Nobody wants to be stuck caged and oppressed, underrepresented and invisible. Everybody longs for freedom from the Matrix, er, METROPOLIS.

The dream here is metaphorical—something desired that’s yet to manifest.

Another song on Passenger’s All The Little Lights album is called “Things That Stop You Dreaming,” in which the singer talks about how crushing reality can be. “I think when I was writing that song” he’s said “I kind of had in mind all of those reasons why you don’t follow a dream.” Those reasons vary from person to person, and across life circumstances.

whether that be somebody’s advice is not to do it, or to try, and it’s very hard actually to throw yourself into whatever it is you want to be doing. In today’s society everybody is so obsessed with banking, investing, and getting your mortgage paid and doing all this kind of stuff. And I think that was the line I was trying to play with in that.

Reparations are the controversial proposal of paying the descendants of slaves for the hardship imposed on their ancestors.

“Playin' with the populations” could be interpreted as manipulating the Black community through disenfranchisement, denying access to proper health care and excluding them from living in healthy environments in order to prevent reparations from ever happening.

“Ray” is a reference to NBA star Ray Allen, who plays Jesus Shuttlesworth in the Spike Lee-directed movie “He Got Game.”

Future uses “stripes” to clarify his position and experience in the rap game, similar to how soldiers receive stripes as they advance through the ranks. Future is saying he has plenty of experience. This line also may refer to him selling cocaine, which is most commonly ingested in lines or “stripes”.

The german sports wear company Adidas uses black and white stripes as their company logo.

It costs $200 to get a zip (ounce) of codeine or lean, which is produced by the company Actavis is a company that develops and manufactures pharmaceuticals. It’s also widely known that the Actavist brand of promethazine codeine has been discontinued.

The police/Paramedics response time on the South side of Chicago is extremely slower than that up North, due to discrimination in black urban areas where police are more likely to “harass and neglect” than they are to “serve and protect”

All he wants is a chance. an opportunity to be great. He doesn’t want to be held back or discriminated against because of his skin color. Race shouldn’t be used against him as he pursues success.