Songfacts®:

• This is a track from Death Of A Pop Star, a collaborative studio album by Mississippi rapper David Banner and North Carolina producer 9th Wonder. The record explores the theme of the death of contemporary black music and the title was the result of studio banter between the two artists about the state of the music industry, with Wonder coming to the revelation that today's superstar will never achieve the same success as those of an earlier era.
• Death Of A Pop Star was originally a mixtape, and it servers as the artists' first collaborative work together. The record finds Banner giving up double duty as producer and emcee and sticking to microphone duties. It marked the first time that he'd relinquished control to another producer for the duration of an album.
• On this bleak number Banner laments, "We gangsters but we can't stop the pain in our town." Banner explained to Billboard magazine the lyrical content was inspired by a time touring in Europe: "I was watching how American black men were being portrayed there," he recalled. "It bothered me, and I was a big part of it. I didn't do music for like seven months, it f--ked with me that bad. The epiphany that I had is that there's nothing wrong with that part of me, but the problem is balance."