This is a shot at both Drake and Kanye West. While Pusha is the President of G.O.O.D Music, Kanye is undoubtedly still the CEO. Push feels West is blinded by his friendship with Drake, who had previously collaborated on the song “Glow” for Drake’s 2017 album More Life.

Back when “Glow” dropped, Kanye West was planning to release a since-nixed joint project with Drake, but shelved it after Kid Cudi called him out. Kanye and Cudi are slated to release a joint album titled Kids See Ghosts on June 8, 2018.

This is a response to Drake, who questioned Pusha’s street cred on “Two Birds One Stone”:

You middle-man in this shit, boy, you was never them guys
I can tell, ‘cause I look most of you dead in your eyes
And you’ll be tryna sell that story for the rest of your lives

Drake was exposed for using writers in 2016 after a few reference tracks that Quintin Miller recorded for Drake songs like “10 Bands" and his verse on Meek Mill’s “R.I.C.O.” were leaked by Funk Flex during an ongoing beef between Drake and Meek.

Push came under the most scrutiny as a drug dealer when his former manager for the Clipse Tony Gonzalez was sentenced to 32 years in prison for running a “20 million dollar drug ring.”

The Wire is an HBO show based on the drug war in Baltimore. This is not the first time Pusha has mentioned the show; his debut solo album My Name Is My Name was named after a quote from the show.

Steven Victor is Pusha-T’s manager and the Senior Vice President of A&R at Universal Music.

Pusha leaves the business to Victor while he focuses on making sure everyone gets the crack they need whether it’s music, or drugs.

Pusha’s own words about the lyrics:

Andy Warhol is one of the most famous contemporary artists of all time. His paintings sell for millions—in 2013, the “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” Andy Warhol painting sold for $105.4 million at auction.

Pusha’s “war story” refers to his time in the music industry. From seeing his debut Clipse album Exclusive Audio Footage shelved in 1999, to record label Jive delaying Hell Hath No Fury in the mid ‘00s, to suddenly having to become a solo artist in 2010, Pusha’s career has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows.

Patek Philippe is a Swiss watchmaker. “Patek” references in hip-hop have increased dramatically since 2013 leading to the oversaturation of the brand in rap lyrics.

Push addresses ruining watches again later in this verse, rapping:

Your bustdown is bust down and don’t match the metal

This refers to adding diamonds to the bezel of the watch. Seems Push likes his watches Plain Jane.

Push takes another stab at Drake—he puts his faith in himself and the two other most popular rappers of Drizzy’s generation: J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, but not Drake, because Push, Cole, and Kendrick aren’t shrouded in ghost writer controversy.

Just like someone controls a “sock puppet” using their hand to mimic mouth movements, Push thinks someone else writes the raps that come out of Drake’s mouth.

Pusha’s own words about the lyrics:

This is a direct response to Drake’s “Two Birds One Stone” where he raps:

You middle-man in this shit, boy, you was never them guys
I can tell, ‘cause I look most of you dead in your eyes
And you’ll be tryna sell that story for the rest of your lives
Can’t show us where the cash is
Me, I don’t judge, I’m just going off what the math is
Numbers inflated
They all look at me, like, “What have you done for me lately?”
“I like your older shit but wasn’t in love with the latest.”
Aw, baby, stop debatin’, I’m just a creative
My numbers out of this world
No wonder they got me feeling so alienated

Eazy-E, the legendary Compton MC from N.W.A, is one of the most famous drug dealer-rappers of all time. During an interview with Ebro on Hot 97, Push addressed Drake’s bars on “Two Birds One Stone,” saying:

He’s [Drake] speaking his truth, questioning my validity to the streets, within that truth.

In an interview with Genius' Rob Markman on For The Record, Push also addressed his response in this song, saying:

I can’t have an argument about how real I am.

This is a nod to Meek Mill, who has multiple long standing legal issues. He was sentenced to 2-4 years in 2017 for violating his probation for popping a wheelie on the set of a music video in New York. On April 24, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered a lower court to grant Meek Mill an early release on bail.

Akinyele is a rapper who never found much mainstream radio success. He is one of the pioneers of X-rated rap. His most famous song is the 1996 underground hit, “Put It In Your Mouth,” which is what Push is referring to—he’s basically telling the judge to suck his dick.

An earlier version of this annotation said the “Angel on my shoulder” line was a nod to the G.O.O.D Music logo. In a video with Vanity Fair, Pusha-T confirmed that he was not referring to the logo, saying:

This has nothing to do with the G.O.O.D Music angel logo. It definitely was paying homage to Meek Mill, so when I say “Pop a wheelie, tell the judge to Akinyele”, Akinyele made a song called “Put It In Your Mouth.” I felt like Meek would echo those sentiments to the judge, like I would echo those sentiments to the judge for him for putting him in jail.