DZA’s reminiscence of selling ounces of weed is perhaps an oblique callback to a section of Jay-Z’s classic “Never Change”:

Lost 92 bricks, had to fall back
Knocked a nigga off his feet, but I crawled back
Had A-1 credit, got more crack
From the first to the fifth, gave it all back
If I’m not a hustler what you call that?
This is before rap, this is all fact

DZA uses one of our favorite devices here, the homophone. The first “l.i.e.” is the Long Island Expressway, while the second is spelling out the word “lie”

“Dreddy” could be either his nickname for a dead-lock sporting friend of his….or short for “Andretti” which is part of the nickname CURREN$Y has adapted (Spitta Andretti)

The “No jump shot so I’m selling crack” line is a reference to this Biggie lyric

In the hood your only way out is to make it financially is playing some type of sport, but since he doesn’t have the skills the easiest way to make money is selling drugs.

KRIT references Biggie to highlight the lack of opportunities in his own surroundings.

Krit compares the smoothness and grace of his rapping to that of the legendary dancer Fred Astaire, the star of dozens of Hollywood musicals of the 1930’s and 40’s. Below, a classic Astaire number from the movie Shall We Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFIAmAVaD9I#t=1m54s

Baghdad is always getting bombed, ask Outkast. Bomb is, shockingly, also slang for potent weed

Diamond made this song about a girl gone wrong with a very specific target audience:

I made it for my younger sister, who was a child at the time, so she would grow up and understand you don’t look for love in the wrong places.

When soon-to-be-enslaved Africans were taken to the Americas, the conditions they endured on the trip were often beyond terrible. Often the slaves would try to jump overboard