Untouchable - Intellectual

I’m aiming at the moguls. Y'all niggas aiming at the locals. “And rap niggas broke like them.” Them rap niggas that are broke like the locals, yeah, they mere hopefuls. And they’re still wishing on a star, they the last ones to find out that Baby owns the cars that they’re driving.

It’s all coming to fruition. It’s on TMZ.

I just feel like it has been vaguely said through online like, “Oh shit, this shit going crazy, this ‘Exodus’ shit going crazy.” We’re watching it all unfold, and it’s just real. This is just real talk man, we’re watching it all unfold. It done went from, stunting like they daddy, kissing my son, to damn near a murder plot! You don’t even know what’s going on! And all I’m saying is, I’ve been said this shit!

I really make music directed at my core. And I believe that my core is a core based around lyricism and quality. There’s a certain level that they look to achieve when they hear my music. In all honesty, I feel like my fan is used to a certain standard and it takes time to find these records, it takes time to find these beats, it takes a second.

Quality music does not go out of style. Nothing is greater than the music itself, but you just have to be confident in that, and you have to give the people what they expect. This is just my process. I think it helps me stand out.

There are a number of large Hispanic drug cartels well known for their ties to the world of cocaine. So naturally, Pusha linked up with these drug lords. He’s mentioned his Spanish friends on songs like “40 Acres”, “King Push”, and “Numbers on the Boards”:

I got money with the best of ‘em
Go blow for blow with any Mexican

The hook is a vocal sample from The Notorious B.I.G.’s verse on Pudgee’s 1995 single “Think Big” (starting at 0:59).

Lyrically I’m untouchable, uncrushable

https://youtu.be/xpwHQnAb5DI?t=58s

“600” refers to for the classic Mercedes Benz S600. Just like Biggie, Pusha enjoys kicking back and smoking a blunt in the ultimate luxury car. With a modern MSRP of $169,050, the 600 is only for the highest of high rollers.

Jaws is a fictional villain from the James Bond film franchise. He has appeared in two films, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, thus awaiting his third film. He also sported a grill.

This isn’t the only James Bond reference in this song. He compares himself to a villain in a Rolls Royce during the second verse.

I get feature requests a lot. I maybe do 10% of them, unless I’m getting played on the beach in Ibiza. It depends on time, number one. It depends on who the artist is. If they’ve shown me something that I like about them or if we have a relationship.

People could never just sit around and just guess which record I’m gonna hop on. Some people are just family. With some people, I have a respect for what they’ve done. Some people are new guys, maybe they show me something and I’m just like “You know what, I should do that.”

A “wash bay” is a designated area for washing boats, trucks, cars etc and K2 is the second highest mountain in the world behind Mt. Everest. In context, Pusha’s most likely referring to a shipment of cocaine. He must have ordered a ton, so naturally, he plans to flood the streets with his product.

Now that the money is flowing, Pusha is able to decorate his Jesus piece with a ridiculous amount of diamonds. Notice how he extends the water metaphor using the words “drought,” “flooded” and the allusion to ice (diamonds).

What I’m saying in that “breakdown game” is “Mu you knew me from $1300 an ounce,” we would buy ounces that we used to break down. My breakdown game? It brought me “8 Mile” fame. “Selling Eminem,” still going off that, “white to the black I’m a villain then.”

During his exchange at the Burning Bush, God told Moses to take his sandals off because he was walking on Holy Ground. God then appointed Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan.

Pusha feels like he’s been chosen by God – his “weightlessness” has allowed a miracle (walking on water) to occur. He dealt drugs half his life, never went to jail, and escaped to tell the tale. There’s no reason for A&E (TV channel) or the Feds to take pictures anymore.

These lyrics could be considered in the same vein as his “immaculate win” from “Hold On” on My Name Is My Name.

U2 is an Irish rock band led by lead singer Bono. The band rose to superstardom in 1987 with the release of The Joshua Tree which proceeded to sell over 170 million records. While their relevance has been questioned in recent years, they were considered the “biggest band in the world” for decades, a run that Pusha hopes to replicate.

