The Spider Verse - Intellectual

Dylan describes he seals checks which could mean he pays employees, or he hire’s hits, and describes himself as on wax. Wax is commonly used to on envelopes to be wetted usually by a tongue to serve as an adhesive. Wax has another meaning which in hip hop terms is commonly used to describe spoken words so profound, moving, or inspiring they should be recorded.

There is also a double meaning on the word “letters” meaning an envelope, and letters in the word, meaning he is performing a form of four play with the words he writes.

Dylan sets the mood of the line by saying basically the temperature has dropped into the negatives, and that the pipes have frozen and there’s no way that his style and coldness can be bitten.

Often a term when a king is present, the subject would bend the knee to show respect. A continuation of the Game of Thrones references.

Dylan here is alluding to the previous line that he is sending a message by using the terrorist caliphate ISIS. in 2019, ISIS was actively testing a blockchain-based messaging app that could provide everything it needs to thrive: secure, anonymous communication, a tamper-proof repository for beheading videos and other ISIS propaganda, and perhaps most ominously, the ability to transfer cryptocurrency anywhere in the world.

Al Roker is an American weather forecaster, journalist, television personality, actor, and author. He is the current weather anchor on NBC’s Today. In 2002, the star famously underwent gastric bypass surgery to lose more than 100 pounds.

Dylan uses the term “pounds of flesh” plurally which a “pound of flesh” was demanded as payment by the character Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. In other words, he’s dropping demands left and right.

Dylan describes his attitude as the same as Joe Budden when during a red carpet interview at the BET Awards in 2017 which saw Budden drop the mic and walk away from interviewing the Migos because he did not take them seriously and thought they were disrespectful. Joe Budden, now a retired rapper turned famous media personality hosting The Joe Budden Podcast, is a 20 year veteran in hi hop, and has a problem with new rappers and their flashy ways and attitudes.

Taking place in an alternate reality, Marvel Comic’s “Old Man Logan” saw Wolverine tear apart all of the X-Men due to a hallucination created by the Spider-Man villain Mysetrio.

Dylan is exposing his double meaning on “cut” and “heroes”

“Cut” meaning a slice or slash with a sharp object, or as he means it in context, a musical work described often in the music business as a cut.

“Heroes” meaning either a fictional super heroes as here he references Wolverine, or the meaning hero as in your favorite rapper.

Dylan is describing his music as fire, while also tying it into fireworks, which is a popular device used for celebration. Dylan uses the term “ooh ah” which is commonly used when fireworks explode in the air. In stating “fire works” he his stating that his music is functional, meaning it gets a message and feel across.

Dylan describes his multiple personalities and flows by saying there may be 4 of him in the song. The “Spider Verse” is compised of the 4 different adaptations of the live action and animated Spider Man films starring Tobey McGuire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, and most recently Shameik Moore as Miles Morales.

Dylan describes himself as a Wendigo, a mythological creature from Northern America that feeds off of human flesh.

In the popular CW Series “Supernatural” in Season 1 Episode 2, “Wendigo” paranormal hunters Sam and Dean make a stop at Blackwater Ridge and end up helping a young woman and her brother find their other brother, who mysteriously disappeared, while on a camping trip, in the woods.

Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer. He was known for murdering his victims and experimenting with immobilization by drilling a hole into the brain to create a “zombie like” creature as he described. To immobilize them he would sever their spinal chord at the neck.

Dylan is describing as his word being like a drill to the spinal cord as music is the number one auditory stimuli that is known to somewhat numb the body into relaxation.

More word play on the words “"Hungry” and “Hunter”

“Hungry” + “Hungry” Word Play

Dylan describes himself as a hunter by using the word “hungry” which has a double meaning. Hungary, as in the place Atilla the Hun was born" and hungry as he is describing himself as a hunter, in which you hunt to eat.

A lot to unpack in this bar.

Dylan describes himself as “buck” which is more commonly known as the act of getting crunk. Crunk is a state of sustained wildness, usually charachtarized by “crunk music.” In white dude terms, moshing. he is also using the word “buck” which is a term for a form of shotgun shell, while describing the shot gun as being a sawed off,. A sawed off is a form of shotgun that has a shorter butt stock. The play on “sawed off' also ties in with "Jigsaw” which is a character in the popular “Saw” movie series which sees the character “Jigsaw” torture his subject by having them saw off appendages to escape. “Play games” is a take on the famous Jigsaw catch phrase “Do you want to play a game”

Dylan says he also aims strays, which has a double meaning on “stray” as in a stray animal and also a stray bullet, which is often a term used by a bullet not hitting its intended target. He is describing he does the impossible because a stray bullet can not be aimed.

There is a play on words with “dis temper” which is a common sickness in stray animals, basically the flu for an animal, but also using it to say “this temper” as in his own temper.

Dylan describes himself as being a light which wards off vampires. Vamps, which in hip hop terms, is described as an attractive, dangerously flirtatious woman…

Facetune is a photo editing application used to edit, enhance, and retouch photos on a user’s iOS or Android device created by Lightricks.

Often used by Instagram models to warp their bodies to improve their image. Dylan says he doesn’t need the app to warp someone’s body.

