Brandon Bell (pictured) was a high-school classmate of efemjay’s with a penchant for petty criminality. efemjay says his rhymes are “criminal,” which may be alluding to the fact that hip-hop itself was initially illegal (see KRS-ONE on the subject); or perhaps they are seen as criminal by the state for their revolutionary content.

The hook to “Dewey Knitwell” invokes an old-school hip-hop aesthetic; “yes, yes, y'all,” etc., being a familiar refrain. efemjay was probably most influenced by KRS-ONE’s 1997 song “Step Into A World,” itself paying homage to the old school, which features the following hook:

Yes, yes, y'all; you don’t stop
KRS-ONE! Rock on!

The final line of efemjay’s hook plays on the similarity between the phrase “doing it well,” and, when said fast, the created name “Dewey Knitwell.”

“Doing it, and doing it, and doing it well” was appropriated from the 1995 LL Cool J song, “Doin' It.”

The Chancellor says he and efemjay are going to “come back with more hits” – they are going to be making more good rap songs. This line echos the sentiment of Smooth B of the group Nice & Smooth, from their classic song with Gang Starr “DWYCK” – “I told you before, we come back with more hits.”

Although this song is drawing to an end, The Chancellor warns would-be opponents that this is “just a sample” of what he and efemjay have in store – “next level shit,” meaning rap music that stretches boundaries and is very good.

The “Rollin Tribe” was the name of efemjay and The Chancellor’s high-school posse; named after the miniature village of Rollin, MI, which was reinvented as a pseudo-Compton among efemjay and his friends.

The Chancellor’s unnamed opponent is accused of being “wack” (not good), and unable to “even hold a candle” to the rapping skills of efemjay and The Chancellor.

The Chancellor and efemjay are both from the rural outskirts of the tiny village of Addison, MI. “The sticks” – a half-hour outside of the city of Jackson, MI, famous for its state prison; the first state prison in Michigan.

It’s simple and obvious (“elementary”) that The Chancellor and efemjay are at the very top of the hip-hop industry (“we be the epitome”). As a result, their rapping exploits will be recorded by historians. There is no mystery as to why this is the case – it is “actual fact;” simple and obvious; “elementary.”