It is an all-too-common tragedy in American life that gangs which have originated out of systemic poverty (such as the Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples) are out for each other when they should be in it together.

Lupe has been called weird by his peers in the past, and was clowned by music fans and black Twitter alike after a photoshoot of Lupe donning martial arts attire and holding a sword came out around the time of DROGAS Light’s release. These destructive behaviors are tragic because Lupe is one of the few intellectuals out there trying to do good for Black America, but in the end he’s often ostracized for not being cool.

Lupe admits he’s weird, which he is, but he undoubtedly has important things to tell you, and it’s better to hear from someone who you know won’t lie to you, instead of a politician who probably just sees you as a “nigga.”

This could be connected to President Trump’s misleading statements about crime in Chicago (considering the previous lines about being shot), such as implying Chicago’s crime (predominantly in impoverished black areas) is due to illegal immigrants and refugees.

In the greater scheme of things, i.e. looking at the message of the whole song and not just this stanza, Lupe is admitting that the way Lupe raps and his lyrics are odd, but the fact is he often times decides to rap about the truth and real life events instead of the stereotype of the industry. In this case, he believes in Colin Kaepernick’s stance, and believes people are highly overreacting to it. He says he wants to tell you the truth before someone, such as Donald Trump, will tell the people how wrongful and un-american Kap’s stance is.

Lu has a lot of built up frustration at the system, and admires fellow Chicagoan Chance The Rapper’s ability to fight negativity with positivity. Even the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a defaming article about his ongoing child-support battle amidst his generous acts of charity, to which he responded peacefully with videos of his family, urging the news outlet to do their job (i.e., investigative journalism).

Chance has done some remarkable philanthropy in Chicago recently, including donating over $1 million to Chicago Public Schools. Chance is known for bringing a message of love and peace in his music, and within the last couple years has turned over a new leaf and even brought a noticeable and intentional gospel sound into his music.

A message to those who resort to violence: a brighter, more peaceful time is coming, conveying the same sentiment as the Beatles song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlyPfBrZr3s

There’s also some wordplay included here, as “heat” is slang for a gun, and the sun literally gives off heat.

A unique spin on the classic line from Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s “Deep Cover,”

Yeah, and you don’t stop
Cause it’s 187 on an undercover cop

https://youtu.be/fDNt9cJ4SeQ?t=1m39s

187 is police code for a homicide, and here it’s referring to popping bottles and having a good time in the club. 187 also fits the song’s title; they’re killing bottles and dollars.

As a stripper, the character is referencing trying to make a living as a stripper (not the most highly viewed profession), just to give ten percent of her income to the very institution that would endlessly shame her work.

In standard Christian churches, a collection plate is passed around during service for donations to the church. However, it’s an unspoken rule, which many Christians would be reluctant to admit, that a lot of people give money to the church as a penance of sorts, just to clear their conscience – not too far removed from the Church selling indulgences in the Middle Ages.

Lupe illustrates the practice of donating to the church as similar to giving money to a stripper: If you give up your money to the church, you’ll be “saved” (a term used by Christians to mean one is saved from sin and allowed to go to Heaven no matter what they’ve done), just like how if you give your money to a stripper, even though she doesn’t really care about you, you’ll get some satisfaction from this figure that has great things to offer.

Furthermore, the want to be “saved” could be compared to the drunken state of men in a strip club. Both audiences are participating in this thing not really aware of what they’re looking for, but they’re afraid of what might come otherwise (damnation and loneliness, respectively).