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“Dun” is Queensbridge slang for “son” or “homeboy.” The “Dun language” came from a friend of Prodigy and Havoc that had a speech impediment, which made him pronounce “th” and “s” sounds as “d.” Prodigy explained:
One of our mans that we grew up with named Bumpy, he used to talk kinda of crazy. He had a speech impediment, but certain things he’d say were cool to us, so it became popular and everybody started mimicking how he’d talk. It just started from there, and we called it the dun language. Everything with a ‘s’, like if he said ‘Ayo son,’ it’d be, ‘Ayo dun.’ We just started doing it, and then the whole ‘hood started doing it, and we put it in our songs – the next thing you know, you’ve got Ben Stiller and Puffy [in a video] saying, ‘Yo dun, what up.
A “Philly” refers to a Philly Blunt—a popular cigar that is gutted and used to smoke marijuana with.
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But it's funny them same wrongs helped me write this song, now Kanye West (Ft. Lupe Fiasco) – Touch the Sky
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What is this?
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Prepare to fight!
An expression often issued as a warning towards one opponent in fencing.
Lupe IS a mighty wordsmith. A war of words with him probably wouldn’t go well for the receiving end of his wrath.
He seems to pronounce this as “On God,” as in, “I’m not lyin', I put that on God!”
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Lupe makes this line grammatically correct: He is neither lying (deceiving) nor lying (down) when he is laying down rhymes on the beat.
Note that lying and laying function as a pararhyme.
He references his rap skills: he ain’t gon' bullshit!
I'm back on the block like I'm layin' on the street Kanye West (Ft. Lupe Fiasco) – Touch the Sky
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When you lie on the street like some homeless person, you’re “back on the block”.
When your actual back is on the pavement, you are also literally lying!
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Lupe plays with the homophones here and hear.
You use your ear to hear, of course; Lupe will be here/hear until he’s dead, with his friends pouring malt liquor on the curb in his memory.
Fucking MC Ren, Dr. Dre, and Yella
But if they were smart as me
Eazy-E would be hanging from a tree Ice Cube – No Vaseline
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What is this?
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Young men in the streets dream of owning BMW and Mercedes cars. Sadly, most feel the only way to achieve this goal is by dealing “keys” (kilos) of cocaine.
Nas spoke on this topic in an interview with XXL magazine:
XXL had Tyler, The Creator conduct the interview, and in 2013, Tyler used the excerpt above in his song “48”.
it’s a reference to Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams”
Also, this Chorus is an interpolation of the song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This” by the Eurythmics
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Reference to the classic “sweet dreams are made of these” line from the 1982 song Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) by Eurythmics.
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Oh
this is a reference to Eurythmics famous song “sweet dreams (are made of these).” The lyrics “who am I to disagree” and “everybody’s looking for something” are used in the song also.
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It is also a reference to the “Sweet Dreams” song.
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Niggas push Beamers and 300 E’s