Yellow Nike Air Maxes:

Phillip Drummond is a fictional character (a wealthy white widower) on the hit television series, Diff'rent Strokes

Medellin is a Colombian city, notorious for the Medellin cartel of which Pablo Escobar (seen dead below) was once head. Traditional enemies in the Colombian cocaine business are the Cali cartel (from the Colombian city of Cali).

With four billionaires like Richard Branson (Virgin Group including Airlines, Health Clubs and Mobile Communications)

The start of the first line of the second verse connects with the first line of the first verse – both being common things said in a courtroom. Lupe sometimes makes reference to which verse he’s rapping and how this connects to prior verses, sometimes in a metaphorical way.

I’m guessing Rae’s got something like this:

rather than this:

Sample from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s speech to a joint session of the United States Congress in 1941.

The idea of being the master of one’s own fate runs throughout literature, from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to William Ernest Hemley’s “Invictus.”

Someone who has a “green thumb” is skilled at gardening or harvesting crops. Lupe grew up on the streets of westside Chicago, which can be a loose simile to the aforementioned “green thumb,” who grows things.