[Part I]
[Intro: Future]
Drop your location, she think she me or sum’ (Hendrix)
Put on my chains, now she think she me or sum’
She keep a Glock in her bag, she think …
[Verse 1]
You said, “Speak from your mind
The words that it finds
Come out of your soul, a part of the whole”
You said, “What does it change?
Both of us know
After tonight, there …
[TONY]
Maria…
The most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard:
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria…
All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word:
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria…
Maria, Maria…
Maria!
I’ve just met a girl named Maria
And …
[Verse 1]
What happens in dreams where we fly?
Never been as high as tonight
Staring through a window in time
For someone to show me what I’m like
He said, “Hello”, it’s like a …
[Verse 1]
Oh-oh-oh, every little smile hides a little lie
Could cut the silence with a knife
Subatomic bliss is nothing left to miss
It’s just empty Russian roulette
[Pre-Chorus]
Try to brush it off my …
Thirty somethin’ shots from the ghetto gun1
All in the ears of the ghetto young2
Some ghetto girls, some ghetto sons
Throwing rocks at the bus and other ghetto fun3
I always wondered where the ghetto from
Cause I’m from the ghetto, the never ghetto come4
But you win if the bell of my ghetto rung
But if the ghetto lose, that mean a ghetto won5
That’s how they do the ghetto, that’s how the ghetto done
They keep it, they never bring the ghetto none
We make the ghetto tick, we make the ghetto run
We make the ghetto sick, we make the ghetto dumb6
These niggas off that ghetto beer and that ghetto rum
And that ghetto bass with my ghetto drums
And my ghetto words and these ghetto problems
Get ghetto sums7
That’s why…
The pizza man don’t come here no more8
Too much dope
Too many niggas on the porch9
So the pizza man don’t approach (no, no, no)
Pizza man don’t come here no more
Too many niggas on the block
Too many niggas gettin shot10
So the pizza man don’t stop (pow, pow, pow)11
The pizza man don’t come here no more
Too many niggas gettin robbed12
Niggas don’t wanna starve but
“Niggas ain’t got no jobs, blah blah blah”13
The pizza man don’t come here no more
Deliver, deliver, deliver
Is it cause they’re selling nicks out there all day
Cause a prostitute sucking dick in the hallway14
Little Caesar’s never sendin’ pizza out ya’ll way
Papa Johns never get delivered where y’all stayed15
The Ghetto was a physical manifestation of hate
And a place where ethnicity determines your placement16
A place that defines your station
Remind you niggas your place is the basement
White people in the attic17
Niggas selling dope, White people is the addicts18
White folks act like they ain’t show us how to traffic19
All that dope to China, you don’t call that trappin’?20
Breaking Bad, learned that from a TV
So don’t say its politics when you see me21
When you gon’ apologize for your CD
Nigga that don’t match red and black to a GD
The pizza man don’t come here no more
Too much dope
Too many niggas on the porch
So the pizza man don’t approach (no, no, no)
Pizza man don’t come here no more
Too many niggas on the block
Too many niggas gettin shot
So the pizza man don’t stop (pow, pow, pow)
The pizza man don’t come here no more
Too many niggas gettin robbed
Niggas don’t wanna starve but
“Niggas ain’t got no jobs, blah blah blah”
The pizza man don’t come here no more
Deliver, deliver, deliver
Can I get delivered from the sin and get a little slice of heaven I can enter in again22
Or maybe just imagine that I’m livin in a mansion or a palace and my pizza gets delivered in a Benz23
Make a savior out of savage24 like they made it out of magic
So it take a nigga havoc and it make it into friends
You don’t even need a salad, it don’t make a nigga fatter
Actually take a nigga backwards and make a nigga thin
That’s a deep dish
Chicago style get the peace stick
Homerunner hitter, I be drillin’ on the weak pitch25
Pay into the plate then I put it in your face
I’m a man, never bitin’ on the hands that I eat with
No Giordano or Di Giorno
Homemade bull, they bring it to him like a toro
Throwing dough up in the air-bottom to the top and shredder full of cheese smarter than a purple ninja turtle26
The pizza man don’t come here no more
Too much dope
Too many niggas on the porch
So the pizza man don’t approach (no, no, no)
Pizza man don’t come here no more
Too many niggas on the block
Too many niggas gettin shot
So the pizza man don’t stop (pow, pow, pow)
The pizza man don’t come here no more
Too many niggas gettin robbed
Niggas don’t wanna starve but
“Niggas ain’t got no jobs, blah blah blah”
The pizza man don’t come here no more
Deliver, deliver, deliver27
That is, firearms which are being used for purposes of crime or gang life.
Young kids in the poor parts of town are exposed to gun shots at an early age.
Lupe Fiasco wants to reveal that kids are taught violence at a young age when they are socialized by an environment of violence.
He is asking how the ghetto – the poor neighborhoods characterized by high crime – came to exist in the first place. Young kids might ask the same question, as growing up in the ghetto is all they have ever known.
“But if the ghetto lose, that mean a ghetto won” refers to territorial disputes among gangs.
Lupe Fiasco is trying to articulate that human beings make the ghetto what it is. It does not exist because of natural causes.
In other words, you are the thing from which you come. You are formed by your environment.
“The pizza man don’t come here no more” means that nobody from outside the community has the courage to enter the ghetto.
Outsiders fear drugs and idlers.
Outsiders also fear guns and violence.
“Pow” is a reference to a gun shot.
Outsiders also fear crime, such as robbery.
Here, the artist refers to ghetto residents’ attitudes toward the job hunt. It’s just too much hassle and so unpromising to even try.
Widespread drug-dealing and prostitution are thought to be signs of a community gone crazy.
Little Caesar’s and Papa Johns are popular pizza restaurants.
Ghettos are often informally segregated. Neighborhood pockets are not necessarily ethnically diverse, despite the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood as a whole.
White people are at the top of the social ladder, and black people are at the bottom.
White people are the ones who perpetuate systems that victimize African-American people.
Lupe Fiasco claims that, historically speaking, it was white people who taught people of color how to deal drugs illegally.
Drug-dealing is a massive international business from which white elites profit.
Lupe Fiasco claims that TV teaches us behaviors, so when TV shows teach someone how to make, sell, or consume drugs, it is largely the moral fault of the TV stations.
Lupe Fiasco asks whether there is any escape from the ghetto.
The desire for wealth is something felt by many poor ghetto residents who see it as an escape from their conditions.
A “savage” here refers to African-American residents in poor neighborhoods.
Lupe Fiasco references all the ways by which ghetto residents seek fulfillment in life: eating preferable foods, excelling at sports, etc.
Lupe Fiasco playfully describes pizza of all types.
Lupe Fiasco’s main objective in this song is to point out why people characterize the ghetto as a bad place, and to question why those assumptions exist.
No user explanations or meanings