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This means if someone who wants your chain robs you for it, it wont free you or stop making you think materialistically. As it says in the next line you’ll just go back to making enough money to get another one.
Cole is also referencing chains and slavery like he has in other songs. “snatch yo chain, I bet it still won’t free you.” This is alluding to the “slave mentality” that can persist even after the chains have been removed. In the context of the song’s theme, the persisting slave mentality is that of one captive to materialism.
He'd probably sneeze too hard and his shit could break J. Cole – Chaining Day
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Back when he was broke, he didn’t have the experience with the real stuff to know what was real and what wasn’t. However, speaking about the aforementioned hater, he knew the hater’s chain was fake even when Cole was broke. That’s how fake the hater’s piece is.
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So while you niggas copycat the cats that made classics J. Cole – Simba
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He’s using a pun, the next line is “got them calling me”, so he’s saying they’re on his phone line. But he uses it as a fishing line too, as bait.
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Can't stay inside and chill J. Cole (Ft. Deacon (Singer)) – Carolina On My Mind
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Don't be mad fam here take a drag Classified – High Maintenance
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Hip-hop is still alive, and I am living proof Asher Roth – The Reading
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Asher Roth is an honest rapper, and it’s people like him that keep Hip Hop alive.
This is an argument in contradiction with many claims that hip hop today is dead, after some of the legends of hip hop have literally died and have been replaced by other, “wack” mainstream rappers.
Nas even named an album after it.
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“But I bet your rims ain’t the same age as you” is referring to the size of the rims on a car compared to the age of the person who bought it. A lot of young black men (20-26) like to put rims on their cars to stand out. Most of the time the size of those rims are 20-26 inches. “I bet your rims ain’t the same age as you” Can be Cole saying “At least I still have life ahead of me as well as money”.
The rich white man might also be laughing at the fact that black rappers usually waste money on extravagance instead of acting in a safer way, like building an investment portfolio, but J. Cole’s response to the white man laughing at all the petty stuff he buys is basically, “I’m young and I’m getting it nigga. How about you?” (Rich white men are usually associated with the idea that they’re really old and in that case what good is their money to them).
“But I bet your rims ain’t the same age as you”
could also be referring to that the ‘rich white man’ could have had an inherited car from past fathers and fore-fathers, insulting how he may have had never needed to work for much, as he seems to be from ‘old money’