Joe Budden thought that they would follow the same path as other successful rappers who never had to conform.

Reference to the 2009 film Law Abiding Citizen, which contains a scene where Gerard Butler’s character kills his cellmate gruesomely by stabbing him in the neck several times with a steak bone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX212uUi39s

Notice the “stake” / “steak” wordplay as well

This part refers to Budden’s current girlfriend Kaylin Garcia

He was about to offer some perspective into their relationship on the track like he does with a lot of exes, but decided it’s not quite time to let her witness that part of Budden.

“Killing” other rappers is just a recreational activity to Banks

Joe Budden explains metaphorically that when you try to trade something which is already bad, you usually get something worse and that is the side-effect that happens today in Life. It in this case he is talking about his dream

The love of money is the oft-cried pursuit that label heads care about only, and this has caused Budden many career setbacks in his pursuit of painting emotionally-evocative art (such as this song). In his dreamworld, the pursuit of money is non-existent, so it causes him no creative delays in any way

Even though Budden, by his own admission, has already teleported out of the presence of God, the religious undertone to a “bum with a mansion” cannot be overlooked

As those who follow his music are well aware, Budden’s history with Def Jam has not exactly been a friendly one since the shelving of his planned sophomore album The Growth. Here, Budden might be adding on to his continued list of subliminals at former Def Jam CEO Jay-Z. Also, the “bum with a mansion inviting Budden in to discuss politics” is almost certainly an allusion to his own record deal at the time with independent label Amalgam Digital, who allowed him to release 3 projects for sale within the same year

Intentionally Biblical-sounding language (culled from Psalm 23, to be exact), establishing the reality of “the valley of the shadow of death”, and setting us up for another spiritual encounter a little later

Amazing visual that not only continues the trippy and eerie imagery of this never-ending dream but also holds poetic value in real life: Could this “man with no ears” be a microphone? See the next couplet

Recall Budden’s own previous rhyme from his “Broken Wings” freestyle:

Thought I was fucked up with no shoes ‘til I met me a nigga with no feet

The sad reality: Plenty of rappers end up going bankrupt because of unwise business choices, often a result of their own frivolous spending. And once you lose money, in this society and in this industry, you cease to matter