Songfacts®:

• This song by American rapper Lupe Fiasco was released on February 8, 2011 as the second single from his third studio album Lasers. The song finds Fiasco questioning a number of issues such as whether 9/11 was a cover-up ("9/11, building 7, did they really pull it?") and the decline in American schools ("Your child's future was the first to go with budget cuts").
• American singer-songwriter Skylar Grey, who is best known for co-writing Eminem's hit single "Love The Way You Lie," sings on the chorus, "It's so loud inside of my head with words that I should have said./ As I drown in my regrets, I can't take back the words I never said."
• British beatmaster Alex da Kid produced the track and he predicted to MTV News prior to the song's release that the number will ruffle some feathers: "It's politically charged, it's controversial, and it's Lupe being honest about his opinions on society," he said. "It's really cool. I like it."
• Fiasco attacks President Barack Obama on this track, saying he won't vote for him. The rapper explained why he has grievances with government in an interview with Gigwise: "I was never on the bandwagon of Obama like that, because I'm not on the bandwagon for the American Government, the Federal Government. It's not all 100 percent evil, but it does a whole lot to not make you think that.
  
  The economical policies that are instigated really make you think that the American government is a bunch of evil ba---rds. So just because you're black, you're still representing that government and when Obama came into office he enacted the same policies that we would critique other presidents for.
  
  The people who are on your economic team and determine the economic policies for the rest of us are the same people who ran those financial institutions, the same people who were corrupt and could possibly face criminal charges, but he's the head of your economic thing. Honestly, what the f--k is that? That's what you call a WTF. So I think the critiques are poignant."