What is this?

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A Hazmat suit allows the wearer protection against hazard materials such as dangerous levels of radioactivity.

One of the most important ways a Hazmat suit protects against nuclear agents is by protecting against contact with or inhalation of radioactive particles/ gas.

In the event of a nuclear incident, without one you may soon be breathing your last breath (gas/ gasp).

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What is this?

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A hibakusha is a survivor of either the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombings.

For those who survived the immediate blast from those nuclear bombs they had to face a future where many of their friends and relatives were dead, their city was destroyed and their health at risk.

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Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. (February 23, 1915 – November 1, 2007) piloted the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. The flight took approximately six hours. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Approximately 80,000 people were killed at the time of the bombing, about 75% of these were civilians.

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Lupe has already establish his street credibility, now he’s thinking of posterity and the legacy he will leave.

It may well not happen, but I hope that future generations will appreciate Lupe’s talent in the way Shakespeare is still studied and appreciated today.

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Lupe flips around the usual emphasis on rappers being “hood”, saying instead that the conditions in poor neighbourhoods are unacceptable and have to be improved.

Englewood, Chicago

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Continuing the civil rights references, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” is the popular name for Martin Luther King’s last speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oehry1JC9Rk

While perhaps Lupe suggests we have not yet reached the promised land, much has been achieved by the civil rights movement “the mountain top that we built”.

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This is a reference to Lil Wayne’s [controversial lyric] which compares the brutal beating of Emmett Till to his sexual prowess. This caused considerable offence to Till’s surviving family, for which Wayne later apologised. PepsiCo ended his Mountain Dew endorsement commenting “his offensive reference to a revered civil rights icon does not reflect the values of our brand.”

In contrast Lupe suggests we pour out a little, as a mark of respect.

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https://twitter.com/LupeFiasco/status/547934342018658304?lang=en

Lupe has thrown some light on these cryptic lines in an argument he had on Twitter in December 2014.

Lupe seems to be suggesting that sometimes you have to work within the system in order to subvert it.

Bojangles could be perceived by some as a house nigga dancing purely for the master’s entertainment, but instead Lupe presents him as a subversive figure passing secret messages and gathering his own economic resources.

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The two oil derricks are on an ocean (aquatic oil platforms). The image is of two old friends reminiscing over food (the sea of cooling num nums).

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The narrator is more or less having a pseudo out of body experience and seeing them self as well as being aware of others observing.

Continuing the Buddhist theme which occurs in a number of places throughout the album, this line suggests mindfulness.

Lupe as a celebrity is constantly observed, discussed and critiqued. As one of the most gifted hip-hop lyricists he has high expectations of himself, just as do his fans.

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