The song refers to an incident in 1974 in which the Nigerian police planted a joint on Fela Kuti in order to arrest him for narcotics charges. As the police converged upon his compound, Fela ate the joint. He was taken to a police station—the police’s plan being that Fela’s faeces would reveal the narcotics once tested for THC. Fela was able to exchange his own “expensive shit” for another inmate’s drug free excrement, hence evading imprisonment.