On the third track of his latest album Issa Album, 21 Savage rationalizes his homicidal tendencies and grapples with the consequences of his trapping lifestyle.

There’s a certain game 21 has to play in order to succeed at trapping because to go against that game is suicide. What’s more is that if you aren’t the one murdering, then you are the one getting murdered. Add to that a traumatic childhood which leaves 21 asking God why all his friends had to die growing up, and you’ve got yourself a rationale for killing at least 5 enemy gang members and setting an entire block on fire. Not to mention, wasting the police who come to arrest him and his gang.

As a consequence for all of his actions, 21 sees dead bodies whenever he closes his eyes. He has to live with being the one that made the mothers of his victims cry. He also can’t get any sleep because he’s too high from having to deal with his PTSD.

Yet despite all of his suffering, all of these experiences make him the the last real rapper.