Acey may be using the door locks to personify his friend’s guard, and when he unlocks his car he is letting down his guard. This could also be why Acey can feel his heart beating. Even if he isn’t, these are powerful bars that show how broken down his friend is and how much this affects Acey.

Acey now realizes that this “maniac” is his friend and that he too, is about to break. It seems like no one in this neighborhood is happy or stable.

When the destitute see him on the street, they look like they’ve hit rock bottom. They look like they’re about to give up on life, and thus inspire him to spit poetry to advocate for change. He too, feels like he’s about to give up on life though. This maniac is the last straw for him, for he can’t handle living with such obnoxious and awful people. Moreover, he also uses the word break to mean that he is physically going to break this maniac.

Acey’s neighborhood is incredibly poor. It’s sad that there are people out there who can’t afford to eat without going into debt. Now, it’s obvious why he is so bent on getting out of this neighborhood.

College has done nothing for Acey. After all of those years, he is still wearing cheap clothing and having to deal with obnoxious people like this guy (or so he thinks currently). Acey currently seems to be living a life filled with regret.

A lot of people go into college thinking that upon graduation, a door will be opened to a life of prosperity. However, it doesn’t work like that. Upon Tracey’s graduation, life didn’t open any door for him–rather it closed many others. If he hadn’t gone to college, he’d have been thousands of dollars richer and could have escaped his neighborhood. Now, he has to live with the knowledge that he wasted so much time and money.

At this point, Acey apparently hadn’t hit it big. Like his mother, he too hopes that he can make enough money to get out of his neighborhood. This goal has plagued his mind for awhile now, and it will until he moves out and makes both him and his mother happy.

With being such a socially conscious fellow, he has the exploitation of blacks, the worries that plague women, and his neighborhood to worry about. His mind is always racing with worry and insight while he is awake, so the only time his mind can rest is when it physically can’t do otherwise.

Later in the song, Acey reveals that he lives in a very destitute neighborhood, one that is so poor that people buy food on credit. Acey is trying to protect this neighborhood from getting violent (or any more so), for if he lives on the street too, then how will its decline reflect on himself? It will make him appear just as disruptive and violent as this maniac, and he will do anything to avoid that association.

By establishing from early on that this person is a maniac, it makes the revelation of it being his friend oh so much more emotional. Also, it emphasizes just how hopeless his ex has made him and how awful she has made his life.