[Verse 1]
I'm steady tryna find the motive (Motive)
Freedom ain't getting no closer (Closer)
Now they done stop me and I get locked up
[Chorus]
They won't let me out
They won't let me out
I'm locked up
They won't let me out (No!)
They won't let me out
I'm locked up
They won't let me out
They won't let me out
I'm locked up
They won't let me out (No!)
They won't let me out
[Verse 2]
Heading uptown to re-up (Re-up)
Back with a couple keys (Keys)
Undercovers dressed as fiends (Fiends)
Making so much money (Money)
Product's moving fast (Fast!)
Put away the stash
As I sold the last bag
Fucked around and got locked up
[Chorus]
They won't let me out
They won't let me out (My nigga, I'm locked up)
They won't let me out (No!)
They won't let me out
I got locked up
They won't let me out
They won't let me out (Baby girl, I'm locked up)
They won't let me out (No!)
They won't let me out
[Verse 3]
‘Cause visitation no longer comes by (Comes by)
Seems like they forgot about me ('Bout me)
Commissary is getting empty (Empty)
My cell mates getting food without me (Without me)
Can't wait to get out
And move forward with my life (Ooh no, with my life)
Got a family that loves me
And wants me to do right
But instead, I'm here locked up
[Chorus]
They won't let me out
They won't let me out (Ohh! I'm locked up)
They won't let me out (No!)
They won't let me out (My nigga, I'm locked up)
They won't let me out
Oh, oh, oh! (They won't let me out)
I'm locked up
They won't let me out (No!)
They won't let me out
[Outro]
Can you pay me a visit? (They won't let me out)
Send me some magazines? (They won't let me out)
Send me some money orders? (They won't let me out) (No!)
Pay me a visit, baby (They won't let me out)
‘Cause I'm locked up (They won't let me out)
Where's my lawyer? (They won't let me out)
I'm locked up (They won't let me out) (No!)
Get me out of here (They won't let me out)
I'm locked up, they won't let me out
They won't let me out (Baby, I'm locked up)
They won't let me out (No!)
Where's my niggas on the lock-down? (They won't let me out)
Damn, I'm locked up, they won't let me out
I'm locked up, they won't let me out
Ohhh! They won't let me out
Can you please accept my phone calls? (They won't let me out)
I'm locked up, locked up, locked up
Driving with expired vehicle registration is considered a minor, non-moving violation in most states
While it does not give rise to “probable cause” to be driving with expired registration, it does give rise to “reasonable suspicion”, which is a high enough evidentiary standard for cops to pull you over in most states
He’s doing a ’re-up' so he’s getting back with his people while doing it.
The Corner Block, where Akon is selling drugs, has gained ‘heat’ from Undercovers dressed as fiends, thus making the block hot, so it’s on fire.
“Keys” as in kilos of coke.
To “re-up” is to buy more drugs
Akon was raised in Newark, NJ. So, uptown is probably referring to Northside Newark aka the hood.
Akon is heading uptown, which is usually where many drug dealers go for the drugs. Aka Washington Heights, Harlem,part of Manhattan.
The commissary is actually an inmate store within a facility where they can purchase items like foods and toiletries. When he states its empty its just meaning that its cleaned out and his peers in jail got all the food and he got none.
By now it is axiomatic that the prison-industrial complex is a self-sustaining enterprise: with 67.5% of released convicts being reincarcerated within 3 years, incarceration often leads to a vicious cycle for convicts and a profitable one for government contractors.
Alternately, the artist is referring to the previous line. He constantly breaks the law but no matter how deep he descends into depravity for the sake of survival and possibly escape of this situation he never gets close to transcending his crime ridden ghetto lifestyle.
Life of a street dude, always at war with himself
Akon blames poverty for evil, but Shakespeare’s Richard III’s motive for acting evil was his hunchback:
I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion
Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature