This is a clip from the Amanda Show.

As this song progresses, Lupe delves into multiple issues going on in the world today including materialism, molestation, and other things.

The phrase “stark raving” not also be a homophone for “star craving.” The song references the way that current rap and hip-hop icons are idolized and worshipped by the masses.

Lupe’s is using these words to rhyme in his own song to keep the flow going AND, at the same time mocking bad rappers.. ahem..

More importantly, Lupe believes that rap has basically become a repeated song with different beats and faces: cabbage can mean money; savage, violence; baby carriage, sex. While he was mocking the hook that the kid’s mom was singing too, he is also mocking the entirety of a song that brings no (intellectual) value to its listeners… while at the same time utilizing words that are correlated with the term, “bad bitch”.

(Additionally, notice the non-inclusion of of another term that rhymes with the word: “marriage”.)

Iraq was, for all its flaws, relatively stable and free of sectarian conflict before the series of US invasions and sanctions beginning in the 1990’s. Despite this, the US invaded for reasons that, among others, were economic and geopolitical, and caused the exact same instability that we supposedly have to maintain a presence there to now combat

The reference to “corporate jets” could also be seen as referring to the top “1%”, those who benefit disproportionately from capitalism and would therefore receive the most profit from the production and distribution of oil.

We’ve all seen the bumper stickers:

“Freedom isn’t free” is supposed to symbolize support for the military, they’re fighting for our freedom, and therefore isn’t free. Lupe, we know, is definitely not supporting the military. He means a couple of other things:

1. FREEdom doesn’t mean being FREE. The government, the media portray this image of an “American Dream”, where you’re free, you have liberties, etc. But Lupe understands that’s not how it really works. Nobody’s free, but we’re brainwashed into thinking otherwise.

2. We literally have to PAY for this “freedom” with money, whether rich or poor, you pay for it in many different forms. For the poor this is usually taxes or labor, but for the rich that don’t have to work much, they could have to pay when karma catches up with them.

Lastly, the cover art for the song is an American flag decked out as a bar code. Bar codes=Paying=Freedom not being free, ya dig?

ACCEPTED COMMENT: Tangentially one could posit he maybe meant that poor people pay in money and rich people pay in other ways e.g. karma

The line sets contrast between heaven and hell. Everybody wants Heaven on earth, but it’s much closer to Hell.

Lupe also does a play on “in hell” (inhale) to compliment “breathe”. This is because all the air pollution makes him feel bad every breath he takes.

Even if you kill Punch, he’ll remain alive spiritually. He may even become bigger than he ever was while alive. Both Tupac and Biggie’s legends have grown due to their demises. And he asks his listeners to keep his message alive, even when he dies so he circumvent death. I don’t believe, however, that he’s referring to a hologram. Right, Pac?

“In the Event of My Demise” is a notable poem written by Tupac Shakur and is available in his poetry book “The Rose That Grew From Concrete”.