In a lot of urban cities, black-on-black crime accounts for more than 80% of the deaths of young black men. Over 8,000 illegal guns were recovered from crimes in states like Pennsylvania and other states have continued to crack down on gun laws; the ability to buy guns through illegal processes in this community remains unaddressed.

Aesop recognizes all the limitations put on people from both external and internal forces. Because of this, he often feels trapped. He gains relief from this feeling through artistic release or writing songs.

Many prison cells do not have windows to the outside world, preventing the prisoner from creating a very exact portrait of this world. Although it’s overreaching a bit, this may be the reason Aesop tends to write lyrics some people deem to be conspiracy theory.

As many people know, the standard classical piano has 88 keys.

However, digital pianos now-a-days come in a variety of lengths including 61, 73, and 76 keys. A couple reasons for this is 1) ain’t no body got time for all them keys when you only need enough to play a simple melody, right? and 2) the more keys on a piano, the bigger and more expensive it will be.

Specifically 800 numbers because the above line says that his girl left him a hefty amount of bills so it’s probably bill collectors

This is a reference to the classic conflict between Frank Lopez and Tony Montana in the movie Scarface.

The Lopez vs. Montana subplot is an example of the death-rebirth archetype, in which the old must die before something new has room to take hold. Frank’s woman, Elvira, was a major catalyst in this taking place – from the beginning Tony attempted to steal her away, mainly by undermining and/or emasculating Frank.

Eventually, it all came to blows and Tony ended up killing Frank and subsequently convincing Elvira to be with him.

Audio Dope is the name of two of his tracks, and continues the wordplay with surround sound crack.

Dope is usually used as slang for heroine, a depressant that causes people to go into a blissful state (it’s bad for you kids don’t do it!) while crack is an upper that causes your organs and senses to go into overdrive (don’t fuck with this either…). Spitta is saying he has them laid back tracks you can chill to but also songs like this that are a little more upbeat.

Stemming off the fact he had broken into the game by starting his own label and thus promoting himself, Jay has stated that he grew tired of promoting the clothes of lines like Iceberg. After approaching the line and receiving a weak endorsement offer, Jay decided he may as well start his own line and promote himself. While other artists were giving free promo to Gucci & Louis Vutton, Hov started Rocawear, also noticing the new market opening up after the launch of Puff Daddy’s Sean John clothing line.

Throughout his career Jay-Z has been known to think ahead of the curve in investment deals with Belvedere Vodka, 40/40 Club, Professional sports clubs, and real estate development, all of which he promotes heavily in his music.

The vintage 1970-1980 Cadillac series has a back window with a diamond shape.

If you listen to southern rap you will hear the term “diamond in the back” pretty often..but it was first talked about in music by the great Curtis Mayfield in his song “Diamond in the Back” which has been sampled a ton of times.

A lot of things going on here:

First, notice his usage of two (plus one more below) very common sayings in English.

More importantly, this is a continuation of the ‘switch’ metaphor; Em becomes cold-hearted when he writes his lyrics, referencing his lack of sympathy and consideration for others.

However, there’s still a long way from his bottom up through his body to his head, which is why he annexes the idiomatic expression tip of the iceberg. This is a metaphor for the perpetual nature of his rapping: spewing out more and more great insults as the song progresses.

Furthermore, and this ain’t even the tip of the iceberg yet is Em’s warning that we haven’t yet seen the furthest extent of his abilities throughout his career.