In essence, one could say Ferg is doing this:

I rap for listeners, bluntheads, fly ladies and prisoners, Henessey-holders and old-school niggas

Blu must be on God’s playlist for this…

The scales is a reference to the Acts 9:18:

And immediately there fell from his (Saul) eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

This is also used as an idiom. When you have scales on your eyes, it usually means you are blinded from the truth. Continuing from the previous line, Blu concludes that the youth or people in general often believe in the lies that they are told through media, entertainment etc. These scales often lead to people going through the place Blu describes in the next couple of lines.

The place where the sins get cleansed, is a reference to Revelation 20:14-15:

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

So this place Blu is describing is hell. However since this is Below The Heavens, Blu describes this as hell on Earth. The flames could refer to whatever hardships cause life on Earth to be hell-like. As many religions concur, the only way to avoid Hell and a hell-like life on Earth is to believe in the Lord. Be it God, Allah or any other god in religion.

The Narrow Path Blu is talking about is the one talked about in the Bible. Matthew 7:13-14:

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

The wide path is described as the one which everybody takes – the easier route which involves all things evil. The narrow path is the one which we should embark on, but is harder to find and more difficult to take since it is hard to find throughout all the evils that people are surrounded by. So Blu is packed his bags, which means he is letting go of all the things that he’s done traveling in the Wide Path, is going back to the Narrow Path. In other words, he’s undertaking the right way in life.

This may be an interpolation of Yasiin Bey’s Love.

The crying childs of the ghetto Blu’s referring to may be people just like him. But even more, he may be talking about rappers who come out of the ghetto. He likens rapping to the sound of crying and seeing as crying is often associated with pain, rappers do often speak on the pain of coming from the ghetto.

Especially rappers such as 2Pac Even though they speak on pain, they do it through making beautiful music which soothes the pain. Like hearing a woman with a beautiful voice sing in falsetto. We all like that, right?

Continuing from the previous line, Blu’s trying to make a mark. But he wants to do it by making a difference in people’s lives, and so he does it through music and relating his personal experiences.

It’s all in those 88 keys…

• If Blu wasn’t making music, he could be doing anything else right now to try and make it out of where he is. Or he could’ve been influenced by his surroundings and pushed keys. In other words, he could’ve been caught in the hustle had he not found music. Note: 88 keys is 88 kilos of coke.

• A piano actually has 88 keys, which is where the double entendre comes in. Blu isn’t pushing 88 keys of coke, but he’s making music with 88 keys in order to escape where he is. So imagine him sitting in front of a keyboard, making so(ul) amazing music.

Note how this ties in with Below The Heavens. As Blu described it in The World Is… everyone is born Below The Heavens and it’s up to us to make our own heaven on Earth. So pushing those 88 keys is an example of living Below The Heavens and making the music is an example of creating your own heaven.

The cycle Q is displaying here:

Brothers just like this kid who are trapped by the system, kill each other over whatever they have conflict about. But since an eye for an eye is applied here, one person kills one person and someone retaliates and kills another and that cycle goes on and on and never ends. So Q’s showing the danger of the gang life and how it always has a bad ending. Another way to look at it is that one person kills another and goes to straight to jail and so as the next person retaliates, that person will either die or go to jail. And that cycle goes on and on. This ends up in kids – just like this boy – becoming gangbangers because they have no father figures to look up to. Kendrick also speaks on the unfairness of the system here.