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…either because of being broke or because stress is killing his appetite.

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He is in love with hustling and dope dealing. The chemical is ingredients to make crack.

Explored in more depth on “Fallin'”

The irony of selling drugs is sort of like you using it
Guess it’s two sides to what substance abuse is

As well as another track off that 2007 American Gangster record, “I Know”.

He throws in a reference to the band My Chemical Romance as well, for reasons that soon become clear.

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Self-conscious people buy unnecessary stuff to put up a facade and hide how they really feel.

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This is a play on words. He is wearing two Rolex watches, one on each hand = ambidextrous.

“GSes" along with ambidextrous, which ‘Ye pronounces “ambitextrious”, is purposefully mispronounced in an ignorant style. In this case adding an extra “es” to the end to make GEE-ess-iss-iz ties very directly to the Lexus GS sedan — a pretty sweet whip for the persona of the rapper he puts on for this song. Since “GSes” refers back to “Lexuses” which is referred to the watches he’s also pointing out the ambidextrous nature of the previous lines.

Things get more layered when we look at “GS” as it relates to Rolex, as there is no model with that designation in their lineup. However, the Grand Seiko (or GS) Diver and the Rolex Diver look similar enough that the Seiko could pass as the Rolex, especially with a little doctoring. Wearing not one but two fake Rolex to front like he’s balling works perfectly with the theme of the track, in which Kanye is both reminiscing and goofing on his past self and the bullsh*t he used to say and do.

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Kanye’s attitude puts him on another level, high above everyone else.

Also a play on words, he’s high from smoking and fly because of his style (with the other meaning of fly referring to soaring high above).

This is, unfortunately, an unintentional display of ignorance by Mr. West. The actual saying is “your attitude determines your ALTITUDE” (which is what he meant).

“LATITUDE” is the angular distance of one’s location south or north of the equator (not height). This could refer to him being “on top of the world” as he climbs in latitude.

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He mentioned this in an interview, saying that he got a letter from a fan that said that he was praying for him.

These lines could perhaps be an allusion to Christian rapper KJ-52’s “Dear Slim” and “Dear Slim Part 2”, although this is unlikely.

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After the death of her child, Isis falls off the rails. She uses sex, and the company of other men, as an escape and a way to release the tension and pain of the death of her son.

As Jay explained on “It’s Like That” in 1998:

Sold crack to those who couldn’t take the pain
And had to numb it with base

He is well aware of the medicinal properties of drugs, but he’s even more aware of the consequences of becoming reliant on them.

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Jay-Z left Roc-A-Fella (now renamed “Blue Roc” by Dame Dash) to start his own label, known as Roc Nation (pledge your allegiance!)

He also left Def Jam for Roc Nation right before the Blueprint 3 was officially released. This is what he’s referring to. He literally bought out his record deal with Def Jam for a reported fee of $5 million.

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Eminem refers to the fact that at the time this song came out (2004) he was getting flack from the media and Michael Jackson for his “inappropriate” video poking fun at the king of pop in “Just Lose It.”

Em’s manager Paul Rosenberg refers to this as well in his skit five tracks before this one on this album.

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