Seems to also be a nod to Earl Sweatshirt’s video for “Chum”:

In the chorus, Earl raps these relevant words:

Get up off the pavement, brush the dirt up off my psyche

The rest off Odd Future might’ve been implied as well.

Joey Badass’s “Christ Conscious” video also comes to mind.

Levitating youth could also refer to Peter Pan and his fellow children of Neverland, who are able to fly (Levitate), and are eternally youthful, and don’t age, thus they appear to know the secret to immortality, something provided by the fountain of youth.

From the line “Road Runners don’t fall off cliffs” until the line “Announcing now the doubt in mouth pronounces out a count of lies” Lupe is commenting on Faith. Not faith in a religious sense but faith in self and ones own abilities. He cleverly references 3 different pop culture stories that subtly imply faith or not believing the “count of lies” that DOUBT produces is the means by which one can achieve “impossibilities”. The reference in THIS specific line being to Peter Pan, Wendy and company (Levitating youths) And Neverland (Where the fountain hides).

The aforementioned road-runner is the levitating youth. He doesn’t break the cartoon imagery

Also of note that it’s often said (in the south at least) that bad moonshine, commonly called shine, can make you go blind. Would also tie back to the wine references a couple verses earlier. So then “Decorate me with shine till I go blind” could be saying something like, get so drunk that I go blind literally, or get so drunk that you just do stupid shit, have no filter, etc.

This also refers to how Lupe’s been in the game for 10 years (Food & Liquor was released in 2006) and he’s still locked in his contract with Atlantic Records.

The popular mechanics magazine slogan is “written so you can understand it.” This slogan fits in well with Lupes music. Taking very complex and dense subject matters and breaking them down enough for the listener to understand and be entertained (w/ a little bit of research of course lol)

The “overdosing hearts” also ties in with the drug theme in the opening lines of the song (vitamins, minerals and Vicoding wrapped around the arm)

“From popular mechanics to overdosing hearts” could mean he appeals to the intelligent who read Popular Mechanics all the way to the ghetto where overdosing is more common

Upon listening to the line again, it definitely, almost for sure sounds like Lupe is saying “overdosing hard”, which could mean overdosing on hard drugs, or overdosing on something to a hard degree (for example, these saturated, multi-layered rap lines haha)

As well as continuing the X-Men thread from the previous line, the “Popular Mechanics” could be referring to Lupe’s mastery of the popular flows in which some rappers spit, and “overdosing hearts” referring to the cathartic nature of most of his songs.

Overdosing hearts also ties to the previous line of gambit filling the cards with kinetic energy, which Lupe also does with the hearts of people listening to his music.

The way he pronounced “cards” in the previous line could also be heard as “cars.” Which of course, leads into Blk_Stn’s explanation above.

Mechanics may also be seen as a continuation of a physics theme in this line and the line immediately before it when taken as a reference to the scientific magazine “Popular Mechanics”, following a reference to Gambit from X-Men who added kinetic energy to objects. Kinetic energy, and the magazine “Popular Mechanics” are both heavily related to the study of motion, which is a field of physics called “mechanics” or “kinematics”.

These are both magazine references.

Overdosing hearts is Rolling Stones. Rolling Stones are People who are always moving, with no roots in one place, avoid responsibilities and cares. These people sometimes get involved in drugs and die from overdose.

Rolling Stones were not only a band that had a member die from a drug overdose but they also made a song Heart of Stone.

Finally Rolling Stone is now a magazine that was more associated with Rock Culture. And Rock culture was heavily associated with drugs and young hearts dying from overdosing on drugs.

If we are going along with the other meaning of the verse (Lupe’s music career), then he would be calling Atlantic degenerates who don’t care about the rap game and only care about “the scores” (how many records he sells).

He’s saying that the inmates he’s cliqued up with (The Moorish Science Temple) are degenerates, because they’re not looking at the game (the bigger picture, life), they’re just looking at the scores (the money) that is put on his books.

“Books” being an inmate account. So he’s saying that the other inmates are degenerates because all they view value in, is the money that he, as an inmate poseesses.

Scores here could mean prisoners scoring, i.e. scratching, the number of days passed onto cell walls. They’re staring at them contemplating the time they’ve been here.

in my opinion I think that Lupe is saying the obvious that more often than not when confronted with doing the right thing or getting gold most person choose the later, and loose their conscious (Soul is gold) doing so. In alchemy base metals is what is know as murdane, while the elixir or philosophers stone is the ideal. Men choose gold that favours the body more than souls gold

Very poignant reference to the monotization of religion. The soul is gold. Through any number of cult and occult religions, people have tried to purify themselves and the elements of life, and it’s a shame what that’s lead to throughout time.

Gold was thought to be a final state of the purification of metals. We know through it’s remarkable chemical properties that it is very stable, malleable, and a superconductor. It’s also been closely tied throughout history to the sun, the divine, and prosperity

Lupe’s raps (for him) aren’t to turn his “garbage” life into gold for him, but to help people. But the need for money in this world is so high just to live comfortably people forget what they are here for. When your born you are a pure golden being but the more you are taught you need money and then try and go get it the more you trade the gold in your soul for cash (gold being time or skill)in the world slowly destroying not only your soul but mind and body as well.

Cestui Que Vie Act 1666