Common used to go by this name, and he’s spreading something that’s seemingly rare nowadays: common sense.

Chicago (where Common is from), is known as the Windy City.

He’s questioning rappers motives. Is that all you want? To get fame or to get rich? What about making a change? Essentially too many rappers enter the game following a marketable formula that reaps quick profits, but also lacks longevity. As a result, they’re hardly individuals worth mention. As the next line shows, Common doesn’t approve.

Trying to make a song that will uplift the ghetto and help the people there stand up for their rights and beliefs.

Although they found out how to get rich, they didn’t know how to use their riches properly. Thus they’re still bitches in Common’s eyes, weak. On top of that, these so called gangsters can’t even aim a gun properly.

Whatever source of inspiration those who got rich found that helped them, Common and his associates want to shed light on it (flip the proverbial light switch) and expose the idea for their use.

In the Dave Chappelle skit Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories, Dave reenacts one of Charlie’s experiences where Rick James hit him the face and utters the now-famous phrase “Look bitch, I’m Rick James!”. Rick James himself also speaks of his behaviour saying, “Cocaine is a hell of a drug!”. Com’s also calling out fakes, saying their stories are made up.

Reference to the sitcom Sanford and Son, which is about a father and his son — Fred and Lamont Sanford respectively — that work at their antiques and junk dealership. Much like how they sold junk, many rappers sell their popular, but garbage music.

Common is a beast on tracks, and he’s on a rampage. Could also refer to other beasts such as the drug trade.

N.W.A popularized this with a song of the same name, but everyone knows hustlers hate the police.

Common says to fuck you to the informants in the same way he does it to the police.

The “on the street” ties into the previous line and he hints at being surprised they aren’t ran over in the street for the weak material they put out.

Their blood runs cold from what they see on the street, they lose their grip and they run to inform to the police. Many tires also have less grip on the road when they’re cold, and thus sometimes screech as they try to get a grip.

Genius.