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A standout Gunplay track in which he raps about the difficulties of trying to maintain from his violent ways.
The video was released May 12th, 2013 on MTV Jams.
Well, what do you expect from the kind of places you've been living in?
Don't drink from that cup, it's all caked and cracked along the rim
That's not the electric light, my friend, that is your vision growing dim Leonard Cohen – Dress Rehearsal Rag
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These lines describe the poor condition of the room in the (now famous) Chelsea Hotel where Cohen lived at the time.
The decrepit conditions may be a metaphor for his state of mind and body.
The line “don’t drink from that cup its all caked and cracked along the rim"
implies being unable to even participate in optimism or pessimism (the glass being half full or empty).
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What is this?
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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
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Marianne is Marianne Ihlen, ex-wife of the Norwegian author Axel Jensen, who was a friend of Leonard. Leonard lived with Marianne in Greece together, in the 1960s, after Axel separated from her.
To quote Leonard (backcover of “Greatest Hits”, 1976):
I began this on Aylmer Street in Montreal and finished it a year or so later at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. I didn’t think I was saying goodbye but I guess I was. She gave me many songs, and she has given songs to others too. She is a Muse. A lot of people I know think that there is nothing more important than making a song. Fortunately, this belief arises infrequently in their conversation.
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The Mississippi Delta (home of the Blues) is in Mississippi, and starts just south of Memphis.
National Reso-Phonic Guitars is famous for its shiny resonator guitars.
This line is a play on words: the location of the Mississippi Delta being the birthplace of blues, and the Delta guitar being an iconic guitar of the American south.
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What is this?
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This refrain is the song’s most direct reference to its namesake, the anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit”.
This line also builds upon the line in “Break The Chain” fro LASERS where Lupe raps:
Lupe was originally referencing “Strange Fruit” in “Break the Chain”; on this song he has expanded upon those ideas (of racial oppression, i.e. through lynching) and brought them to “fruition”.
this is not the correct hook he verified it via instagram lyrics
75
I’m pretty sure the chorus is:
“Many things, the strangest things you’ve ever seen
Oh, look at how they swing, would you look at how they swing
Embedded they go, no eyelids down low, or gone by sundown
They’re dodging 5-0.”
26
Perhaps the “No I didn’t die yall” is actually “your eyes don’t lie”. this would make sense as just before it says “strangest thing you’ve ever seen, look at how they swing”.
166
I really like this hook. My interpretation of it is that, while referencing “Strange Fruit” and the history of oppression (represented by blacks being lynched and swinging from trees like strange fruit) in the past, the hook concludes by saying that the oppression hasn’t killed the spirit of the oppressed, as they cut themselves free and fall (which is usually associated with something negative) “into grace” (which is something positive).
17,672
First words of the hook are
It means that pain is inseparable part of our lives, it’s like it has it’s own system in our bodies, something similar to circulatory system.