The Edge is the name of U2’s guitarist and keyboardist, while “edge” is another to describe the advantage Pusha has over his competition.

Jay Z revealed in his book Decoded that he had a conversation with Bono about staying on top; if what Bono and Jay agreed upon is true, Push will have his work cut out for him.

In Hip-Hop, top artists have the same pressure a rock star like Bono has—the pressure to meet expectations and stay on top. But in hip-hop there’s an added degree of difficulty: While you’re trying to stay on top by making great music, there are dozens of rappers who don’t just compete with you by putting out their own music, but they’re trying to pull you down at the same time. It’s like trying to win a race with every runner behind you trying to tackle you.

via Decoded.

Mu is my man. Mu is from Petersburg, Virginia. And Mu is with Trey Songz a lot, I mean, still to this day. They still work together. But, Mu got caught up in a conspiracy when we were young, and went to jail for maybe over five years. So he came back home, we cliqued up, we hung out, and we’ve been hanging out since he’s been home.

One day he called me, and we’re having a conversation. I’m like, “Yeah man, I’m in the studio now,” and he goes, “Yeah man, I need you to do some of those joints.” He’s got producers, he’s got a whole bunch of musicians, and the music is good and it sounds of the time, but it’s not mine. It’s not my swag, necessarily. So I spoke on it.

After Tony “Scarface” Montana built a drug empire with his friend Manny “Manolo” Ribera in the 1983 cult-classic Scarface, their attempts to wash their drug money at an affordable rate came back to bite them. Manolo set up a meeting with Seidelbaum, an undercover agent, who eventually busted Montana for violating the RICO law.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=wY_bNqakK_c

It’s worth nothing Anthony “Tony” Gonzalez is Clipse’s former manager. He was sentenced to 32 years imprisonment in 2009 for leading a multi-million dollar drug ring.

I’m having a conversation with Mu, basically during that four-bar couplet, giving him all the examples of “Yeah, that don’t bounce.”

No I’m not in the club bouncing with my music, but I’m of the culture. We all got to get our money our own ways, but I don’t got to be like someone else to get mine. I ain’t got to change up my pitch. You’ve known me Mu, since it was $1,300 an ounce.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto are fictional characters from the TV Series The Lone Ranger. In Spanish, “tonto” translates to “moron.” Unlike Tonto, Push considers himself a “lone wolf” and “head honcho” like Pablo Escobar. “Honcho” translates to boss in Spanish.

A “scenic route” allows you to view scenerey you wouldn’t normally see on a main road. The 1939 song “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday serves as a metaphor for the mistreatment of blacks that was particularly present in the American southern states. In the song, Billie sings:

Strange fruit, hanging from the poplar trees

This “strange fruit, hanging” is a visual of a black person being lynched from these trees, instead of fruit that hangs from them. Pusha compares this scenario to Beirut, Lebanon. From a civil war to various uprisings, Beirut has seen its share of violence.

G.O.O.D. Music founder Kanye West also sampled “Strange Fruit” in his song “Blood On The Leaves.”

Pam, Kima, and Keisha were the members of Total, a 90’s R&B group produced by Puff Daddy. The trio is most famous for their 1995 single, “Can’t You See,” a James Brown-sampling love ode that also featured The Notorious B.I.G.

Pusha calls attention to his total/net worth while drawing allusions to the singing group.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=DCMib3DBz60

“Shisha” is tobacco smoked through a pipe connected to a hookah, a Persian smoking apparatus. There are dedicated shisha longues in Ibza.

Pusha uses the term in lieu of another female name to create a double entendre – smoking tobacco requires her to “suck” a pipe. In this instance, “pipe” is a replacement for dick.

The wordplay overflows to the next line as Pusha confirms the total number of participants is three. The pronoun “she” is never named in this line, maybe it’s Keisha?

