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These niggas 'bout to go to work so these bitches gon' have to leave
And when the bitch gone, knee shots disabled
DVD of Dick Jones in your TV and a grenade all on your table Lupe Fiasco – SLR 2
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And I lay it on by the ladle
But it's so strong, when I pull it out, I'm only hangin' on to a handle Lupe Fiasco – SLR 2
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Lu uses a punch bowl as a metaphor for the punchlines he writes.
Lupe’s basically saying his lyrics are stronger than anyone else’s, comparing them to the size of an ocean. The oceans contain 97% of the world’s water. That’s 332,519,000 cubic miles. That’s a lot of swimming pools.
He can serve them up, like serving punch from a bowl with a ladle.
Except his rhymes are so acid, that when he pulls the ladle out of the bowl all that’s left is the handle. A handle is also a reference to 1.75 litres of of liquor.
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Bear traps have traditionally been viscous. Lupe is flipping the concept of trap music, and warning another to not fall into the trap rapping game, which is a trap.
To be trapped in the clinch of a bear trap is likely to be a very painful and potentially fatal experience, with little hope of escape.
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To do something at length means to do something for a long period of time. However Lupe is talking about exercise, so he is saying he trains over both long distances and for a long time. Long distance running has served as a metaphor previously. Lupe has often been treated differently to his peers because of both his subject matter (alluded to in the imagined diss by Earl earlier in this track) and lyrical skill.
It should be noted there are many meanings for exercise including performing an activity (which could be mental rather than physical) to train and develop.
The electric fence represents a hazardous barrier either meant to keep Lupe out or to keep others away from him. “Electrifying” is another way to describe a thrilling experience. Perhaps for Lupe breaking through barriers and challenging himself is his own secret excitement, which sets up the next line.
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Maybe Lupe is back on his secret base who knows what he’s going to do next.
The danger room is also a training facility in the X-Men universe. In the X-Men comics, the Danger Room has been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times, each time being upgraded. It was originally on the first floor of the X-Men Mansion and was later moved to Level Two. The Level Five mentioned in this line suggests a facility built to train and test skill levels to their absolute limits.
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Here in the imagined diss of Lupe, Earl calls Lupe a sissy.
Saying because Lupe is a girl, the “two girls” line meant he handed the cup (possibly full of excrement) to himself, twice.
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Here Lupe is playing with his image as a conscious rapper. By being labelled a conscious rapper expectations are that they should never engage in negative behavior such as dissing other rappers. He plays off this image of himself as an imagined reaction by Earl to his non-Earl diss.
“2positive Shakur” is a play on 2Pac Shakur.
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They waiting on lines Lupe Fiasco – Peace of Paper/Cup of Jayzus
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If you drive legally in the United States you’ll need to join the line at the DMV.
That is until Lupe starts giving license, in this case more likely to be artistic. One type of artist license is rewording of existing lyrics by another artist. This can refer to the rappers known to have borrowed lyrics from Biggie (“knocking off bigs”).
Until that time you will be both:
a) waiting on line at the DMV
b) waiting online for Lupe to drop new material
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