Examples of this is 50 Cent who got shot nine times. One inch here or there and he would be dead, he should salute God if he hasn´t yet! It became the basis of the menacing aura that he used to catapult himself to fame (with the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre, of course).

Tupac Shakur survived the first time he got shot. Cam´ron is another example of someone who survived. He got shot twice in the arm.

It’s also a reference to the 5% nation, considering the fact they refer to one another as god. So he could also be saying he salutes those “gods”, both those that have passed away and those who survived. Nice double entendre.

Clever line
Reference to the movie The Truman Show and a pun on it. The second verse ends with the same words as the first execpt the last line.

Spoiler alert
Truman Burbank is unknowingly part of a reality television program in which his entire life is played by actors. Basically everything is a lie/fake — the opposite of what Nas spits; reality/truth.

The government always demonize the gangsters, blaming them for everything. For example, the war on drugs that Ronald Reagan led. The gangsters are also a part of America so you´re at war with yourself? The whole situation is a travesty so sad you can almost only laugh about it. Especially when the government shipped drugs in to get better profit to keeping making more weapons. It´s a never ending cycle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEGxoJWasZY

It´s common knowledge that most mainstream rappers/songs have more dumbed down lyrics, alot of them about having sex with women. To add to this tragedy, many of them where more lyrical earlier in their career but when they expercied the truth about the game; That lyrics doesn´t sell. They sold their soul/sold out, since it´s those rapper that get the fame and money, then the rap game loves sell out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lym7M0caCbE

Nas himself says in this interview it’s not good when it´s completely serious:
http://youtu.be/YuaJzK2i8as?t=35m10s

It´s also ironic how people hail for instance Jay Z for doing songs like “Girl, Girls, Girls” and “Big Pimpin'” as you can see here and here meanwhile criticize Nas when he does a more radio friendly song like this one, “Hate Me Now” or “Oochie Wally”.

This right here is the essence of the album. Whether you have been through a tough break-up (like Nas), got fired or just going through a tough time you should stay positive. Waking up everyday is a blessing. There are people having it much worse or are even dead. Never take anything for granted, stay grateful, you can find happiness in everything.

He uses 2 Outkast references for creating a picture of how much of outsiders they are, Outkast the duo and their album Aquemeni. The society sees them just as a plight and wish they didn´t exist even though the goverment is guilty for the creating of these miserable condition. A good song digging deeper in to the subject matter is Regan by Killer Mike.

For example a jedi is not suposed to show or have any emotions therefore the can always do the morally right things since they are objective, see Anakin Skywalkers/Darth Vader rise and fall…

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.
—The Jedi Code, Based on the meditations of Odan-Urr

She uses a simile to display how fast she fell in love. asteriod is a minor planet that are not comets.

An asteroid has an average orbital speed (how fast an object orbits the sun) of 25 kilometers per second — Thats pretty fast.