Would you change the dark truth for a bright lie? Creating a situation in your mind that does not exist to tell yourself things are better than they are?

Why would he downgrade? He’s already upgraded to an Apple… He can afford it, she can’t.

Question that she most likely would like to pose him, and that’s that. She can’t chase him because he’s gone, he’s not there. The love ain’t there

Evolving in the sense that he’s moving onto the next step and adapting to the climate & environment of the situation. He does not look back since it does him harm so he blocks his rearview. The rearview is a metaphor for whatever is in hindsight. He does not care for what’s past him or behind him, he just cares to move forward.

Every moment between Nino & the girl is gone, and he doesn’t care how it ended and who’s to blame, he’s already tossed the away experiences together.

Just like the chorus hints, Nino’s trying to stay straight, or follow the good road, however, as he suggests in these bars, his path isn’t clear.

This is similar to him being in wishbone offense, which is a college football offensive formation. Basically, a Quarterback has the option to either keep the ball, hand it off to a Runningback up the middle, or follow another runningback wide and pitching it to him. These are the “triple options,” “double options,” and etc… Hence why a QB runs out of options when the path ain’t clear and the defense is rushing in.

So basically, Nino has a lot of shit going, he comes from the hood, all his friends who have been raised like him in his environment are either dead or locked up, so what options does he have? He’s limited, but he’s gotta find a way to break out of, just like how he suggests in the previous lines that he “hopes some cracks appear.”

“Carlito’s Way” was a movie about a dude who hustled his way to the top… Twice.

His name is Carlito and was portrayed by Al Pacino. He slept on a dude coming up, let the dude go when he had a chance to kill him because he had one foot out the game. Dude came back, and killed him.

This parallels Nino’s life in the rap game, past-present & what he has in store for the future.

Nino was at the top of his game and had a tremendous buzz with Slaughterhouse, Saigon, Kool G. Rap, and others at the time. After that, like how Carlito got locked up after the first time he was at the top, Nino was unheard of for a period of time because he was locked up in the sense of going through personal stuff like his best friends getting murdered, being the burden of his mother and father, and his ex-girlfriend that died with his seed in a car crash, which he addresses on “Open Wounds” “Born Dead” and “Then, Now, Later” respectively.

Just like after Carlito got out from his imprisonment and took shit over a second, Nino has snapped out of that dark period of his life and is ready to take over. He’s been corrupted by Carlito’s way and will be looking to rise to the top, but he won’t be making the same mistake as him. He’ll destroy the competition so that he stays at the top forever. He refuses to fall off, and will make sure there are no others underneath to replace him.

Although Steve Jobs and ‘Pac are resting in peace, or getting comfy, they’re not fine, because they’re dead and yet still got work to do, like selling records or developing technology with their names. The same type of stress is on Nino Bless, since he works even in his sleep or while he rests, which is the whole point of the song “Vampires & Coffee” a metaphor for grinding and never sleeping. It’s an anthem.

Although the audience honors Nino Bless because he has countless classics- like the amount of wives King Solomon had, which was around 1,000- his mother is still not proud of him.

Nino’s ex-girl is likened to the devil who also slept with his family members. This is also a play on words when he says he should have left her to dance alone, from the expression, “Dance With The Devil.”