Just in case the government hadn’t taken enough of your money before it was paid to you, they also charge you for spending it. This is in the form of Value Added Tax (more commonly known as VAT), which means that government gets a percentage of the purchase price of anything you spend money on. The VAT for most goods and services (food and essentials aside) in the UK is 20%.

This line is a reference to income tax – money which the government takes off workers' salaries. The income tax for the lowest bracket (those who earn the least) in UK society is 20%, after which it increases to 40% and then 50%. Here is a breakdown of how it works in the UK.

This is after the various other deductions for National Insurance and a variety of other contributions taken from the cheque, all of which are controlled by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. By the time you actually get your salary, it’s a much smaller amount than the one which was paid to you. That is bullshit.

Third world debt is largely a result of international economic organisations such as the IMF(International Monetary Fund) and World Bank who took advantage of newly-independent countries (primarily in Africa), lending them money with ridiculous rates of interest.

This debt has resulted in many third world governments having to spend their budgets repaying debt, rather than providing basic healthcare and education to their people. This is quite clearly bullshit.

The irony is that as the previous line points out, the third world have contributed enormous amounts of wealth historically, and still find themselves in debt

Social networking sites such as Twitter have made instant communication much harder to trace, especially considering (as seen in the above line) that ‘feds’ have the ability to hack phone lines.

Some of the women mentioned in the previous line have become so hooked on drugs that simply giving head to a dealer when they need a fix will no longer suffice.

These woman have turned to street prostitution in order to fund their drug habits, wearing high heels & revealing clothing in order to attract passing drivers.

There is also a play on the word ride, speaking in one sense about the car ride after they get picked up, and in the other sense about the actual sex itself.

Street prostitution has become such a common feature of large cities that it has been incorporated into the popular video game franchise Grand Theft Auto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwkI1O50Yn0

Keeping with the Wu-Tang reference, the following line of that hook goes

C.R.E.A.M. get the money

The thugs Plan B is referring to are clearly those dealing the drugs mentioned in the previous line.

Slug is prepared to listen to what other rappers have to say, but won’t give them respect if they’re not good. Intending to ‘keep the mic warm for the next one’ shows a more collective approach to building the Minneapolis hip hop scene, and indeed this was shown in later years through the Rhymesayers label giving voice to other local rappers, notably Eyedea and Brother Ali.

Kweli is accusing the rappers which were getting attention in hip hop at the time (and this applies now more than ever) of not being the people they claim to be on their songs (here are the Rapgenius community’s opinions of who currently belongs in that category). The most obvious example is rappers feeling the need to portray themselves as gangsters (Here is the historical account). Rather, rappers are simply re-telling the stories of other people.

Since record execs are more concerned with sales than with music, they try to appeal to the widest group of people possible with any single (in fact, that’s how Kweli came to make the song The Blast). Labels would be worried about dense or complicated lyrics, thinking audiences wouldn’t be able to relate.