Mike presents his rap in contrast to the mass-market fictional tales told by so many rappers. In contrast, he says his own work is a mix of the racial and societal analysis of W.E.B. Dubois' classic 1903 essay collection The Souls of Black Folk with the detailed street stories of the legendary writer Donald Goines. Goines is a favorite author among rappers, beloved by Tupac, Nas, Jadakiss, Ludacris, DMX, and many more

Gucci’s new Lambo is rocking 24 inch Forgiato wheels, which are so expensive that the company’s website won’t even tell you how much they are – you have to “request a quote”

“The Upper Room” refers to heaven, or a spiritual place above humans.

Cudi explained the spiritual bent of this tune:

This record to me was kind of like my gospel record. This is kind of like my “Jesus Walks”

Even his last-minute lyrical save didn’t end Cudi’s problems. He continued:

I type out all my lyrics. I take pride in how my words look on paper. I wrote it, went back and corrected it, and just sent it off – the lyrics, so this was before I even recorded it. So I put myself in another fucking heavy situation [laughs]

The next day, we’re recording it, and then I notice that there was a piece that didn’t work. It worked on paper, but when I started to record it, it sounded terrible. So I changed it right then and there, and then I had to go back and be like, ‘Yo, this is the new piece! Take out that one part and copy/paste and put this there. It’s supposed to look like this.’ So I was very clear about what I wanted

I recorded the vocals, sent them to Dot. In a matter of days, they had it mixed. It was just like, fuck!

Cudi admitted that these are pretty awful questions to ask someone:

I think that it’s a real jerkoff thing to say to someone you love – like, ‘What if I died? Then what?’ But that’s just basically to say, hey, life is too short – we need to fix this. [The message is] very dark in nature, but it’s still uplifting, a little bit positive

Cudi took the “teleport” part of the lyric literally, at least in part. As he told Complex:

I was saying that this is the new computer love. The whole technology thing – eventually they will be teleporting people around. I believe that. Probably not in our lifetime, but it’ll happen. And music is forever. So hopefully my kids' kids' kids can get a license and jump [laughs]

This is an ode to his girlfriend/ex-girlfriend Jamie Baratta, who the song is about. Telling her he needs her right by his side.

Nas then says that there’s a routine to follow to stay alive, despite the bullets and the police cruelty.

Some resort to theft, while Nas’s hustle is MCing. Legal hustles are safer, anyway…

Like many rappers say, Doing rhymes beats doing crimes

The “same old two step” line here is a nod to one-time enemy 50 Cent’s song “Wanksta”

Be easy, stop the bullshit, you get your whole crew wet
We in the club doin' the same ol' two step

The “Slow down [x], you’re killing em” line has quite a hip-hop pedigree. It dates back at least to Puffy’s exhortation to Big on Total’s 1996 song “Can’t You See,” and has also been used by Fat Joe and Sage Francis, among others

All you bitter folks can follow him at @360ismusic