My dad used to say to me “Pull me out when you need me”, meaning he was always with me even if not physically. In a prison there are typically 3 – 8 hour shifts. At the beginning of each one the officers count the number of inmates on the living unit and everyone is locked up and put in their cells at that time.

He is torn on how to address Jason because he knows they don’t have a relationship. However because he is in prison he hoped that would be all the lesson his son needed to see but he sees its a cycle about to begin. A birthday card from pops a few years ago.

The information he got about Jason reminds him of himself. He is trying to warn him that being aggressive and loud like Tupac is the same thing that got him killed. An “OP” is “opposition” or a rival gang. The phrase “Fuck the ops” means rivals. So we can assume Jason is now claiming a gang and neighborhood and his father knows how this will end.

He reveals that he had stopped trying to communicate via Jason’s mother. However apparently she must have written him to let him know that his son, now 16 years old (14 years since verse 1) is now out of control as a teenager.
He feels responsible for this and is trying to both encourage his son and chastise him for his behavior.

We don’t know what it is that he did but we know he is sentenced to 60 years in the state prison. He has now considerably aged by now as he writes this kite to his son not knowing if he will ever receive it.

He has begun the act of acceptance of his situation. He has also realized that he is only physically incarcerated but the real task is being mentally free (something my dad told me he struggled with greatly). He also throws back to the imagery of the cross and the crucification of Jesus who of course later rises as the Holy Spirit.

In the first verse we learn the cost of everyday items. In each verse the cost of those items and what he buys increases as the stakes increase which is a mild for-shadowing technique I was going for.
His cellmate was a Christian in the first verse. Now he is studying Islam.

Session 32 that this track is sampled from is a love song ballad, I thought it would be a great juxtaposition to make a love song but this one is about his son. Her voice is soft of the guitar but I build up and get more and more aggressive before she comes back and calms us each chorus and tells us she threw away his love letters. In this case all the letters are going to his son but he isn’t getting a response back so he doesn’t know if he is receiving them. Here is a picture my dad got drawn of me in prison. Luckily mom didn’t throw these away and answered all those collect calls he made. I realized later how hard that was on her.

We find out his son’s name is Jason, and he only has one picture of him. “I’m gone” represents he has finally been sentenced to go to prison.

I’ve worked with teenage first time offenders on house arrest all the way up to MAX class detainees facing murder charges, who have been incarcerated for over 5 years while they await trial. Usually that is after they get an offer from the State that would reduce their sentence. The system is designed to make them tired and “cop out” or reach a plea agreement for lesser time. Its common knowledge that the prison actually has more freedoms and privileges than the county jail…like MP3 players for example in IDOC that the Cook County Jail doesn’t have. This picture was from Day Reporting Center, I helped some of these guys graduate high school starting with zero credits.