Here the Prez makes a reference to the recent Secret Service scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, where agents were caught with prostitutes. Hillary was on that trip, and while she steered clear of prostitutes she was photographed dancing in the late hours in a Cartagena club.

Aileen Wuornos was a serial killer who killed seven men in the late 1980’s and early 90’s, claiming that they all attacked her while she was working as a prostitute

Wuornos, once caught, was “remorseless and money hungry”, and often bragged about being on television. She was executed in 2002, but her story made it to the big screen in the 2003 bio-pic Monster

Jean, who grew up in Manhattan, shouts out a gang of her youth. See here for a 1989 New York Times story about the Decepticons gang, who reached near-legendary status at the time

This song was produced by Christoper “Khyrsis” Tyson, who belongs to the same North Carolina rap collective as the soon-to-be-shouted-out 9th Wonder

Jean had collaborated with producer 9th Wonder on her previous album, Jeanius. 9th himself speaks the words in quotations here

Jean – who had just released an album called Jeanius – was around this time working on a never-released album called Phoenix. The title was a nod to the comic book character from whom she took her rap name

The X-Men’s Jean Grey dies and and is reborn as Phoenix

The name is a nod to the ancient mythologies around the legendary bird of the same name. In one version of the myth:

[The phoenix] has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self.

When we talked to Jean, she had this to say about SSLP-era Eminem’s influence on her career:

I was a huge, huge fan. Once again, it was coming out of [Natural Resource, her mid-90’s group], finding a way to discuss my own issues and shortcomings and with saying, I want to talk to people but I don’t want to lose the sensibility of myself and the jokiness, ‘cause I think that could kind of go out the window

It was a great, refreshing time to hear someone be honest and vulnerable in a completely different way. Everything that was going on at the time was a great inspiration to [understand that] you don’t have to not be yourself. You can be multi-faceted and go back in and, even if it’s taboo to talk about it, and shock factor, it’s okay, you can go ahead and do that. I felt like that was unheard of for women to say things that had shock value unless it was sexual. Also, I’m a huge fan of words and rhythm placement, and I haven’t heard anyone do that that well in a while