This song makes me think a lot. There is so much being said in this song. So I'm just going to ramble about this song.
I was just going to title this Bad guy 4th verse, since I'll probably talk about that the most, but I didn't want to limit my ramble.
I've been drivin' around your side of this town
Like nine frickin' hours and forty-five minutes now
If you start counting the hours and minutes of music post the song stan, up until the last song on Recovery it comes up to 9 hours and 47 minutes. So you can assume matthew had just finished up listening to the end of Recovery before getting Em.
Might just be nothing, you can make numbers mean anything (Jim Carey Number 23) if you want to. But, that's a pretty specific time. On the other hand, I don't think you could drive 9 hours and 45 minutes on a tank of gas, unless Matthew drives a Prius, but it could be a big ass lincoln, homage to the desperado verse he quoted.
"I’m the polyps on the back of your tonsils
Eating your vocal chords after your concerts"
These lines get me every time. There's no way he has polyps, someone would have leaked that information. So, it's just a concern, a fear, a nightmare, which is basically everything in the fourth verse.
So why switch your style to a more voice straining style if you are concerned with getting throat cancer from vocal strain?
"My insecurities could eat me alive"
This album is full of that.
"‘Cause after all the glitz and the glam
No more fans that are calling your name, cameras are off
Sad, but it happens to all of them
I’m the hindsight to say, “I told you so”
Foreshadows of all the things that are to follow
I’m the future that’s here to show you what happens tomorrow
If you don’t stop after they call you the
Biggest laughing stock of rap who can’t call it quits
When it’s time to walk away, I’m every guilt trip"
Also, the Rap God line about not being as big
His concerns of his relevance in rap is pretty interesting. Everyone is cheering for him basically, and he is worried he is being pushed out the door. "But I gotta keep a few punchlines
Just in case cause even you unsigned
Rappers are hungry looking at me like it's lunchtime
"
It's a good thing, those fears keep him on his toes, forces him to reinvent himself "I bully myself cause I make me do what I put my mind to"