack using baking terminology is a longstanding hip hop meme (see e.g. “Allure” by Jay Z).

Consignment is the act of giving another person control over goods before they are sold. In this context, a drug dealer supplies drugs to subordinate dealers on the understanding that they sell the drugs and kick back most of the money.

Working on consignment creates pressure to sell all of the product. So if he’s making a big drug sale, it may be tricky to disguise the exchange while shaking hands (a classic trick).

Dope can refer to a variety of drugs (e.g. marijuana, meth, heroin), but given the previous line it likely means crack here.

“All that and a bag of chips” is the original 1990s slang term which was later shortened to “all that”. The term is typically used to refer to someone being superlative, but in a derogatory manner (“he thinks he’s all that” means “he thinks he’s so awesome”).

In Biggie’s use of the term, he playfully swaps out the bag of chips for a dime sack (a bag of weed worth approximately $10).

2Pac reflects on his youth, when he was evidently too young to enjoy the harsher taste of liquor, instead preferring peppermint-flavoured schnapps.

Even as a young teenager he was pulled into the life of crime, acting as a lookout while the “d-boys” (“dope boys” aka drug dealers) sold crack-cocaine.

San Quentin State Prison is California’s oldest prison, and has a large presence in American pop culture. San Quentin is especially notable for several concerts performed there by Johnny Cash.

Bill Clinton was president when this song was released in 1995. The previous year he signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which is the largest crime bill in the history of the United States, and resulted in a massive increase in the country’s prison population.

Bill Clinton signing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act