I can remember when I wrote this song I was just going through a lot of stuff, you know.
I got married once and got divorced, it was also another time where loyalty eventually
was just nothing but a lawyer fee.
I was a big fan of Jay-Z growing up, so I think a lot of my rhyme schemes and word play
and so forth kind of comes from that, but melodically you know I was a big Robert Plant
fan, I'm a Led Zeppelin kind of guy, so I think if you mixed the two together and I'm
from the south, so it's all 808s, and you know, so forth.
It don’t mean nothing once you start smoking.
You know?
You put one in the air and it all goes away.
It’s like you forget about it.
And you know, it's hard to see hate through all the smoke basically is what, once you
got a big cloud, it's hard to see all the other bullshit on the other side of it.
It was more like instead of blaming them for all the issues they put in my life, I think
it was more like blaming myself for not being able to see those, the fake friends coming
at you kind of thing.
So I'm blaming myself for not being able to see the bullshit
The line itself "Loyalty comes with a lawyer fee," originally came from some fake friends
that eventually we're trying to get with an ex of mine and started snitching on me and
writing some statements and stuff like that.
They were long time friends, but when the grass gets cut, you know you got to cut the
head from the snakes, right.
I don't speak to them anymore, I don't know how they feel about it.
Hopefully they did hear, you know hopefully they feel some type of way about it.
I did too, when I wrote it.
It's a common phrase to say life's a bitch I guess or whatever.
But I guess it was just another thing to say life's a bitch and it's also a bitch that
lives inside of these fake bitches.
It hurt honestly.
I mean, it was a long time friendship and it was, we were all kind of wild anyway, so
they know what it's like to be locked up, to be having to go through the system, and
do it for what?
To me, to your homeboy?
We didn't have no beef, we didn't have no issues at that point.
It was just a matter of just coming out of left field really.
I didn't really know it 'til I was locked up.
And the guard comes in there talking shit, sliding statements under the door.
And I just happened to see my homie's name on the dotted line.
So it was rough.
And then coming out I didn't really fuck with him since.
I don't know if I was necessarily thinking about different sides of it other than it
just being in pieces, and I wouldn't know which side to listen to because it was just shattered.
When I started writing that song, I was just kind of fresh out of jail and I didn't, I
was on probation for a while.
I didn't feel like I could seek revenge.
And it's, you know, a, I'm sure a lot of felons and different people have to go through stuff
like that, but it's like you still want to whip somebodies ass, but you get put in a
corner and you're like, ah, I'm not going back to jail for this kind of thing.
It eventually says moneys all a revenge, you know, that I need.
So it's like, that's basically what it boils down to.
I wanted to talk, I wanted to hurt these dudes, but at the end of the day it's like, it's
not worth it.
You know?
If they wasn't breathing, like if they were, you know, if they met their demise.
Frank Sinatra said that success is the best revenge, you know?
So on the second pre-chorus it says, "I don't get down when they leave" as opposed to "I'm
not down when they leave" on the first one.
I just changed it up a little bit for fun because I can do that.
That's the Bob Dylan in me, I guess.
I was married once, I was divorced, I had custody battle.
It was like, you know, you are your initial uppercase's, just sign the dotted lines man.
It's basically talking about the lawyer fees in the paperwork that goes with it.
You know?
For the next guy, you know, just kidding.
So you have to deal with it, just sign the paperwork, get it over with.
Pay the lawyer fee.