Deadshot (Floyd Lawton) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by David Vern Reed, Lew Schwartz, and Bob Kane, the character made his first appearance in Batman #59

An old mob move in the late 1920’s and early 30’s was to kidnap a members child from their room and take a picture of them cradling the baby on the side of a bridge or building, return the baby, and send the photos to the member if they had intel that they were thinking of ratting to the police.

Dylan is saying that he’s made of an unbreakable type of ice, assuming because the last two lines were cold. Saying that there’s nothing that the opponent can do, not even chisel him with an ice pick, which is a metaphor for his opponents coldest bars.

Referencing the line in “Rap Name” by Obie Trice ft. Eminem Obie spits ‘Obie Trice, real name no gimmicks" which was also sampled in Eminem’s 2002 hit “Without Me” Dylan says that his style can’t be bitten because he performs under his real name, and no one will ever be able to rip him off because he is himself, which is one of a kind.

Dylan demonstrates a scheme on for, four, fores, and fours. There are 4 aces in a deck, which is a continuation on having the high hand in the bar above. Dylan says he’s starting comotion with other rappers by using the phrase teeing off, which in slang terms means to begin, in golf terms it means the first swing in a game. All Fores is a gold tournament,
"Fore" is a term used to warn bystanders of an incoming gold ball that can not be easily spotted. All fours Dylan uses to describe his opponent down on their hands and knees like a dog.

Dylan is alluding to the idea that he is the Batman of rap. Meaning you don’t see him until his figure is shown in the night which is often how Dylan operates. Being a husband and family man by day, but moonlighting as a rapper.

Dobby was a fictional character in the Harry Potter series. In “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” Bellatrix throws her knife at him… Harry discovers that Dobby has been fatally wounded by Bellatrix' thrown knife. Dobby dies moments later. Dylan is basically stating that metaphoric death for his opponent is inevitable.

Gustavo Fring, portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito, is a fictional character in the television series Breaking Bad.

In Season 5 of Breaking Bad, Gus Fring kills his henchman “Victor' who often drove Gus Fring around by slashing his throat.

Dick in a Box line:

In the song “Dick in a Box” performed and written by Justin Timberlake and Andy Sanburg, the duo gift their women a present, which was there dicks in a wrapped up box.

Dick in a Box line cont.

Dylan references also the scene in Game of Thrones where Ramsay Bolton sends King Balon Greyjoy a box containing the penis of his son Theon Greyjoy. He was given the nickname “Reek” by Ramsay. “Reek” is also a play on words for the word “wreak” which is a word used to describe something with a horrid smell, like dead flesh.

Dog meat line:

Ramsay Bolton, whose unhinged depravity made him the most reviled character on TV, was devoured by his own dogs after losing the battle of Winterfell.

King of the North line:

Dylan claims he is the king of the north, which is a continuation of the Game of Thrones reference in which the King of the North is the one who rules all seven kingdoms in the mythology of Game of Thrones. Dylan was born and raised in North Philadelphia.

Dylan, as it is not well known, has green eyes. He, tying in the Batman theme, describes Superman being immobilized by Kryptonite, which Kryptonite’s color is green.

Dylan here says that he’s rapping metaphorically like the gun that saw John Lennon shot and killed in 1980 during a successful assassination attempt by the hands of Mark David Chapman.

Dylan states he’s flowing bigger and better than every member of the Beatles while giving the popularity vote back to Jesus. In 1966, John Lennon of the Beatles made a remark in an interview with Evening Standard, in which he argued that the public were more infatuated with the band than with Jesus Christ, and that Christian faith was declining to the extent that it might be outlasted by rock music. John Lennon said, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first. Rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me. Dylan is stating the fact that rock n roll is dead, so is John Lennon, and that Christianity is still alive.

Dylan uses word play on the word “crews” by using the name “Cruise” which is the last name of Tom Cruise which he alludes to the movie “Top Gun” also tying in the fact Batman did not use a gun to dismantle his opponents. The deeper meaning of this bar, is that on the set of Top Gun, it is alleged that Val Kilmer, who famously played Batman, and Tom Cruise got into a fight on set that saw Kilmer knock out Cruise cold with one punch.

Line 1
A play on the word disheveled. By Dylan using the term “bury” to describe someone trying to bury his career, he is saying one, he’ll leave his opponent disheveled, meaning marked by disorder or disarray, and two playing on the term “this shovel or dis shovel” in which he means he will give his opponent the shovel and dare them to try.

Line 2 + 3
Dylan states even his he wrote his opponents lyrics for them, and let them flow first in the battle, they’d still get destroyed and caught up in his multiple personalities and left disheveled and confused.

Dylan briefly describes how an ice sickle is formed by also using the word sickle, which is carried by “Death” in most folk lore, to say that’s he showed up to reap. Five grip is another term for his hand which has 5 fingers.

Dylan states he is holding the best combination of cards, then shares that no one else has any cards and that he has them all.

He uses a play on the word “high” which in the game of cards the high hand is a poker hand that doesn’t make a pair or better. As such, the value of a high hand is determined by its highest ranked card (Aces being high in most variants) and playing on “Hi” in which you use a hand to wave, or in this case, smack the opponent metaphorically and physically.