Becoming more aware of who I am, gaining more knowledge of self over the years—that’s something I definitely came across in reading on Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. Why the change their last names? And once I got into that, I really started to understand. My last name is Scott. I googled Scott. It’s a Scottish name. That comes from a type of Scottish slave owner, somewhere down the line in my family bloodline. That ain’t my for-real family name. I know that. I Googled my other family name, which is Virginie. That’s a French name. So that comes from a French slave owner. And it makes sense, because my mom’s side is from St. Lucia. They speak broken French. That shit open my eyes like crazy. I’m like “Damn, we still got the last names of our slave owners.” In a way it’s like, shit are we still kind of their property. I start to ask myself these questions. I just put it in the music.

That’s the one that the blogs was running with, calling this an anti-Trump song. It’s not an anti-trump song. It’s just a song. It’s a real song. That’s it. But with that line. What I mean by that Obama is out of presidency—I guess I can finally talk about this. What I mean by that is, I personally believe that putting President Barack Obama in office for black person was of course a good thing, but what it did to us, our political selves, it put us to sleep, because a lot of black people was like, “OK if our president is black, let me turn my back. Let me not worry about what’s going on over there.” And not only that it was almost like, “Look. You got a black president now. You ain’t got nothing else to worry about.” But still there is racism in America. There is still systematic prejudice. There is still stereotypes existing all over the country. What I mean by that line: I won’t be fooled. Just because you gave me a black president, don’t mean that all our problems are resolved. Don’t mean that our history is erased. That’s all I mean by that.

Obama just wasn’t enough. I need some more closure. I need some more. That’s not enough, America. We not even now just because we had a black president for eight years. Just because you sent me people back for another eight years just because of that. Giving them false hope. That’s how I feel about it.

The Donald Trump line is self-explanatory. I don’t really break down into that. But don’t get me wrong, I have nothing bad to say about President Barack Obama, at all. Me as a black man, it gave me hope. I can’t ignore that. That was one of the best things that I’ve seen happen in my lifetime. I’m so grateful to say in my lifetime, “I’ve seen a black president.” But at the same time, I won’t be dumb. I won’t go to sleep because of it. I’m wide awake. Ain’t nothing getting past my eyes.

I’ve always wanted to do music, but when I was going to high school, I had a musical partner that I made music with. We know our paths were going to separate because we wouldn’t get accepted into the same high school, so we decided to pursue different dreams. So he pursued football, and I went to pursue acting. So I got into Edward R Murrow, and when I got there, I met everybody in my crew today. Except for Kirk and Dezi. I knew them from middle school. I always liked acting, but no more than music. So here I am, chasing this one dream, and then I meet all of my crew members today, so it was almost like music is going to lead my life. Music is my calling, but I knew that if I chase music, then school will start to decline, the acting thing will start to decline, because I had to keep my grades up for that. I was just like, “Yo, fuck it. This is my now or never moment right now.” I feel it the most right now. I feel the door open the widest right now, so I got to take the opportunity and that’s when my destiny rerouted because I choose to follow my heart. It’s something that I encourage kids to do. Make sure whatever it is that you’re doing, is what you want to do in your heart, because I feel like your heart can’t lead you to no wrong. In following your heart, everything you’re doing is out of love. Once you’re doing that, you’re good.

I feel highly responsible just for the content that I put into the subconscious of the listeners. Past that level, just looking at where we are today, and me feeling that responsibility, I feel like this is what is on my hands to deal with. It’s a full house. It’s a lot. The full house symbolizes it’s a lot on my hands. Three K’s, two A’s, of course that’s the poker reference, three kings, two aces. That’s pretty much self-explanatory. I put the three kKs in america, you know what that’s for. The super corrupted side of the country. And three K’s, KKK, obviously. It’s funny because a kid came up to me, this really small kid, he was probably 7 or 8, and he was like, “Joey I heard your new song. Three K’s, two A’s in AmeriKKKa,” and that just keeps playing in my head. Like, “Wow. That kid is going to forever grow up and know that America because of me.” It’s kind of crazy.

I feel so misunderstood. I was just talking to a good friend of mine about this. It’s interesting because I do certain things that alludes people, causing them to misunderstand me, purposely. And then after that is done, I got something else lined up coming so you can get back to understanding who I really am. But then I find myself in between that space. I’m like, “Fuck. I’m misunderstood as fuck right now.” Just so you can understand what I’m getting at. Right now, before I dropped, “Land of the Free,” a lot of people were thrown off by the two smoke screens I put out before called “Devastated” and “Front and Center.” I like those records. But to me, they were more like bait music. People gotta understand, when you’re an artist, you got your core. Then I look at it like there is many rings around that. Like circles. It just keeps going bigger and bigger and bigger. Almost like the flower of life. It just keeps expanding. In that period of misunderstanding, it’s like I’m trying to pull the circles around the core. That’s where the records like “Devastated” and “Front and Center” come out. Those records are for all the people you been trying to put Joey Bada$$ to that just won’t get put on to him. Like “That ain’t my style. That ain’t my type of shit.” Those records are for those people.

So now they’re like, “Oh shit, I finally got a record from Joey that I fuck with. I fuck with him now. Let’s see what he comes with next.” Then they get smacked with “Land of the Free.” And it’s like “Oh that’s what this nigga is about. Like damn, I didn’t even know. I thought he was on some … I don’t know, I’m confused by his name.” I’ve seen people say that all the time. And I quote, “I straight up didn’t get into Joey Bada$$ because of his name. For a long time, his name threw me off.” Which is good, I like people to be thrown off and be put on. There are others reasons why I feel misunderstood too. That’s just probably the main one right now.

I don’t hate my dad eye love that man… bumbaclot is just my way of saying he’s jamaican…

There is also some honey wordplay scattered throughout this line. “Honey” at the start of the line meaning “sweetie” or a female to which he is addressing. It is also referring to actual honey which is very fucking sweet.

Honey also ties in with the “queen bee Mommy”, his mother of course, which is an astute analogy as queen bees are the mothers of the entire colony. Similarly, Joey’s mother has managed to give birth to and take care of him and all his siblings without much outside help.

He is also putting her on a pedestal, calling her a queen as she not only gave birth to the man but was the woman of the house and had to step in to fill the authoritative role usually filled by a father (King).

kites/heights

bossman

negus is popular so them chicks can’t keep off him… simple