I just love how the words flow together. It’s really a take on B.I.G., nothing that he has said specifically, but with his flow direction.

When I was with Puff a lot — he’s doing executive producing on a lot of these joints — and he was like, “I don’t wanna know where you’re coming from.” So, the line before that was “The grill’s like, interior gauze, it feels like, real white,” then it’s “Matching Missoni looks African on me.”

Puff doesn’t like to see where the bars are coming from, and as a kid, and listening to B.I.G., I always used to say, “Why in the world would B.I.G. say this right there?” What the hell would make him say, out of nowhere.

I got a call one day, and Kanye said, “Man people respect you. People respect what you say. People respect your vision. You’re a business-minded man. What do you think about taking over as the president of G.O.O.D. Music?”

I said “OK,” because I felt the idea, so I asked “What is your expectation?” And he was like, “Just take care of the artists, and the business, and let’s monetize off of what G.O.O.D. Music does. We’re in it for the art, the music, touring, we’ve got to be innovative in our shit. But let’s bring it all in, with the corporations, so on and so forth. Let’s put it all together.”

As a people, as a union and as a country, we’re not gonna let Trump become president. I think Donald is one of the most ignorant people. Grossly ignorant views, especially about the whole Mexico thing.

It was just too much. We can’t even let people even be comfortable thinking like that — at all.

In a 2013 segment with Complex Magazine, Pusha stated that the Rolls Royce Phantom was his dream car. The car features a retractable emblem – peek-a-boo!

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=gUEbzexS1K0

Since Push is playing the role of a villain, it’s possible he drew inspiration from the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger. In the film, Goldfinger (the villain), rides in a 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sedanca de Ville driven by his chauffeur, Oddjob.

Shortly after the release of “Untouchable,” Pusha joined Mass Appeal for their SUPER… series. In the video, he describes what kind of villain he’d be: Mind Fuck a well-dressed mind controller who is reminiscent of Purple Man (Killgrave from Marvel’s Jessica Jones.)

Pusha lifts kilo' of cocaine like Cross-Fit weights into the soft ceiling space. This is the space between the ceiling tiles and next floor above.

“Calisthenics” is a form of exercise with rhythm that doesn’t involve equipment. Pusha moves to his own, superior rhythm when he raps. He delivers knockout blows like Lennox Lewis, a retired undisputed world heavyweight champion boxer.

Adidas has definitely given me a million dollars. The business that we’ve done—and I mean in the past year—I’m talking about with the shoe and the execution that we have put together? For sure. Whatever they have going on, I’ve made big business with them.

Narcos is a Netflix TV series that dramatizes the rise and downfall of Colombian druglord Pablo Escobar. Barcodes are used on items to be sold; in Narcos, Escobar pushes cocaine. “No hablo” is Spanish meaning “I do not speak” – Pusha doesn’t speak, he sells. The cover art for My Name Is My Name is a barcode.

Throughout the series, Escobar wears his curly hair parted, causing a slight ‘fro on the one side.

Pusha collaborated with Stromae, Lorde, Q-Tip, & Haim for the The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 soundtrack curated by Lorde. The song to which he contributed is titled “Meltdown”.

His diverse business ventures are now scoring him more money than Push can keep track of.

Patek Phlippe is a watch. So the watch is called Patek Philippe, and Philippe Chow’s is of course Asian cuisine. But Matsuhisa is the first original Nobu that everyone talks about and Philippe is like the lesser of restaurants.

So it’s just a play, it’s a double entendre and a play within both Philippes: Patek Philippe, which is the upper echelon of watches, and Philippe Chow’s has been replaced by Matsuhisa, which is the upper echelon of Asian cuisine.

Nike Dri-Fit is a special type of fabric used to make light-weight sportswear. Nike says the clothing “removes sweat away from the body and fabric surface.” After working out at Cross-Fit, Pusha likes to keep dry driving the $500,000 car he just parallel parked. This is somewhat ironic, considering he signed a million dollar deal with Adidas.