The backbend is a yoga pose used to benefit the spine. However, Tash will leave his competition in a similar position with no health benefits.

Gave himself an assist (“a dime”) by shouting himself out on the track.

A reference to verse two of “Fortified Live” (1997), the track from the previous year that first paired Mos Def and Talib Kweli.
He could also be commenting on the fact that people make too big of a deal about branding and where something comes from. For example Bling H20 is a brand of bottled water that costs $40 per 750 mL bottle. But you can get water for free pretty much anywhere.

Stony Island is a major thoroughfare running through the South Side of Chicago; Common’s previous album is divided into two sides, East Side of Stony and West Side of Stony. The local focus of this line is linked to the local beer shouted out in the preceding line.

After two seasons playing for the Miami Dolphins, Ricky Williams retired from football in early 2004 (just before the release of this remix), despite still being in the prime of his career. He un-retired a year later, under pressure to return his signing bonus for non-fulfillment of his contract.

“The Spook Who Sat By the Door” was an influential book and 1973 film, dealing with a black nationalist who received CIA training and then used it to organized black militants in Chicago. This speaks to Common’s militant, PE-inspired politics, and continues the theme of black nationalism voiced in the line about interracial lovers above.

He plays off the word “spooked” by also mentioning director Wes Craven, the horror movie director behind the Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream franchises. Common is claiming his competition is sitting by the door afraid of his killer rhymes.

This line continues the string of Tupac references in the first verse, which begins with the Death Row/Interscope wordplay and continues below with the references to the Tupac films Juice and Gang Related.

“Drop a Gem On Em” was a 1996 Mobb Deep song and a pointed diss to Tupac, taunting him for getting shot in New York in 1995 (“Who shot ya? You probably screamed louder than opera. New York got ya.”).

Besides the Tupac reference that this line encodes, it also includes a fairly straightforward pun involving the slang term “dropping a gem” and the word “jaded.” To translate: Common’s original/clever rhyming is showing up those rappers with a more cynical/jaded style. The “jaded” line may be a jab at rappers cynically imitating Tupac’s style to sell records.

Common’s sound is a symbol of dopeness and fresh rhyming, just as a siren (police, ambulance, fire) is a symbol of social anomie and terror.

He could also be talking about the sirens of Greek mythology, who were beautiful yet dangerous femme fatales luring nearby sailors to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island with their enchanting music and voices.

References the famous Gil Scott Heron song, and also implies that society is not interested in the plight of blacks – thus even if there was a revolution in the hood, major media would ignore it.