This song actually has a really good premise and interesting lyrics even if the production quality isn’t the best. I wasn’t expecting this when I clicked on it, but this was actually deep which is why I’m sharing this; sry 4 the wall of text.

The artist is reminding hip-hop artists of their power, influence and reach, using a story of a middle-upper class youth who happens to be white, and chose to live the “street life” which welcomed him to the same point it welcomes many who were born into it (when people are born into the lifestyle, they usually try to flee from it which is why they become hip-hop artists in the first place, that lifestyle isn’t something you choose, it’s something forced upon you. Due to the influence of popular music, you have people who have everything they need support and developmentally-wise and more, yet because of the negative popular influences & trends created by these artists who used music to escape their situation & don’t realize they have a responsibility that comes with having a voice, you have the youth programmed to actually want to struggle and think struggling is cool, when they were in a position to flourish).

It’s really interesting because everything he says is true and he uses an interesting story & real-life situation to convey his message to other hip-hop artists, and at the same time, it supports the official psychological narrative that the most common parenting style is “concerted cultivation”, you can read about it here. This parenting style is the longest lasting parenting style among the middle/upper class starting in the late 80’s, whereas prior to that every decade would have a new parenting style/trend recommended by popular/mainstream family psychology.

This parenting style is overall bad imho, because it creates a lack of respect for anyone but oneself, they see themselves as the smartest and “main character” in the movie that is life. Which is why we have all these narcissistic and materialistic millennials and zoomers on Instagram. It’s considered to be a good parenting style though, because it creates at least one extra skill in a child, and studies prove it also fosters independence (at the cost of losing respect for all authority/different-minded people, even their parents and other family members at an early age, and thinking they know best when it comes to everything and never outgrowing this immature attitude). The icing on the cake is the materialistic impulse to compliment the narcissistic drive to become an “influencer” on social media via what one owns and their physical appearance instead of earning that title through hard, ground-breaking work. You should click the wiki link I just shared to see what it truly entails; it’s exactly what “spoils children”, they have everything done and set up for them and live on a pre-planned schedule managed by their parents hence the name “Concerted cultivation”.

The funny thing is, this parenting style is seen only among the middle/upper classes of society and race plays no role. Vice versa, the majority of families who fall into the poor or “lower class” categories according to Socioeconomic Standards, have been following the same parenting style for over a hundred years (an authoritative one), and their children end up valuing family, tradition and have a large amount of respect for their family & community, at the cost of having a large distrust in official authority (such as the police or the government).

tl;dr:

The lyrics and video perfectly depict the reach of a popular artist’s influence, as well as back up the studies on “concerted cultivation” (it can make a middle/upper class youth who should have lived a relatively easy life on rails, pick the street life and struggle instead because they wanna be “cool” and accepted). It shows how the power and reach of these artists can “program” or psychologically infiltrate a youth who would have never been exposed to these concepts via sending out negative messages when an artist is mainstream, creating negative trends and making “bad” cool/good.

I just thought this was really well-planned and the artist is speaking something important; I’m sure most people who see this will be too stuck up on the race of the main character to get the message, but him calling the song “Influence” hopefully helps lol.

Sry 4 the wall of text, it’s rare you see an artist who is in this category and has songs or even messages like this.