Songfacts®:

• This song finds EL-P and Killer Mike recounting two different stories. Though they come from two separate angles both concern the same truth - You can't become the person you are meant to be until you let go of the thing holding you back. Mike's verse centers around the shame he feels at selling drugs to a pregnant woman he knew. "The child rapped about is a real child, though he doesn't suffer any learning disabilities," he told Exclaim. " He's a normal young man working a regular job. He's a good guy."
  
  EL-P's verse gives voice to the leaders of countries who encourage the dehumanizing of their soldiers, so that they think of their enemy as a target rather than a person. "The people who are in a position to request that soul-changing sacrifice, what they are really asking - if I could express that, if people could understand that, people might be so enraged and insulted by the prospect, maybe you can actually end war." said El laughing at his own ambition. "Mike nailed it when he said, 'El's verse is damn near a call for world peace.' And it is, a character-driven one. It's me examining that twisted request for you to put yourself aside, put your soul aside, and become us, become the violent extension of our intentions. You don't even have to know what they are. In fact, it's required that you not know."
• Run The Jewels released a parody remix album, Meow The Jewels, which was essentially Run the Jewels 2 but with all the instruments replaced by cat sounds.