The train from the airport has released me into Brussels and the beginning of this trip.

The train from the airport has released me into Brussels and the beginning of this trip. And what a romantic beginning it’s been, already. Having gotten off the train and slowly lugged my bag up the first several steps into the station, I realized that I longer had my scarf; I’d certainly left it on the train. I jumped down the steps, taking them now three at a time with my bag jostling awkardly. In a frenzy I dashed back across the platform to face the train’s closing doors. The “open” button was unreactive to my harried prodding. And there, in the window – the beatuiful woman I had noticed just across the aisle from me, watching me quizzically. A look of comprehension slowly reached her face, which promptly disappeared from behind the glass. And now she reappears, just the other side of the door, though with no greater luck operating it. She disappears again. Now back at the window, as the train begins it’s lumbering roll. Finally, she slides open the window and tosses the scarf with a laugh. I catch it from the air and yell a grateful ‘thank you’ as she glides away down the tracks. I think I am going to like Brussels.

Night has set in over Brussels. The old buildings stand taller, preening in the warm glow of the street lamps. I pull my coat close against the chill and feel my headphones in the breast pocket, silent now, their chatter gone with the sun. Instead I hear the cobblestones talking to me. They tell me to leave my phone in my pocket, their syncopations drowning out its occasional dull vibrations. They guide me through this city of chocolate, turning me left here, right there, from atelier to cafe, and back, step by step, to myself.

I’ve just arrived in Bruges and I’m already in love with it. There’s an undeniable romanticism to the place. I can feel it in my chest with each breath I take, like the very air possesses some magic in this fairytale land.

I got bored at dinner and thought it would be fun to break down why I love the song “6 foot 7 foot” so much. I’ll just call out my favorite lines.

//Life is the bitch, and death is her sister

Sleep is the cousin – what a fuckin’ family picture//

This line is great. Any artist can say “life’s a bitch”. Weezy here is referencing Nas from the song “life’s a bitch and then you die”. But he goes further here by acknowledging the duality of life and death. He then makes the Nas reference even more explicit by calling back to another track of his, “NY State of Mind” where he states “I never sleep, cuz sleep is the cousin of death”. Nas is saying he never stops, because stagnation is death. Weezy will call back to this concept again later in the song.

//Okay, I lost my mind, it’s somewhere out there stranded//

Lil Wayne frequently makes turns of phrase literal, in a way that I particularly enjoy. Here, he evokes the image of a brain actually separate from his body. I like that in this version of the phrase, the mind still exists, waiting to be rediscovered.

//Talkin’ to myself because I am my own consultant

Married to the money, fuck the world; that’s adultery//

I mean, c’mon. This is just an amazing turn of phrase. Weezy here returns to the theme of insanity; he’s talking to himself. But now he offers a root cause. He is his own consultant, there’s no one else he trusts to turn to for advice, maybe because he feels his skills and his financial successful have set him apart from his peers. This interpretation is reinforced by his monogamous relationship to “the money.” Tunechi has forsaken all others in his life in the pursuit of the paper. Or has he? He still finds himself wanting to dominate in all aspects of his life, harkening back to his own title “Fuck tha World.” Weezy is rejecting the limitations otherwise implied by the popular belief that it takes a singular focus on money to achieve it. The clear tension between the two worlds has driven him mad, to talking to himself.

//Young Money eatin’, all you haters do is add salt

Stop playin’, bitch, I got this game on deadbolt

Mind so sharp I fuck around and cut my head off//

“Eating” here is common slang for having wealth, and again Weezy offers a literal twist in the process of putting down his less successful challengers

Similarly, and in the same vein as his previous lyric about a mind out stranded, Lil Wayne here makes a sharp mind a literal image. In doing so, he implies that it is his intelligence that has caused him to lose his head, another sign that he is his own consultant, alone in his madness, out of necessity, given the lack of available peers at his level.

//If these niggas animals, then I’ma have a mink soon//

Just a truly baller way to invoke his supremacy over his peers while conjuring the image of him in a fine coat, purchased with the rewards of that supremacy.

//Paper chasin’, tell that paper, “Look, I’m right behind ya”

Bitch, real Gs move in silence like lasagna//

One of my favorite rap lyrics of all time. Weezy is putting other rappers on blast for talking about their success before they’ve achieved it. In a clever espousal of the “don’t talk about it, be about it” philosophy, weezy ties real gangstas quietly executing on their plans to the silent ‘G’ in the Italian pasta dish.

//People say I’m borderline crazy, sorta kinda

Woman of my dreams, I don’t sleep so I can’t find her//

Weezy approaches the end of the song with a return to the motif that his insanity is driven by his separation from others as caused by his focus on his career. Calling back to the first verse and to the use of sleep as a symbol for taking a break from work, Tunechi once again reinforces that his relentless focus has led to loneliness and a sort of madness. Another masterful mixing of the abstract and the literal, this line perfectly encapsulates the driving theme of the track and his skills as a rapper.