Ride references the idiom “dog-eat-dog,” which means incredibly competitive, indicating survival of the fittest.

Ride also thinks people in the world are animals, he thinks they’re “dogs” in the derogatory sense, that they’re dirty, greedy, and vicious.

Assuming “burn through it” from the first hook is about drug use, this hook is about the inability to stop a crazed drug addiction.

“Fear over pride” means that the drug use is no longer about the pride in going hard and getting fucked up, it’s about the fear of a life without drugs, whether it be through physical addiction or a fear of the real world, (e.g. someone drinking as a result of depression).

“Flood you can’t hide” can be interpreted in different ways. It could be a literal flood, something that is hallucinated during drug use. Much more likely, it’s a metaphor for the truth of drug use; it’s a flood that will destroy your life, and at this point, it’s undeniable to the protagonist/MC Ride. It can also mean that the flood is his personal drug use, (and the massive effect it has had on his life), and he can’t hide it from others.

The “face of the woman” is indubitably the face of his mother. This idea is derived from the title of the song, which also implies that the subject of the song is a “lil' boy”, be it literal or metaphorically.

“Tears of a child” can refer to two different people. It could refer to the subject’s son/family member/etc., who is mourning over the person the subject’s become. However, since the title of the song is “Lil Boy” and the title refers to the subject, the child is himself. The drug addiction could have started at a young age, and this would be the child crying at what he’s doing, or what he will become in the future, (this song). It’s similar to the first interpretation, but it’s much more personal, as it’s the subject looking at himself with the “what have I become” mentality.

All the while, we hear a louder and overshadowing “lil boy” at the end of each line. This is MC Ride trying to reinforce to the listener that this has all happened to a “lil boy”. In one interpretation, it’s a literal “lil boy”. In this case, we grieve for him, since the idea of a child getting messed up in drugs is very sad. However, it could also mean the subject is immature, and practically a “lil boy”. In this case, we won’t grieve for him. Why would we? It’s his fault, he should be old enough to understand the dangers of this life he’s chosen. The way this line’s presented implies we can feel grief and anger towards the subject at the same time.

Alternatively, “Little Boy” was the name for one of the two atomic bombs made in the Manhattan Project, and was specifically the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, (with “Fatman” being the bomb dropped on Nagasaki). “Fear over pride” symbolizes how, even though the Japanese value pride above most other things, the bombings still scared them enough to surrender in WW2. “Flood you can’t hide” could either be about how it’s impossible to escape from a nuclear bomb, or perhaps the tidal wave that hit Japan some years ago. “Face of a woman” and “Tears of a child” symbolize the victims of the Hiroshima bombing.

Most rappers prefer to talk about their Beamers and jewelry in their raps, so a track about a modern day apocalypse could go over the head of the average listener. But André isn’t going to let this stop him from spitting lyrics that are ahead of his time.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that officially freed all slaves in the Confederacy.

Bruce Lee started the trend of Kung Fu movies in America with highly successful films such as Enter the Dragon.

Sacagewea was on the Lewis and Clark Expedition and has now become an example of female leadership and perseverance. With little to no food, the expedition crossed the country and would have died if not for Sacagewea.